Remembering Montrose Macaroni Grill, a national chain with a very local crew

There’s a saying in the restaurant business that the food brings people in the first time, but it’s the service that brings them back and makes them regulars.

The summer of 2000, my then-husband’s employer hired a man whose wife I’d worked with in Columbus years earlier. We lived in Cleveland at the time and drove to the Montrose Macaroni Grill at the couple’s invitation. I held my third child, who was new to the world, throughout the meal while verbally managing my 6- and 3-year-old sons.

The penne rustica, a pasta with chicken, shrimp and prosciutto in a creamy rosemary sauce, impressed my husband. But a dish on the kid’s menu captured my heart ‒ grilled chicken breast with a side of spaghetti with marinara and steamed broccoli, milk and a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting under warm ganache chocolate sauce, made in house. All for $5.

For years thereafter, on our birthdays we went to Macaroni Grill, where feeding three boys only added $15 to the tab. It felt luxurious. The servers wore crisp, white chef’s aprons, white dress shirts and ties. A song sung in Italian by local voice students entertained not only birthday guests but the entire restaurant. Each table was set with a fresh sheet of butcher paper upon which my children drew countless masterpieces with the crayons the restaurant provided.

Eventually Erin, a bartender, Kristin, a server who later became a bartender, and Jake, a teen-aged busser, all knew us by name. Erin’s father who, like me, was adjunct faculty at the University of Akron, became a friend. We would grab coffee together on campus at least once a semester. Last fall, I went to his memorial at Erin’s house.

Our family tradition of birthdays at Macaroni Grill lasted longer than my marriage to the father of my first three children. In 2010, the boys, their stepfather, Max, and my 10-month old baby, arrived to celebrate my birthday only to find the restaurant closed due to a fire two weeks earlier. For months, nothing seemed to happen and we wondered if the restaurant, along with our birthday tradition, was “finito.”

Exactly a year after the fire, however, Macaroni Grill reopened. Renovations and menu changes made it better than ever while a surprising number of employees returned, joined by a few new faces. Jess, a server who always wears a bow in her hair and a smile on her face, has a wicked sense of humor. And Lettie, a manager I’ve watched do almost every job in the restaurant, moved to Akron for love and stayed, living with and caring for her partner’s family, now years after cancer took her partner. Another manager, Tommy, made pizzas the way he likes them ‒ “with lotsa cheese.”

The next few years were the heyday of the Montrose Mac Grill. The new bar had three banquette booths that could seat up to five and a patio. In the bar, happy hour included $5 pizzas baked in a wood-fired brick oven and $5 glasses of house wine. On Mondays, a different entrée was offered at BOGO pricing.

Max, the children and I became Monday regulars. By the time our daughter, Lyra, was 2, she demanded we go there whenever she saw the building or heard its name. As a result, we began referring to it as the “second kitchen.” By then, Jake had grown into a 30-something bartender whom Lyra was especially sweet on.

We also came to know the other regulars. Another Monday-night couple had an astronomer son who came to town and talked at length about space with my then-9-year-old son. A surgeon often arrived in his scrubs after work. Dennis, a man with whom I’ve chatted for decades, has watched my children grow up from his seat at the Mac Grill bar.

COVID stopped it all. At the time, my eldest son was an Americorps VISTA who worked evenings at Mac Grill as a food runner and, when things reopened, a host. But, as with so many restaurants, Macaroni Grill never fully recovered. The chain has changed hands several times in recent years, but none of the various owners have reinvigorated the once-booming restaurant. The menu remained COVID slim for too long, while the facility looked the worse for wear. Several long-time employees, including Erin and Jake, moved on to other jobs.

The week before Easter, I had dinner at Macaroni Grill for the first time in a long while. Kristin took great care of us and Lettie gave me the most wonderful hug. A few days later, when employees arrived at work, they were told it was the restaurant’s last day.

This is not the first restaurant I’ve been sad to see close. It’s a tough business and, especially since COVID, it’s happened often. But Macaroni Grill, a national chain with a very local crew, was much more than a restaurant. To all the people, employees and guests who celebrated at Mac Grill with my family for 26 years, I raise my glass. Saluti!

This was first published in the Akron Beacon Journal on Sunday, May 10, 2026.