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Iconic Mary Maestri’s Closing

2 min read

Daniel Maestri said Mary Maestri’s Italian Grillroom will close after Saturday, but he expects the closure will be temporary.

Maestri posted on Facebook that the restaurant’s lease was expiring and he was not renewing. Maestri said the restaurant’s location on East Robinson Avenue in Springdale was problematic.

“It has been coming for quite a while,” Maestri said. “That location was just never really working for me. There are some issues with the landlord. It’s just time for a change.”

The restaurant was founded by Daniel Maestri’s grandparents in 1923 in Tontitown but has had a checkered history since the state closed it in 2010 for failure to pay sales taxes. Maestri reopened the restaurant later that year in Fayetteville before moving it to Springdale in August 2012.

Maestri said he plans to reopen Mary Maestri’s at a new location but hasn’t finalized plans.

“I have no intention,” Maestri said of not reopening. “Even if I wanted to retire, I’d sell it and let someone else run it. It’s too important to too many people.”

Maestri took over the restaurant in 1977 after his father, Ed, died. Maestri struggled with finances after incurring debt after rebuilding the restaurant in Tontitown and then filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1986.

Maestri said it was a “miracle” he managed to reopen after the state shutdown without money or credit. He is confident he will have Mary Maestri’s up and running again, either at a leased or new building.

“There are a lot of different things — options — in the works,” Maestri said. “I don’t know what I’m going to pick yet.”

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