Marra, restaurant-industry titan, found dead at 52

Dale J. Venturini, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association, remembers the late Stephen P. Marra, the founder of Marra Restaurant Group and chairman of the association board of directors, as a natural leader and generous man who went out of his way to help others and support local charities.
“He was a leader in the restaurant industry,” Venturini said of Marra, found dead at his Warwick home Aug. 31. “He was a man who could never say ‘no’ and whenever a charity was in need, he would always participate where he could. He seemed to be always there. I can’t remember a time when Steve wasn’t there.”
The one phrase that Venturini said kept coming to mind as she considered Marra was “generosity of soul.”
“He took care of a lot of people,” she said. Marra was a member of her board since 2005 and chairman since 2010.
The state health department declined to reveal the cause of death last week because, said spokeswoman Ann Marie Beardsworth, next-of-kin had not been contacted yet.
Police have said foul play was not a factor in the death of Marra, 52, who founded the Marra Restaurant Group about 11 years ago with former business partner William S. Pinelli, establishing seven eateries throughout Rhode Island. He and Pinelli were neighbors in the seaside Potowomut section of Warwick.
“I was very saddened to learn of Steve’s passing,” Pinelli said in a statement. “He and I spent many years in partnership. The staff and family at Pinelli’s extend its sympathy and prayers to the Marra family.”
The partnership between the two did not end on a happy note. A lawsuit is pending in Kent County Superior Court that Pinelli filed against Marra in 2011, accusing him of embezzling more than $1 million from the former restaurant group over the course of five years.
Richard S. Mittleman, of Cameron and Mittleman LLP in downtown Providence, Marra’s attorney, declined comment on the status of this case and others pending in Kent and Providence counties Superior Courts that involved Marra.
Included among those cases are eight lawsuits related to receivership of the Marra Restaurant Group in Kent County Superior Court: one that Marra filed against the Pinelli-Marra Group and one for each of the seven businesses in receivership: Cucina in North Smithfield, Twist in Warwick, Twist on Angell in Providence, the Post Office Café in East Greenwich (which has since closed), The Grille on Main in East Greenwich, Cucina Twist in South Kingstown and Atomic Catering. Waterplace in downtown Providence, another restaurant that remains part of the Marra group, was not included in the receivership. Except for the Post Office Café, the other businesses remain in operation.
Marra in December 2010 pushed the properties into receivership because he said the restaurant group was insolvent due mostly to a class-action lawsuit that maintained his restaurants violated federal law by faxing menus to businesses that did not request them.
In February, Superior Court Judge Allen P. Rubine approved the sale of Marra Restaurant Group to the KBN Group, owned by Marra’s father and brother, both named Mike Marra, for an undisclosed sum.
The KBN Group incorporated in January 2011 with Mittleman as registered agent and the purpose of owning, operating and managing restaurants, according to data on file at the secretary of state’s office.
Bill Fischer, of True North Communications, who represents received Jonathan N. Savage, a Pawtucket attorney with Shectman Halperin Savage LLP, said the receivership is “winding down.”
“All assets have been transferred to the KBN Group per order of the court,” Fischer told PBN.
Other pending court cases involving Marra that were not part of the receivership are, according to court records, a KBN Group suit against Kevin Millzoni in Kent County Superior Court and, in Providence court, a Wayland Manor Association suit against Marra for alleged contract damages and a 2010 suit pitting Jaime Harrington against Pinelli-Marra Restaurants.
Marra, born in Providence, was a 1980 graduate of Providence College, according to a Sept. 6 obituary in The Warwick Beacon. Besides his brother and father, he is also survived by his mother, Edith (Golato) Marra, and twin sister Doreen Bullock. “Hundreds of people,” Venturini said, attended a Mass in St. Gregory the Great Church in Warwick on Sept. 6. Contributions in his memory can be made to the East Greenwich Animal Protection League.
Marra’s brother and father did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment. &#8226