Marchelos Italian restaurant was a Warrington and Pensacola icon opening in 1953.
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Marchelos, an Italian restaurant that was a Pensacola staple for mor than four decades, is slated for demolitionThe restaurant was beloved by locals, and even drew in celebrities such as Steven SeagalThe now dilapidated building is being torn down as part of beautification efforts on South Navy Boulevard
Lots of restaurants on Navy Boulevard in Warrington have faded and gone through the years, and though they might be remembered by some, they don’t conjure up those special memories that only those truly beloved establishments do. For instance, not many old-timers miss Minnie Pearl’s Chicken restaurant that existed for a short time in the late 1960s and early 1970s, serving up fried chicken and other vittles at 1094 Navy Boulevard. Sure, we love Minnie Pearl as the country icon, but her restaurant never made much of a dent in our neighborhood. (I just learned today that there even was a Minnie Pearl’s Chicken restaurant in Warrington.)
But there are others that hold those special memories and few westside restaurants have stirred as many taste buds and memory banks as Marchelos, that awesome Italian restaurant that was located at the south end of Navy Boulevard, the last stop before entry into Naval Air Station Pensacola. Or the first stop for those military folks looking to get off base for some fancy Italian dining. (And it is “Marchelos” with no apostrophe. The family name of the former restaurant owners is Marchelos.) It opened in 1953 and closed in 1999.
Its former quaint and comfy confines at 620 S. Navy Blvd. have been empty for years. The building itself, just off the waters of Bayou Grande and near Bayou Davenport, is falling apart and rotting and soon set for demolition.
Weather, wear and neglect do that. But some things remain.
“That was my parents first date,” said Angeli McMillan of Pensacola. “We used to go there as a child and watch the Blue Angels practice. I grew up in Mobile & Bear Point, so it was a big deal to go to Marchelos. I remember the big grapes hanging from the ceiling and all the pictures of the Blue Angels decorating the walls of every room.”
After her mother passed, she returned.
“Per her request, I went by boat and scattered her ashes in the water behind Marchelos,” she said. “Nothing but fond family memories of that place.
“Whenever family would visit it was a ritual to go to Marchelos,” McMillan said. “I would often go shrimping with my dad. …We would dock up at Marchelos, he would have a Pabst Blue Ribbon and we’d eat pizza.”
Others have their own fond memories.
“I always got half lasagna-half spaghetti,” said Pensacola’s Martha Flood. “The seafood was spectacular, shrimp scampi being the best. Except during snapper season when they prepared the best red snapper. The presentation of every dish was simply beautiful, and as the servers passed tables loaded with those dishes, folks wondered if they had ordered the right thing.”
She remembers seeing actor Steven Seagal at Marchelos when the actor was shooting the 1992 film “Under Siege” in Mobile.
“He wore a red kerchief around his head and was so handsome,” Flood said.
How did an actor filming over in Mobile find out about the little restaurant in Warrington?
“Marchelos had the reputation for the best Italian food in town,” she said. “When folks asked for best local restaurants, Marchelos was always first on the list.”
On social media, others weighed in on their love of the old restaurant.
“How great was that place?! I loved the atmosphere, the spumoni and the cassata my grandparents would always order for dessert,” wrote Ashley Stocker Pitisci. “My grandmother would always order -get ready for it − chicken gizzards −and the serving size looked like it could feed an army.”
Erik Smith moved to Pensacola in 1969 from the Northeast, a region known for its Italian-American enclaves and cuisine.
“Back home, living near Boston, New York, Philadelphia, etc., Italian food was drilled into us,” Smith wrote. “I didn’t think there was any good Italian food south of New York. Boy, was I wrong. Marchelos food was even better than what I grew up with, and I had an Italian Uncle that loved to cook. When I moved down here permanently, the first restaurant that I asked about was Marchelos. I was beyond depressed when I found out it had closed.”
The demolition of the restaurant structure is part of a larger effort to clean up and improve stretches of Navy Boulevard, which has various dilapidated and abandoned structures leading into NAS Pensacola’s main gate, long ago the public route into the U.S. Navy base, though now civilians who enter must use the west gate on Blue Angel Highway. But since the main gate restriction, many businesses have left South Navy Boulevard, leaving it as an eyesore leading into the base.
Still, buildings will fall, but tastebuds remember.
“The best food I’ve ever eaten in my entire life,” raved longtime Pensacolian (and my old neighbor) Diana Thomas. “I loved the total atmosphere of the place − just gorgeous. It always reminded me of Billy Joel’s song − ‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.'”
The restaurant also recalls other songs because Marchelos, well, “that’s amore.” Let us know your memories or any old Warrington spots you’d like to see rekindled at tmoon@pnj.com.