Family Restaurant

Patricia Gail Andrew, who helped run her family's Anne Arundel County restaurants, died of a heart attack Tuesday at her Moravian Falls, N.C., home, where she moved in 1986. The former Glen Burnie resident was 58. Born in Baltimore and raised in Pimlico, she was a 1962 graduate of Mount St. Agnes High School, where she later attended college. She kept the books and ran the personnel department of several family-owned businesses, including the Bon-Fire Drive In in Gambrills and Lancer's Pub in Linthicum.

Evelyn Geneva Marshall, whose family owns Captain Harvey's Restaurant in Owings Mills, died Wednesday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at Brighton Gardens retirement center in Towson. She was 85. She and her late husband, "Captain" Harvey E. Marshall Sr., opened the first Captain Harvey's Restaurant in 1935 on Cross Street in South Baltimore. In 1954, they moved the restaurant to Reisterstown Road in Owings Mills, where it is now owned and operated by her son, Harvey Marshall Jr. and his wife, Eula Marshall, of Reisterstown.

Eleanor Minnick, who with her husband operated a Dundalk restaurant, died Friday of lung cancer at her Dundalk home. She was 72. For several decades, she managed Minnick's Restaurant. Known for its signature dish of sour beef and dumplings, the Dundalk restaurant was a traditional gathering spot for local politicians to gab, argue and make deals as they ate. In a 1999 Sun article, she described the restaurant, as "one of the last ma and pa restaurant operations left" in the Dundalk area.

HEBRON - Chances are excellent that in any given week every resident of this town, population 806, has eaten at the Hebron Family Restaurant - or at least driven past the place and recognized the cars in the parking lot. It is the only restaurant in town, sitting smack-dab in the heart of Main Street. The restaurant is also the focal point of the community, a family-run enterprise, part business, part civic institution, a place where the locals go to see each other. It is one of five such restaurants scattered around Maryland that I visited in the past months.

Sometimes it seems as if all the family-owned restaurants are disappearing, mowed down by the chains. Then along comes a place like Tiburzi's. Now this is a family restaurant. It's owned by Henry Tiburzi, 38, his brother Sabatino (Sam), 47, and his sister Debbie, 46. They have three other siblings. Their father is one of 21 children and their mother, one of 11. "More than half our staff is family," says Henry Tiburzi. "The rest of the family -- they patronize the place." What every new restaurant needs: a built-in customer base.

Old-time diner enthusiasts will note the plate over the door to the kitchen that proclaims that Frank's Diner was manufactured in 1959 by Kullman. But most people will probably just note the authentic late '50s decor, from the stainless steel exterior and large glass windows to the original clay red terrazzo floors. The 98-seat dining car, which originally was part of the Olympia Diner in Carney's Point, N.H., was moved to Maryland in January 1995 by Frank and Linda Davis, owners of Frank's Diner.

Han Sung Restaurant on St. Johns Lane in Ellicott City serves up Korean and Japanese cuisine. "Why Korean and Japanese? We've got experience with Japanese cuisine - my husband is a Sushi chef - and we're Korean," says Sue Kang. The menu offers a mix of dishes. "Our menu is pretty small," Kang said. However, she and her husband, Choong Mo, "try to make everything special. We try to make everything the way we would for our family." Among the Japanese offerings is the sushi bar. There's also the Japanese-style lunch boxes.

The 167-year-old building at 6 Oella Ave. at the edge of historic Ellicott City has been a boarding house, seed company and a biker bar with Saturday night brawls so common that the locals nicknamed the place the "Bloody Bucket." Today, the Fields family wants the Trolley Stop restaurant to be known as a place of good food and cheap prices. In the year and a half since father Bob Fields, son John Fields and daughter Mary Fields purchased the Trolley Stop, they have continued the work begun by previous owner Joe Morea to turn it into a family restaurant.

If you're out and about in the Glen Burnie area and in the mood for some good Greek, Italian or American food, stop by Romano's Restaurant on 6905 Ritchie Highway. The atmosphere is friendly, the staff is attentive and it's a good place to take the whole family. Owner Saki Stamidis, formerly of Greece, opened the restaurant in 1983. Remodeled in 1992, it maximizes its space by offering diners a continuous upholstered bench on three walls with chairs on the other sides of the tables, allowing two people to cuddle up or sit across from each other.

By the summer, patrons at a new and expanded Harry's Main Street in Westminster will be able to order a beer with their chili dogs or an Irish coffee after dinner.Owner Harry Sirinakis was granted a liquor license last week by the county's Board of License Commissioners, but the license won't take effect until after a planned $540,000 expansion and renovation of his West Main Street restaurant."We're not a bar -- we're a family restaurant -- I'm a family man," said Sirinakis, 37 and the father of three, not counting the restaurant that he likens to a fourth child.