Remembering Marguerite’s Italian Village, a Pascagoula landmark for three decades

The Mississippi Coast has seen an untold number of restaurants come and go over the years.

Many were around to see multiple generations of families walk through their doors, but are now just memories.

Pascagoula was once home to an Italian staple that locals came to count on for decades. Marguerite’s Italian Village welcomed customers for 30 years on Ingalls Avenue and had established itself as a landmark location on the east side of the Coast.

Marguerite’s first opened in 1975 and was owned and operated by Katherine Hunt and Liz O’Cain. They served with consistency and attentiveness all the way up until damage caused by Hurricane Katrina forced the restaurant to close in 2005.

“We’ve added maybe three or four things in the last 28 years,” owner/operator Liz O’Cain told the Sun Herald in 2003. “One of our greatest compliments is when someone comes in that hasn’t been here for 15 years and says, ‘Oh, it tastes just like it did 15 years ago.’ To me, that’s the highest compliment because we go for consistency in our food.’”

Marguerite’s was described as a quaint and cozy restaurant. Reservations weren’t needed and the food off the substantially large menu — there were seven different spaghetti dishes alone — was cooked authentically.

The favorites included eggplant lamberto, veal milanese and she crab soup. The most popular dish was the Marguerite Special. It was gulf shrimp and mushrooms in seasoned garlic butter served over spaghetti.

Desserts featured were the homemade cheesecake, homemade bread pudding, spumoni ice cream, cannola and chocolate pudding.

Meals were enjoyed while surrounded by sights of nostalgia. Family photographs and memorabilia from the 1940s adorned the walls. There was a even a framed key to Atlantic City.

Marguerite’s was destroyed by hurricane twice before Katrina: once by Frederick in 1979 and again by Elena in 1986. The restaurant was rebuilt both times. Once Katrina did enough damage to shut down operations, the building changed hands and became Adrian’s Restaurant.

For three decades Marguerite’s served families as they grew from one generation to the next.

“Funny little instances that happen, like young people getting engaged and hiding the ring in our food,” O’Cain said of what she saw in her restaurant over the years. “Then they start having children and they bring children in here. We want to be a family-oriented place. I like watching them grow up.”

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