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Business, now family

Malio Iavarone says the closing of his restaurant is the end of an era for Tampa and the start of a new life for him.

By JANET ZINK
Published January 28, 2005

TAMPA - Malio Iavarone chokes up when talking about his grandson.

Iavarone's daughter, Christine Nelson, had planned to name him Jonah.

But when he emerged two years ago during a home birth in Seminole Heights, the emotion of the moment prompted Nelson to change her mind.

"He's named after me," Iavarone says, holding back tears and walking away to collect himself.

It's an emotional time for Iavarone, who for more than 35 years has wined and dined celebrities, sports stars and Tampa's movers and shakers at Malio's Steak House.

On Jan. 8, Iavarone served the restaurant's last steak.

He and his business partners, high school classmates Dennis and Ray Sanchez, sold the property to Masonite International Corp., a door manufacturer that plans to build its new administrative headquarters on the site at 301 S Dale Mabry Highway.

It's the end of an era for Tampa. It's the beginning of a new life for Iavarone, he says.

It's not likely he'll leave the restaurant business, a world that's been a part of his life since he was a teenager working at his family's restaurant. He plans to help his son, Derek, open a smaller Malio's, hopefully in South Tampa.

But he wants to pass the torch, so he can spend time with baby Malio, who moved with his family to Washington. Iavarone also wants to take a cruise, golf, fish, and, most importantly, spend time with his wife, Shirley.

"What a wife," he says. "She's given me everything I've got."

The two couldn't be more different.

He's outgoing, blunt, funny and a flirt who gives out kisses as frequently as he punctuates his rapid-fire conversation with profanity. He calls himself a reformed Catholic.

She's quiet, sensitive, laughs at her husband's jokes and regularly attends Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

"She prays for me," he says.

She's the brains in the family, he says.

He recalls that he and his twin brother, Carmine, attended Jesuit High School for three weeks and planned to play football there.

"We took tests. We didn't make a 70 together," he said.

College was the same.

"I go to class, and it's like French," he said. "I said, "I got to go back to making pizzas.' "

Malio and Shirley met during high school. She had called the Iavarone house, intending to invite Malio's brother to a girls' school dance.

Carmine couldn't go. She took Malio instead.

They've been together ever since, enjoying sunsets on Pass-a-Grille Beach, shopping at the mall and fishing from their pontoon boat. They raised two children, Christine and Derek, whom Iavarone freely refers to as "hippies."

The Iavarone family has been in the restaurant business in Tampa since 1945, when Iavarone's parents, Carmine and Frances, opened an Italian place on Buffalo Avenue (now Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard).

Their three sons went on to other ventures. Gene opened Carmine's Restaurant in Ybor City. Carmine Jr. launched Iavarone's Steakhouse in Carrollwood. And Malio bought the Tropics Steakhouse on Dale Mabry in 1967 and later changed the name to Malio's.

"I was scared to death," Iavarone says of the early days.

He spent many nights standing outside watching cars go buy and hoping somebody would pull into the parking lot. Within a year, though, business was booming.

George Steinbrenner, Michael Jordan, Johnny Bench, Roger Clemens, Burt Reynolds, John Travolta, Tommy Franks and Phil Esposito have all sat at Malio's tables. The Iavarones say the secret to their success was treating the stars like regular people and regular people like stars.

As Iavarone walked through the restaurant the day before its contents went on the auction block, he introduced his employees, adding how long each has worked with him.

There's hostess Christine Holloway, 15 years; head chef Tom Salapa, 28 years; night chef Theodore Walton, 20 years.

"How long you been with me, Ed?" he calls out to Ed Murray, who for more than 20 years was hired to do renovations for Malio's. "God, I love you, too, baby. You know what I mean?"

Lynn Cancelli, who has been Iavarone's secretary for 21 years, calls her boss "very compassionate and very generous."

After announcing he was closing the restaurant, Malio got on the phone to find work for his 75 employees, she said.

It's not easy for Iavarone to say goodbye to Malio's. He says he wasn't going to attend this week's public auction of the Malio memorabilia, furniture, fixtures and restaurant equipment. Watching the auction would make him sad, and he didn't want to see people paying for items he'd just as soon give away.

But he's looking forward to the next phase of his life.

"I'm just so happy to have time in my life and have enough money because we did well with this thing," he says. "I'm going to be with my wife. What do you want to do, honey? I'm going to do what she wants to do."

AGE: 61

FAMILY: Wife, Shirley; daughter, Christine Nelson, 37; son, Derek Iavarone, 35.

OWNER: Malio's Steak House, which closed Jan. 8.

FAVORITE ICE CREAM: Just Add a Candle, a cake-flavored confection at Ed & Eddie's, owned by the granddaughters of Iavarone's friend Ed DeBartolo. Iavarone once bought the South Tampa store's entire supply and served it at his restaurant.

ALL ABOUT MOM: Iavarone says he owes his work ethic to his mother, Frances, who raised four children and ran the family restaurant after her husband died. "She was like a man, but better," Iavarone says. "She had no ego."

ON THE MOB: Iavarone may be Italian, but that doesn't mean he has any connection to the Mafia. When his son-in-law, a Mormon, asked him about Mafia connections, Iavarone says he replied: "Do you have 20 wives?"

NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH: Iavarone prefers documentaries and news shows to so-called television entertainment. "I hate sitcoms. People laughing, all that music."

[Last modified January 27, 2005, 09:34:05]