Marion Maid-Rite to close Jan. 31

MARION - Marion's Maid-Rite will serve its last loose meat sandwich and tenderloin at the end of the month.

The franchise, at 1000 Seventh Ave. on the corner of 10th Street, is closing after 31 years. Owner Ellie Osborn Riley and her daughters, Teri and Nicole, who help run the business, announced their decision to close on their Facebook page on Jan. 2.

At about noon Tuesday, a few hundred customers had passed through the doors of Maid-Rite, and Osborn Riley was struggling to seat customers - both regulars who came in for a typical meal and those wanted to get as many trips to the cafe as possible before 8 p.m. on Jan. 31.

Osborn Riley said she wanted to assure customers that the decision to close the doors was not made because commerce was suffering.

'Our business is great,” she said. 'It's not because of the roundabouts. If you want a Maid-Rite or tenderloin you're going to turn your car and come up the street.”

The lease for the building was up for renewal, Osborn Riley said. After many discussions with her daughters - one of whom has been involved with the franchise since she was nine years old - Osborn Riley said they decided it was time.

'It's just time for a change, to do something else with less stress,” Osborn Riley said. 'I'm retired, so I don't know what they're (her daughters) going to do. They should probably just take a deep breath.

'After 31 years, signing for another 10 is a long time.”

Osborn Riley opened the business in 1986 with her husband, Tom Osborn, who died in 2002.

'He's been gone 14 years,” Osborn Riley said. 'The business has carried on. Thank goodness the next generation wanted to take it. Otherwise it would have closed a long time ago.”

But some Marion residents are upset over the loss of the restaurant, from which the scent of cooking beef can be detected out on the street. As of late Tuesday afternoon, the Facebook post announcing the closure of the business had almost 1,300 shares.

'People have told us before they would be in town for a funeral, were picked up at the airport and stopped here before they went to the house. They've got to get a Maid-Rite,” she said

As for another Maid-Rite in the same location, Osborn Riley said, given the restaurant's legacy, 'We've got such a name here, I wouldn't even want to go up against me.”

However, Osborn Riley still will be able to get her Maid-Rite food fix. Her favorite menu item is the tenderloin.

'I'll make them at home,” she said.

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