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Mario's Pizza House, on Wilson Blvd. in Clarendon since 1958 - The Second Branch on Gallows Road in Merrifield is Closed


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Pizza by the slice,
Pizza very nice,
C'mon and get your Mario's pizza!
For the best piece o' pizza for miles around,
It's Mario's Pizza House, in Arlington town!

I assume Mario's is still selling pizza by the slice in Arlington "town". It was never "very nice", though.

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Pizza by the slice,

Pizza very nice,

C'mon and get your Mario's pizza!

For the best piece o' pizza for miles around,

It's Mario's Pizza House, in Arlington town!

I assume Mario's is still selling pizza by the slice in Arlington "town". It was never "very nice", though.

I quit going to Mario's back in the 80's after I saw the guy behind the counter smash a great big cockroach with the back of his spatula and then proceed to use the spatula to handle pizza.

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Is it true Mario's has good cheesesteaks?

I do not consider myself a cheesesteak expert by any stretch of the imagination. And, just like pizza, I do not have a cheesesteak bias (i.e., anything outside of Philly sucks).

With that being said, I have always really liked Mario's cheesesteaks. Even without alcohol killing my palate, I have enjoyed what I have had from there. It has been a year or two since I have had one sober, but if they have stayed the same, they are pretty damn good.

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The steak-and-cheese at the Merrifield extension of Mario's Pizza is a surprisingly decent way to satisfy a grease craving. Won't be competing with Ray's Nice-n-Greasy anytime soon, but Mario's uses a flavorful ribeye and tops with a nice mixture of slaw, pickles, and onions. If there's ever real nightlife in the Mosaic, Mario's will do well with the late-night diners.

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Apparently, Mario's in Merrifield is packed at nights on the weekends already since it's open late. I was getting a sandwich in August and talked with the Mario guys since it was pretty empty at Sunday lunchtime. They said late nights were packed. Kind of reminds me of how we use to stop in Merrifield on the way from DC because of the late night Taco Bell which at that time was a rarity. Well it was either that or Amphora in Vienna.

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Mario's in Merrifield has a distinct advantage in the sense that you can sit indoors. The one in Arlington just doesn't impress me as being a good area at night.

As for their food, I can't stomach the "butter pickles" they put on their subs - their overly-sweet dill flavor overpowers everything else. The slaw is good, though. Firehouse Subs might be a big chain, but during realistic hours, any of their hot subs beat anything from Mario's senseless.

If I had to sum it up in a phrase - Mario's is all about quantity, not necessarily quality. That's probably why they're good drunk-food, there's so much that it almost instantly soaks up the alcohol.

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The one in Arlington just doesn't impress me as being a good area at night.

Oddly enough, the only crime near the Arlington Mario's that comes to mind took place in broad daylight a few months back, when someone working nearby chased a would-be car thief into the parking lot of Pio Pio (next door to Mario's), and was stabbed for his trouble. Otherwise, I wouldn't hesitate to walk from, say, Jay's Saloon or Liberty Tavern down to Mario's and on to Ballston or to a house or apartment in Ashton Heights.

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Well, before it became known as the budding Mosaic District, Merrifield wasn't really well-known (and still isn't given that most of it's still zoned industrial-commercial) for being a great area. Some guy got hacked by machetes in the far rear parking lot of the old Multiplex Cinemas: http://www.washingto...5081501386.html

And those cinemas were always awful, and when I was in high school, the few people I knew who worked there *dreaded* it, so I have a feeling it was demolished for reasons other than that they needed the land.

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Oddly enough, the only crime near the Arlington Mario's that comes to mind took place in broad daylight a few months back, when someone working nearby chased a would-be car thief into the parking lot of Pio Pio (next door to Mario's), and was stabbed for his trouble. Otherwise, I wouldn't hesitate to walk from, say, Jay's Saloon or Liberty Tavern down to Mario's and on to Ballston or to a house or apartment in Ashton Heights.

