Marshall’s used to have a different name and location. Caffe DaVinci is the third restaurant in its owner’s family. The Chef-O-Nette brought the first drive-through to Upper Arlington.
Then – and now – innovation is a must for family-run restaurants that are mainstays in the Tri-Village community. A few of the older dining establishments told us how things have changed over the years and how they stay abreast of the latest trends.
Marshall’s has reinvented itself a few times since it opened as Chris’s Restaurant in 1985 on Grandview Avenue. Back then, breakfast was all it served, says Matt Marshall, son of Chris Marshall and the restaurant’s owner.
“My dad was renting the building from a church, and I think it got turned into a youth center. It’s actually where the Arlington Bank is now,” Matt says.
The restaurant moved West First Avenue near Northwest Boulevard in 1992. Matt and his wife, Shannon, purchased it from his father in 2004. Its ownership isn’t the only thing that has changed over the years.
“Once we started in 1992, we did breakfast, lunch and dinner and closed at 8 (p.m.). It was comfort food,” Matt says. “Then my dad purchased a liquor license and added the bar and changed the back of the restaurant to add some pool tables.”
The closing of a salon next door paved the way for the restaurant to expand in 2000 – and add the koi pond and transparent tunnel that Marshall’s is known for. Shortly afterward, Chris took over breakfast and lunch duties and turned the bar over to Matt and Shannon.
“I took out the booths and put some pool tables in and just changed it over. We concentrated on breakfast, lunch and the full bar,” Matt says.
When Chris’s opened, there were few restaurants in Grandview Heights, Matt says, naming Paul’s and Spagio as two of the other long-time local eateries.
“There really wasn’t much else around,” he says. “Now you’ve got the (Grandview Yard). ... You have all the restaurants.”
Recently, Marshall’s added a breakfast buffet, a lunch buffet and more seating to the bar side.
“Nowadays, everyone is in a hurry,” Matt says. “You’ve just got to change with the times.”
Though Caffe DaVinci is a relatively new restaurant – it opened in 2006 – owner Tina Elsea has been in the restaurant business since she was a high schooler.
“(My parents) started DaVinci’s Restaurant when I was a senior in high school … behind the movie theater on Henderson and Reed roads,” Elsea says. That was 1974. Elsea and her siblings and cousins worked the restaurant throughout their college years. She studied education at The Ohio State University and taught Spanish and Italian in Columbus Public Schools until after her first child was born.
Elsea’s parents, Dominico and Italia Ciotola, also helped run Monte Carlo on Cleveland Avenue before deciding to purchase a former funeral home at the corner of Henderson and Reed roads. The white-tablecloth restaurant featured a large banquet room and was open until 2006, when Tina and her husband, Kim, decided to go smaller and open Caffe DaVinci at the corner of Tremont and Zollinger roads.
“I used to be a runner, and whenever I’d run by that corner … I’d think about it. When that place opened up with a ‘For Rent’ sign, my husband and I both looked at each other and said, ‘OK, let’s go for it.”
The smaller space lends itself well to a fast-casual restaurant, but two things were mandatory, Elsea says: The food had to be of the same quality and she wanted to open a gelateria.
“We wanted to keep the good quality of the food, (but) we wanted to change the concept,” she says. “When you look at the demographic in the area, there are a lot of couples with young kids. We thought it would be good to go fast-casual – good food made to order.”
The gelateria recently moved from the building’s north side to a glassed-in space on the restaurant’s south side. Muralist Michael Dichinson painted the wall behind the gelato counter to resemble a scene from the streets of Italy.
In contrast, the space at the Chef-O-Nette is much the same as when it opened in 1955. Owner Harlan Howard, who purchased the business from his father in 1993, has updated the decor only as needed to replace worn-out items. Howard’s father, Maborn, bought the business in 1970 from Jim Reed and Chuck Zollinger. The Chef-O-Nette’s drive-up carryout window is one of the oldest in the country. Howard says he can’t find a record of any restaurant having one earlier.
The Chef-O-Nette’s classic diner style and famously low prices – as well as its long-time signature dish, the hangover sandwich, a hamburger with ham, cheese, tomato, lettuce and onion – are the same, but Howard says a lot is different, too.
“The demographics have changed. At one time, I remember well, the majority of the household was empty-nesters or retired, and that’s all changed as younger families moved in with their children,” he says.
Howard changes the menu, too, to offer variety to his devoted regular. Some of the popular recent additions to the menu are a pulled pork sandwich served on Texas toast and a berry tart.
Though his two children worked in the restaurant during their school years, neither is involved now. “One’s a speech therapist and the other one’s a chemical engineer,” Howard says.
Similarly, the buck stops with the Elseas at Caffe DaVinci. No other family members are currently employed there, Tina says.
Matt’s daughter, Madison, 12, occasionally buses tables at Marshall’s on weekends. Olivia, 8, wants to help, too, but is too young, Matt says, who started working at the family business when he was around 8.
“I’d go in and sweep the floors or pick up stuff,” Matt says. He started full-time at the restaurant after graduating high school. “I went to the school of hard knocks,” he jokes.
He doesn’t expect his daughters to follow their parents’ footsteps, though. “My kids will go to college and figure out what they want to do.”
The business owners agreed that being part of the community has been one of the things they enjoy most about their work.
“The customers coming in, they’re not just a number,” Matt says. “You get to know everyone – their grandparents, their nieces, their nephews.”
Elsea says she couldn’t have chosen a better area for the family business.
“We feel very blessed because this community is amazing. It’s hard to describe how these customers become your friends,” she says. “We’ve met so many people, I feel like we’re all one big family, and I love it. People come to the restaurant and you get to know them. You feel like you can talk about everything. Everybody knows each other. I say it’s like Cheers. … Every so often you’ll hear someone say, ‘I grew up on DaVinci’s food,’ and I’m thankful for that.”
Lisa Aurand is editor of Tri-Village Magazine. Feedback welcome at laurand@cityscenemediagroup.com.
