Marchone’s Italian deli changes name to Filippo’s (not Felipe’s)

By Sonny Goldreich

Visit the Italian deli in the Wheaton Triangle and you find things virtually the same as you remember, whether it’s been a month, a year or four decades since you last picked up one of Marchone’s famous cold cut subs.

There’s the same festive awning, striped with the green, white and red from Italy’s Tricolore flag. Above, five windows have their own green awnings that stand out against the white-washed brick building. Below is the red banner with the white letters that proudly announces Filippo’s Italian Specialties.

Wait. What?

Filippo Leo put his name on the deli after 27 years.

That’s right, Marchone’s Italian Specialties, open since 1955, is now Filippo’s, named for its long-time manager and partner and now, sole owner.

“I’ve been over here 27 years,” Filippo Leo said with a strong Italian accent during an interview on Monday. “I was partner with Frank Marchone, as everybody knows.”

But not everybody knows that Leo took over the business after Marchone died in 2012 (a year after the death of Frank’s uncle, Thomas Marchone, who founded the deli). Even many who profess long-time loyalty to the place were taken aback by the name change. In fact, a customer errantly posted on Facebook that “Marchones (sic) is now named Felipe’s,” setting off a period of digital mourning.

Most reactions posted over the weekend to Facebook’s nostalgia-driven “You know you're from Wheaton, MD because...” page lamented the passing of a childhood icon or the changing face of their old neighborhood.

But, as often happens on the Wheaton page, a handful of bigots were put off by the Felipe’s mistake and the misconception that another business was now catering to Spanish-speaking customers. Several offered snarky comments directed against Wheaton’s Hispanic residents.

This went on for two days, even after I posted a photo of the new sign saying “Marchones (sic) is now Filippo’s” and Frank Marchone’s sister gave her blessing to Leo.

“Filippo is Italian....not that it should matter,” Jeanne Marchone Morin wrote.

One reaction to a separate announcement by Leo concluded, “please done (sic) change anything at the Sub Counter, I pray it stays Italian and not Hispanic.”

This was posted after Leo wrote “PS; I'm Italian born in Sicily!”

Other Facebook postings offered a hint at a battle for control of the deli since Frank Marchone died. One poster describing himself as a friend of the Marchone family said, “Filippo basically stole it out from the other Marchone's (sic) that were still majority owners.”

Leo responded that he was forced to change the name to Filippo’s after a “long litigation with his heir left me no choice.”

“It's still me Filippo that year after years (sic) have kept the business going,” he wrote.

Marchone’s daughter, Darlene Marchone, posted that “You [Leo] had to change the name because you did not honor my father and your agreements.”

But she concluded that, “The Marchone's (sic) have not said a Word or threw it up on Facebook. So it's plain and simple if you like the food go please leave the comments to your selves. We would like to move on and be in peace.”

Leo declined further comment on the dispute during an interview.

In any case, the deli seems carefully preserved, except for leasing out about half its original space to Cambio de Cheques, one of two check-cashing businesses in the Wheaton Triangle strip. The contraction was prompted about 20 years ago by shrinking demand for Italian groceries, but Filippo’s still stocks imported olive oil, canned tomatoes, boxed pasta and other dry goods.

“I’m very happy that you made it Filippo’s and it’s a fabulous store,” long-time customer Anita Pedreira, who stopped in with her husband Frank, said to the proud owner. “This is the last real Italian deli left.”

Filippo’s truly is the only game in town since Lucia’s on University Boulevard closed and was replaced last year by Mi La Cay, which specializes in Vietnamese pho and banh mi subs.

Visitors to Filippo’s are drawn to the back, where the sub counter beckons with the scent of garlic and tomato sauce. The menu is the same as always, except for the recent addition of a Philly Steak & Cheese sub.

If you make it past the case of cookies and cannolis, you find a bewildering assortment of cheeses. Next is the centerpiece, the meat case, filled with Capocollo and Soppressata and Genoa salami and other Citterio products made from every cut of pork you can imagine.

All things Italian was Marchone’s reason for success and that remains Leo’s mission.

“I made a promise to Tom Marchone,” he said. “I always called him uncle and he called me nephew. He opened up Italian specialty store and it will stay Filippo’s Italian Specialties.”

It will also remain in Wheaton, despite county plans to turn the triangle and its surface parking lot into a pedestrian town center. Leo has rejected multiple offers to move to Rockville Town Center and other places along Rockville Pike.

“I’m a Wheaton guy and I stay over here,” said Leo, who lives in nearby Aspen Hill. “I just signed a five-year lease with option for another five years.”

I left with a bag of cookies and half a pound of marinated olives, the same ones my father introduced me to 45 years ago. All fat and shiny, they float in tubs of brine. Black or brown or multiple shades of green, I could taste them in my mind even before I smelled them.

The lunch-time customers also come in every shade and Leo greeted them by name and in their own language, easily shifting from Italian to English to Spanish.

That might not suit the Facebook English-only crowd who likely would boycott a place called Felipe’s, but it makes perfect sense for a businessman who plans to stay in Wheaton no matter what changes come its way.

“They said I was a Mexican,” Leo said with a sad shake of the head. “I don’t know why people have to say that.”