When Marsilio’s closed in 2007, it seemed like the end of an era. The famous Chambersburg eatery, which had opened in 1951, was one of the last Italian restaurants to leave the neighborhood that was once the culinary epicenter of Trenton.
No one—least of all owner Alan Meinster—would have guessed at the time that four years later, Marsilio’s would be celebrating a 60th birthday party at a new location at 71 West Upper Ferry Road in Ewing Township, and with a new name, Marsilio’s Kitchen.
The resurrection of Marsilio’s isn’t quite as miraculous once you realize that Marsilio’s never really went away. It just became a catering business, preparing food out of the old kitchen and at the Hilton Garden Inn in Hamilton. The catering business is what led Meinster, in a roundabout way, to re-establish the restaurant.
“Going out into the suburbs was an accident,” Meinster said. “We needed to move to a large production kitchen, and we found a large facility in Ewing. That space also had a restaurant attached, and that gave us an opportunity to bring back one of the most widely recognized restaurant brands in Mercer County.”
Meinster first came to Marsilio’s in 1986. Meinster at the time was engaged to Denise DiDonato, daughter of Grace DiDonato and her husband Vince, who had just bought the restaurant from its original owners.
He said another reason he closed the restaurant was to spend more time with his daughters. Now that they are 15 and 17, he can continue to spend time with them since one will work as a hostess and the other a bus girl.
The Marsilio’s name carries with it a number of traditions. Meinster is continuing some of those traditions and revising others. Perhaps most famously, the restaurant used to serve wine in pitchers. Regular patrons or friends of the restaurant would arrive to find at their table a wine pitcher with their name on it. It was one of the personal touches that Meinster added to the restaurant, and over the years he dedicated about 1,400 pitchers.
Since the new Marsilio’s is BYOB, the wine pitcher tradition is over. Instead, each table will have a “Marsilio’s” pitcher for sangria.
Meinster said he wasn’t going to try to get a liquor license, since patrons seem to enjoy bringing their own bottle.
The new Marsilio’s is larger than the old one. It occupies the space of the old Antonio’s Restaurant, and has an 80-seat dining room plus an 85-seat private dining room.
The restaurant has a new chef, Marc Castiello. He got his start 20 years ago as a salad man at the old Antonio’s and in the intervening years graduated from the Philadelphia restaurant school, worked for seven years as a chef at Trenton’s Casbar Café, and later at The Breakers resort in Florida.
The food will continue to be Italian. The recipe for its famous chicken cacciatore in white sauce is unchanged. Castiello is adding new items to the menu such as tuna carpaccio and sweet pea and asparagus carbonara.
Although many things have changed, perhaps the most essential part of Marsilio’s remains the same. Meinster’s personality is one of the things that defined the restaurant, and he could often be seen mingling with the customers. Those customers in turn became regulars, and Marsilio’s was known as a gathering place for Trenton’s movers and shakers. Famous guests with pitchers included author Janet Evanovich, athletes and politicians. Evanovich even included the restaurant as a location in her novels.
Pitchers or no, Meinster will still be there. And so will many of his old customers. Meinster said when the restaurant re-opened July 1, the long weekend was like a three-day reunion party with old customers coming back to enjoy the rebirth of their neighborhood restaurant.
“Most people walked around the room,” he said. “Hardly anyone stayed in their seats.”
He even hopes that the restaurant could regain its place as a gathering place for Trenton bigwigs, given its location.
“It’s probably the same driving distance from the State House as it was before,” he said.
Meinster, who lives in Bucks County, Pa., has Ewing ties. He graduated from Trenton State College in Ewing with a degree in broadcasting.
One of Marsilio’s biggest fans is Trenton lawyer Paul Anzano, who lives in and is the mayor of Hopewell Borough.
“I wish Marsilio’s would have opened up in Hopewell,” Anzano said. “I’ve known Alan for probably 25 years now. I know it’s a great place with good food, and he’ll do just fine. Plus he’s a little closer to us now.”
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