FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — Every Sunday after mass, Karen Marie Smith and her family would visit her grandmother’s house.
“She’d have pots and pots of the most amazing food cooking,” Smith said. “I just had these wonderful memories of her kitchen.”
Smith remembers sauce bubbling in big pots, pasta, pigs’ feet, chicken, short ribs, thick Sicilian pizzas, cookies and pastries of all kinds, homemade meatballs and an atmosphere of warmth and joy.
As co-owners of Marie’s Italian Deli, Bakery & Market, Smith and her son Matthew Smith have worked hard to replicate that atmosphere at their Cumming restaurant. They have won the hearts of the community by serving authentic Italian cooking and creating the kind of place where it’s easy to lose a couple of hours with friends.
“It doesn’t feel like a restaurant. It feels like a family,” Matthew said.
A hot meatball sub is one of many menu items that features both a marinara and meatballs inspired by family recipes.
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Tucked in an unassuming strip mall off Atlanta Highway near Ga. 20, Marie’s Italian Deli has transformed a space once occupied by a Mellow Mushroom. The restaurant’s unexpected success spurred an expansion into an adjacent tax office a few years back.
When you enter the restaurant, activity bustles in a small but lively kitchen. The aroma of roast garlic and simmering marinara permeates the cozy dining area where groups of friends share spirited conversation.
On any given day, Karen and Matthew Smith split their time behind the counter, in the kitchen and among the tables where they “walk in circles,” catching up with regulars and newcomers.
Regulars like Cumming resident Steve Lazzara have become a part of the Marie’s family. During a Wednesday lunch service, he and Karen Smith chatted about Sicily, where they both trace familial roots.
“The food’s excellent, and the service is phenomenal,” Lazzara said.
Since opening about 12 years ago, Marie’s has created a cult following of both locals and visitors from outside Forsyth County. An air traffic controller from Hartsfield-Jackson Airport regularly makes the drive during his lunch break.
On the bakery side of Marie’s, diners can finish meals with coffee and indulgent desserts like this blueberry and lemon cake.
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Some customers even come six days a week and might make it seven if the restaurant wasn’t closed on Sundays.
Atmosphere is important, the Smiths said, but Marie’s has laid a foundation on its menu. The most popular items track to southern Italy where Karen Smith’s grandmother grew up until the 1890s.
“I was a twig until we opened this place, and then I blew up like a balloon,” Matthew said, chuckling.
Just like her grandmother did, Marie’s marinara is browned in a skillet and allows the flavors from high quality tomatoes, garlic and onion to mingle.
“It’s wonderful,” Matthew said. “If you don’t like garlic, you’re not going to like it.”
That sauce is a crucial part of many dishes from hot subs on crispy rolls to calzones stuffed with mozzarella, ricotta, sausage and meatballs.
Many dishes are named after members of Karen Smith’s “ginormous” Italian family. That family is featured in framed black and white photographs around the restaurant.
Like the sauce, the meatballs have been replicated from Karen’s childhood memories of her grandmother’s cooking. Made in-house from parmesan and fresh ingredients, they are seasoned with parsley from a local farmers market and built around softened bread, rather than breadcrumbs.
Marie’s Italian Deli offers a full breakfast menu featuring pancakes, eggs, sandwiches, frittata and more.
MARIE’S ITALIAN DELI/PROVIDED
Marie’s also offers a full breakfast menu that includes quick bites, like a bagel sandwich and more indulgent offerings, like pancakes topped with blueberry compote and whipped cream.
In a bakery connected to the restaurant, diners often chase meals with lattes, cappuccinos, affogatos and other espresso drinks. Glass cases are filled with cupcakes, cannoli, cakes and other desserts.
A lemon blueberry cake has garnered rave reviews with its delicately flavored icing and a moist, spongy interior.
Despite a varied menu featuring numerous authentic items, the restaurant’s biggest seller is a humble white bean and ham soup.
Made fresh daily, the soup’s buttery white beans are imbued with a rich savoriness from smoked ham bone and a base of carrots, celery and onion.
When Marie’s first opened, the Smiths prepared the soup in a crock pot, but its popularity quickly grew out of the small container.
“It tastes like a warm hug,” Karen said.
Cumming resident Julie Kelleher said she thinks of the soup as a food for her soul.
“It’s just warm. It’s inviting,” she said.
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