Q & A with Mamma Maria, who runs an Italian restaurant without a menu

"I can handle you," she tells our reporter.

"Mamma" Maria, aka Maria di Marco, owner of Mamma Maria Ristorante Italiano
Hillary Petrozziello

Maria di Marco, better known as Mamma, came to Philadelphia from Abbruzzo, Italy, (by way of Toronto) in 1991 and opened her eponymous restaurant a year later on Passyunk Avenue. Mamma's as lovely a person as she is passionate about topics near and dear to her heart — friends, family and food. Once you get her started, she doesn't stop, meaning this particular "20-minute interview" has been seriously condensed and edited.

City Paper: So, your menu ...
Mamma Maria: You want to hear how I start in the morning?
CP: Sure, let's start with that, that's a good question.
MM: I come down and get myself a nice cappuccino. I take my cappuccino, and then I go into the kitchen and I get ready for the day. Since I don't have a menu, it's whatever I feel is nice. I work from the morning until the night. But I'm telling you something, I love what I do. It's hard work, but I love. I am a people person. I love to talk to you, and I love to do my stuff. Everything I do, I put in my love and my heart.

CP: Was this your first restaurant?
MM: No. I've been in restaurants for over 35 years. But this is the first restaurant I run as Mamma — the [former] restaurants I was like anybody else, you no see me, I'm in the kitchen. But when I come to Philadelphia, I create Mamma Maria this way. When you come here, I make sure that I see you before you leave.

CP: Do your kids help out at the restaurant?
MM: Oh, yeah. My daughter, Paula, she's the oldest, she helps out with everything. And, also, my grandchildren.

CP: What about your other employees?
MM: [Most of them have worked here for years. ] But, it's tough for many kids [who don't come from good families]. And I feel sorry, you understand? You know, I have somebody, who washes dishes and you see that they are slow — they don't really understand what you say. Then I watch, and I figure out why. I say, "Did you eat?" Because if you do not eat, your brain cannot work. So that is another situation — I say it is better you eat before you start work. So, I feed. I am different — I am not straight like any restaurant. I am different, I run my restaurant like family. Even when my husband [was alive] it was different. But today, I run it like family.

CP: But now it's your show entirely?
MM: Yes. We are all family, that's the way I run it. But I also have my daughters and son — they also help me. My son-in-law, he's a brain surgeon, but even he come in here and make a cappuccino or two.

CP: Seriously?
MM: Yes. Well, when he was in medical school. Not since. But he's a good kid. I am lucky.

CP: So, I first came to your restaurant when I was in college, with my entire fraternity, and we would take this entire room ...
MM: Oh, you were one of them? [Laughing] Oh my God ...

CP: We were obnoxiously drunk, we were the worst, and I don't understand why you let us come back.
MM: Well, I do like the young people. Everyone that works here is young. I like to give my [advice] to the young people. And, you know, it is a business. Every year, you come and paid.

CP: But we were awful.
MM: Yeah, but I can handle you. You don't understand: I can handle you. Even if you were not that great, I scream. I don't scare. We never had a problem, you always paid. You see how good I am [during the interview], but I can scream. [Laughing] I can kick, too!