Purple Pizza Palace Opens Second Location at King's Crossing

Photo by John Arundel/Local Kicks Your sub is grilling.

ALEXANDRIA, VA. - Down Route 1, at King's Crossing and just across the street from the soon to be Wal Mart, sits a new, magenta-shaded shrine to the great American cheesesteak, at 6100 Richmond Highway.

Marino's Pizza & Subs has been around since 1958, decades before Target or Best Buy, when the spot they sat in was still a forlorn rail yard. Marino's just recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.
 
Once a small regional chain which went bust, since 1981 it's been owned and operated by brothers Kamar and Ather Subzwari, Pakistani entrepreneurs who came to the United States in the late 1970s with the able assistance of their father, a longtime officer in the visa section of the American Consulate in Islamabad. They never left.
 

Photo by John Arundel/Local Kicks For longtime deliveryman Stephen Beyer, 32, getting the call is usually a thrill. "It's always a dozen or so bags of food, and when I get there, they're always partying," he said. "Snoop's a great tipper, but...the last time the whole floor smelled kinda funny."

Just how the two brothers from the Middle East mastered the next step -- of preparing perfectly oozy Italian Calzones, Mexican Jalapeno Poppers, Traditional Sicilian Pizzas and American-styled Triple-Decker Subs -- the story gets a bit fuzzier.
 
Clearly, many a generational chef in Chicago or Philadelphia would envy how their cheeseteaks and pizzas are actively sought out. Late some nights, Lincoln Town Cars carrying high government officials or members of Congress often idle out front. 

On some weekends during football season, The Washington Redskins may dispatch a player or two to pick up 30-40 subs and pizzas to bring to the hangar for the private jet ride to away games.
 
"They usually order a dozen or so party pans with 24 slices apiece," said Ather. "They eat only the big meat subs and sausage pizzas before their games."
 
Then there's the fabled Snoop Doggy Dog, of Platinum-selling gangsta rap fame.
 
Several times a year, the Snoop rolls into his favorite local Hilton Hotel in Crystal City, reserves a whole floor for his entourage of about 50, and usually orders anout $600 in Marino's famous chicken steaks, cheese steaks, pizzas and poppers for his crew.
 
Bags and bags of food for his hungry home boys.
 
"Whut's poppn?!? its ya boy Bigg Snoop Dogg and i wanna let u kno we got a bigg bigg order for my home boys at marino's," as Snoop might say, in calling in the order.
 
For longtime deliveryman Stephen Beyer, 32, getting the call is usually a thrill. "It's always a dozen or so bags of food, and when I get there, they're always partying," he said. "Snoop's a great tipper, but...the last time the whole floor smelled kinda funny."
 
Ather calls his business a great business. 

"I see all kinds of people in here," he said. "From the Pentagon, Capitol Hill, the Crystal City offices. They all come in here eventually because word of mouth tells them we make the best pizzas and cheeseteaks around."
 

Photo by John Arundel/Local Kicks Patricia Hernandez of Alexandria, a short order cook at Marino's Pizza & Subs.

What makes it good?
 
Start with the fresh dough he and his brother make on the premises. Then they hand-make and then cook their own sauces. The more lengthy and expensive process sets it apart, he said.
 
"It's a hollow, crunchy pizza with lots of air bubbles which make it lighter and crunchier," Ather said. "'And we don't cut corners...That's why it's a square pizza." 
 
E-mail the writer at jarundel@localkicks.com 
 
If You're Going...
Marino's Pizzas & Subs
6100 Jefferson Davis Highway
Alexandria, VA. 22314
(703) 548-8544