'Marconi 2.0' makeover necessary for survival, says Guglielmo Marconi Society president

The Marconi Event Centre is undergoing some major changes in an effort to bring more business to a cultural cornerstone of the Italian community.

Chuck Gassi, who assumed his new role as general manager of the Marconi last month, has made a permanent move from his Chuck and Gene’s Pizza Machine location on Trunk Road to begin a new chapter in his career in the food industry - a career that has spanned more than four decades in Sault Ste. Marie.  

“We are actually in progress of the construction of the modern takeout area right at the back of the hall,” Gassi told SooToday last week. “There’s going to be beautiful signage for the customers, making it really convenient for them to come in and pick up.”

The takeout area - which Gassi says will have pre-made hot dinners and frozen entrees available for pickup - is expected to be completed and open for business within the next three to six weeks.

Gassi says there will also be a renovation of the restaurant formerly known as Nonna’s Cucina in the coming months, in an effort to modernize the eatery and make it more appealing to a younger crowd.

He says that a new bar-type setup could become the centrepiece of the yet-to-be-named restaurant.   

“Customers can watch actually - sit at the bar and watch us cook their pizza and make their pasta,” said Gassi. “We’re going to have charcuterie with beautiful antipastos and sliced salamis and prosciuttos and all of that - done right out there.”

“It’s going to be really exciting.”

Gassi says it was the right time in his career to move on from the former site of Ubriaco’s and Chuck and Gene’s Pizza Machine.  

“I’m now working for somebody else and doing my thing working for them, and they’ve given me complete reign to do what I want,” he said. “I am so happy to be associated with this whole group.”

“They are doing this to help save the Marconi Hall, and to keep the tradition and the Italian heritage going here because of the history of the Marconi Hall, and we don’t want to lose it.”

When SooToday met with Guglielmo Marconi Society President Orlando Rosa in the former location of Nonna’s Cucina last week, the sound of extensive renovations could be heard throughout the Marconi Event Centre as a WINMAR property restoration crew worked on the event centre’s new takeout joint.

Rosa wouldn’t divulge just how badly the Marconi Event Centre was suffering financially, but says that it became apparent to him this past fall that sweeping changes were needed to right the ship following an ‘erosion of business’ over the past few years.

“One of our prime objectives was to sort of get it back in a good financial basis,” Rosa said. “What basically happened is in the past, for whatever reason - the economy, and other factors - the business itself, the business of the Marconi wasn’t where it should have been.”

Rosa helped bring together a group of people from the local business community in an effort to save the Marconi, including Dr. Kent Floreani, Nadia and Gino Sartor of Sar-Gin Developments, and local WINMAR ownership, among others.  

“I looked at it, and sort of became my view that the only way to really save the Marconi and to put it on the right footing - to stabilize the ship, so to speak - was to bring in a number of individuals who would be committed to saving the Marconi, to doing whatever was necessary,” said Rosa.

“So I found these people and put together a team, and I facilitated that transition.”

The group of local business leaders will handle the operation of the Marconi going forward.

“They’re doing it because they’re really committed to the culture, to the heritage, and they don’t want to see it die,” said Rosa, who became president of the Guglielmo Marconi Society in January 2018. “We don’t look at this in terms of today or tomorrow, you got to look at this in terms of the future - so we’re doing this for future generations.”

“To me it’s a revitalization, a reset of thinking - but all with capturing the history, the heritage and the great food.”

As SooToday wraps up its interview with Rosa, Gassi prepares the traditional lunch buffet that has returned to the Marconi.

Gassi says that he’s excited about the coming changes, which Rosa says is the beginning of the ‘Marconi 2.0.’

“We have a long history with Italian heritage and the Italian people and culture, and we just need to bring it to the next level, which we are going to do,” Gassi said.

The Marconi Event Centre was originally established in 1912.