Cupid is often pictured with a quiver of arrows that can inspire love. But for several Delaware couples, the Roman god’s arsenal includes whisks, tongs, and a wooden spoon or two. From Wilmington to Fenwick Island, partners in life and work are behind some of the state’s most popular restaurants.
It’s not easy. At Roma Italian Ristorante in Dover, owners Joe and Kristin Garramone are “cooking, serving, marketing, advertising, event coordinating, training, and bookkeeping while still making the time to touch base with all our guests,” Kristin notes.
It’s a lifestyle, she says. And most owners wouldn’t have it any other way.
A leap of faith
Some partners choose to invest—financially and emotionally—in a loved one’s dream, and if all goes well, it becomes a shared vision. That was the case for Ben and Diane Winiarczyk, who met in high school while cruising Main Street in Newark.
Owning a restaurant was a natural progression for Ben, a seasoned mixologist. He and Diane purchased Shorebreak Lodge in 2024. The acquisition of the popular Rehoboth restaurant put the couple on the same page. “Working in the restaurant together means we are experiencing the same successes and challenges,” Diane explains. “We can [understand] and support each other better than when we had separate careers with separate successes and challenges.”
Sean and Kristina Malone can relate. Sean, a former United States Postal Service employee, was well acquainted with his wife’s entrepreneurial spirit. She opened a spa and wellness center the first year they met. After the spa closed, she opened Kristina’s Kitchen in 2020 in Millville and was quickly overwhelmed.
“I desperately needed his help,” Kristina recalls. “Sean has a great business perspective, and he, too, loves coffee and good food—and even loves baking pies.” Their first year as partners was challenging, especially since Kristina’s opened during the pandemic. “We did take it out on each other occasionally,” she says. “But over the years, we have grown as business partners and have learned to listen to each other’s ideas and compromise.”
Michel McFarland-Davis and Richard Davis met more than 30 years ago in Rehoboth. “He’s always been in the restaurant business, and I’ve been in retail,” Michel says. Despite living with a chef, she experienced a learning curve when they opened Michy’s near Rehoboth in 2014. “Working together was challenging since I [had] never been in the business,” she admits. “But Rich [taught] me the ins and outs.”
Ben Winiarczyk was a well-known coastal mixologist before he and his wife. Diane, purchased Shorebreak Lodge in Rehoboth Beach. He manages the bar program; she handles the front of the house. Both are committed to creating an exceptional guest experience. Photograph by Crew Media CO.
Meeting of the minds
Many couples met in the industry. Consider Gary and Lorraine Papp, who own Harbour in downtown Lewes. She hired him to be the sous chef at Wycombe Inn, an eight-room Victorian inn in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and their culinary careers have been entwined ever since.
They moved to Delaware in 1994 to open The Buttery in Lewes, and in 2020, they opened Harbour.
Before sparks ignited, chefs Kristin and Joe Garramone often crossed paths in Delaware. “Hospitality in Delaware is a small community,” she notes. Joe grew up in the business; his family opened Roma in the early 1970s, and he took over in 1999. Kristin, previously a chef at the Back Burner in Hockessin, came on board in 2015 to open Sul Tempo Cocktail Lounge, an offshoot. They wed in 2017.
In Kent County, Matthew Schafenberg hired Janelle Harrington in 2003 to work at his first Dover restaurant, Eight Sixty Five. They remained friends, and after they both went through divorces, romance blossomed. Now they are the faces behind Jack’s on Main in Clayton, which opened in 2023.
Divide and conquer
Regardless of the path to partnership, many couples divide duties based on skills, interests, and experience. At Roma, for instance, Kristin primarily handles the front of the house, which includes the dining room, while Joe is in the kitchen. Michel and Rich follow a similar approach at Michy’s. At Shorebreak, Ben handles the bar program and operations, while Kristin handles finances and human resources.
Some are balancing multiple jobs. For instance, Janelle has a full-time job in commercial real estate management, so she works as a server at Jack’s on Fridays and Saturdays. In between, she handles server scheduling and training, back-end point-of-service operations, menu and promotional design, and the website.
Matthew operates the tiny kitchen at Jack’s, which includes two pieces of electric equipment and a soup warmer, he says. From his culinary stage in the dining room, he cooks for up to 80 people a night. “I run my office out of a messenger bag with a laptop,” he says.
Molly Merrill is a longtime state employee, but she owns Skipjack Dining with her husband, Donny, the chef. When the Newark restaurant opened in 2013—a year after their wedding—she was often on-site. Then they welcomed three children. “We bought the restaurant and had Mickey,” Donny says. “We bought the banquet room and had Maya. We bought the patio and had Declan. We are not expanding anymore!”
Because of her job and the kids, Molly has scaled back her on-site presence but does what she can on the computer.
All in the family
Two of the Merrills’ children have Sanfilippo syndrome, a rare degenerative disease. Mickey was diagnosed in 2017, and in 2019, regular customers started the annual MickeyGolf event to raise money for research. “Many of the volunteers you see at our Mickey events are our customers or staff,” Donny says. “Skipjack started as a restaurant, but it turned into a big family.”
When the Merrills spent a year with Mickey in California, where she participated in a clinical trial, the team kept the restaurant running. “They did a fantastic job,” Molly says proudly.
Longtime employees can help give couples much-needed time off. The Papps go on fishing trips and spend time in Puerto Rico. They can count on Clay Nelson to manage the kitchen. Michy’s closes for a few weeks each year in January.
The Winiarczyks, who are new to ownership, are learning to set boundaries. “When we purchased the restaurant, we were together more than we had ever been,” Diane says. “So we had to create a space where we were focusing on us and not the restaurant. One of our early goals was to create a management team that could allow us to step away from the restaurant for quick date nights or weeks of travel.”
Gary and Lorraine Papp, the couple behind Harbour in downtown Lewes, have built a life around hospitality—they met when she hired him as her sous chef. They were The Buttery’s opening chefs and now run one of the town’s busiest dining rooms. Photograph by Maria DeForrest.
So far, she says, they have no regrets. “We are driven and rewarded by our vision of Shorebreak,” she says. “It fills our hearts and passion to see friends, lovers, and families coming together for an evening of conversation and connection over a meal prepared and served with kindness.”
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Dining and Cooking