Saying farewell to a life’s passion isn’t easy – just ask Marco Bernabucci, the owner of Bucci’s Place Eatery in Echo Bay.
Amid some ongoing health challenges, the proud cook recently made a difficult decision to hang up the apron and close his restaurant for good after enjoying more than 44 years in the kitchen.
Bernabucci spent the last 27 of those years running his local eatery along Highway 17B, which has earned plenty of notoriety around the region for its homemade Italian cuisine and gigantic portion sizes.
With the support from his wife and business sidekick Tammy, Bernabucci says the decision to close the doors on their establishment is a challenging but necessary move.
“It’s bittersweet,” he told SooToday. “I was hoping to make it to 30 years, but it’s just not possible – but that’s okay. Sometimes, you have to make decisions that are better for you right now.”
Bernabucci got his first cooking gig at the age of 13 when he began working with the Chindamo family at Blue Boy Restaurant in Sault Ste. Marie. He would end up leaving in his late 20s to pursue his own business, but not before collecting a long resume of skills thanks to some of the city’s most familiar names in the restaurant industry.
“That’s where I learned pretty much all my stuff,” he said. “Lots of great lessons there. Frank and Theresa Chindamo, as well as Chester Addison and Gino Coccimiglio taught me great lessons and work habits.”
“I was very comfortable staying there, but Chester told me, ‘You need to get out of here. You’ve been here so long, now it’s time for you.’ My parents, who taught me lots early on, used to tell me to go to school, but I always realized I just liked to cook. I owe all of them so much.”
In 1997, the passionate cook introduced restaurant goers to the Bucci’s name when he opened his first locale where the current Lucey Loo’s resides in Echo Bay.
Despite having little money and zero experience running his own business, Bernabucci was thankful to have found lifelines through the generosity of several locals.
“Patti and the late Esko Kastikainen took a chance on me and gave me a fantastic start,” he said. “I had no business starting a restaurant; I had nothing. But they were so kind with cheap rent. I starved for a couple years, but with hard work, I kept at it.”
“In year three or four, Bucci’s started to bloom,” he added. “We just hung on and hung on. Everybody pitched in and got behind the Bucci name. Next thing you know, we’ve got multiple locations opening.”
Bernabucci quickly expanded from one operation to a chain that stretched into Bruce Mines, Iron Bridge, St. Catharines, and the Sault. He had as many as four restaurants operating at the same time during the late 90s and early 2000s.
“It wasn’t always easy,” he noted. “There were lots of breakdowns and things to deal with, but I always stuck it out. You go with the punches, persevere, and work yourself for a while to keep the payroll. My wife and I have worked a lot of hours, and we’ve been fortunate to have had a great staff over the years.”
In more recent times, Marco and Tammy downsized to their one remaining location in Echo Bay, which they had been serving customers out of since 2008.
From pizzas and panzerottis to pastas and poutine, Bucci’s prided itself on the genuine tastes and smells of a homecooked meal.
But it was their giant portions in particular that kept customers coming back according to the head cook, which was evident when SooToday paid a visit to the restaurant in 2019.
“Some people might have said, ‘Geez, 20 bucks for a poutine?’ But it’s in a 14-inch pizza box,” Bernabucci laughed. “We had lots of people say, ‘Holy man, I ate that panzerotti for three days.’ Even when food and labour costs rose, I always said you cannot change the portion sizes because it’s been the same for all these years. I’d rather take less in my pocket and see somebody happy and come back again.”
“It’s all about having these people come back and talk, and that’s how we got to do catering, weddings, and stag and does,” he added. “I just liked people to be happy with the quality of the food. We’re not perfect, I’m sure we didn’t do a great job on every party, but we damn near got close.”
Since the pandemic, Bucci’s shuttered their indoor dining and reduced its services to takeout only. Although they experienced drastic changes over the last three years, Bernabucci says there were a lot of positives that came out of those unpredictable times.
“It was great because people still like takeout,” he said. “We turned the restaurant into our very own brand-new apartment, and the building is a duplex. Now we’re going to lease out the kitchen and takeout area for retail space and rent out the other apartment upstairs.”
Having been on the market for about a year, the building itself is currently listed for $399,000.
When asked what he would miss most about the business, a tearful Bernabucci didn’t hesitate with his response: “It’s the people.”
“You have to remember that years ago, they came in with their kids when they were young families,” he said. “Now their kids have kids. I’ve seen all the generations over the years, and you just love seeing them all leave happy.”
“We’re going to really miss our involvement in the community,” he added. “We sponsored so many things like hockey teams, bowling teams, Wildcats – you’re going to miss those people. We’ll cherish all of it, and we want to say thank you to them for letting us be a part of that.”
Over the next several months, Bernabucci will take the extra time to focus on his health as he awaits approval for a kidney transplant.
His future donor? None other than his long-time partner in crime.
“I owe Tammy my life; I really lucked out,” Bernabucci said. “I’m so thankful for my wife, and there are not enough words of gratitude and love for giving me the chance at life.”
“I love cooking, and I’m really going to miss it,” he added. “But we have so much gratitude for everyone who came through here. I hope they just don’t go skinny now.”