Given the general suckiness of Mario's, if you just cross over to Clarendon Blvd from Liberty, there is a by-the-slice joint in the middle of the block. Good place to enjoy a hang-over prophylactic. [oh, and I can't wait for the comments that are going to result from this last phrase]

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Given the general suckiness of Mario's, if you just cross over to Clarendon Blvd from Liberty, there is a by-the-slice joint in the middle of the block. Good place to enjoy a hang-over prophylactic. [oh, and I can't wait for the comments that are going to result from this last phrase]

I was in a Korean restaurant just last night that advertised a "hangover cure" dish on the menu.

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How is there not an article in a national publication about Joe Williams and "Lefty" Lindsay, both having worked at Mario's for OVER FIFTY YEARS?

To me, this must be one of the great human-interest stories in all of DC Restaurant Land, and Father Time is marching steadily forward.

Someone *please* do a feature article on these two gentlemen!

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I haven't felt the need to wrap my hands around a Triple Cheese Steak from here at zero-dark-thirty in a while, simply because 1) eating here late-night you get a higher chance of 'gristley' meat since it'd make more sense to use the fresher stuff during the day, and 2) even the 8" subs sort of cross the line of a sensible, to steal Taco Bell's copyrighted-yet-strangely-abandoned-in-the-wake-of-demonizing-fast-food's-unhealthiness, 'fourthmeal' fodder.  Eating an 8" sub packed to the brim with dregs-of-the-day-quality meat any time past midnight is grounds for skipping breakfast, lunch, and going for a light dinner.

P.S.: I hope the pizza at the Wilson Blvd. location is better, because the shit I've had at the Merrifield location...I honestly think 7-Eleven's pizza would be better.

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I haven't felt the need to wrap my hands around a Triple Cheese Steak from here at zero-dark-thirty in a while, simply because 1) eating here late-night you get a higher chance of 'gristley' meat since it'd make more sense to use the fresher stuff during the day, and 2) even the 8" subs sort of cross the line of a sensible, to steal Taco Bell's copyrighted-yet-strangely-abandoned-in-the-wake-of-demonizing-fast-food's-unhealthiness, 'fourthmeal' fodder.  Eating an 8" sub packed to the brim with dregs-of-the-day-quality meat any time past midnight is grounds for skipping breakfast, lunch, and going for a light dinner.

P.S.: I hope the pizza at the Wilson Blvd. location is better, because the shit I've had at the Merrifield location...I honestly think 7-Eleven's pizza would be better.

It's not better at the Wilson Blvd. location, and your 7-11 comparison is perfectly reasonable, although I've seen some truly ghastly things sitting on the rolling grill at 7-11. I know these are supposed to be "impulse items" since they're right next to the cash register, but the only "impulse" they give me is the impulse to vomit.

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It's not better at the Wilson Blvd. location, and your 7-11 comparison is perfectly reasonable, although I've seen some truly ghastly things sitting on the rolling grill at 7-11. I know these are supposed to be "impulse items" since they're right next to the cash register, but the only "impulse" they give me is the impulse to vomit.

I honestly think the only reason these places are still in business is that it's a (questionably) cheaper option for food than hitting up one of the dwindling amounts of 24/7/365 diners in the area, and *by* hitting them up, you're largely giving the people working the grill something to do other than watch bad early-morning television.

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Thanks to an astute member, I can let everyone know that the Merrifield branch of Mario's Pizza House is closed.

The Clarendon location is still open.

The Merrifield branch has been replaced by Super Grill whose oddly spelled, unfinished, template-of-a-website does not look very super.

Super Grill is expanding...to *everywhere*:

post-2-0-04761700-1452665729_thumb.png

"We are conveniently located near ALL MAJOR FREEWAYS / ALL METRO AREAS."

There is no other food...only Zuul.

From the "About" page:

"As a leading provider of [enter your service here], we take pride in offering the best [enter product or service here]. We are dedicated to serving the needs of our customers each and every day. [Enter a description about yourself, how long you've been in business, any awards you've received, qualifications you have, etc. ]"

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