John Marcev was a NOLA restaurateur. So was John Marcev.

Fair warning: This story might get a skosh confusing. New Orleans stories have a way of doing that.

It starts with last week’s column, about longtime local restaurateur John Marcev and his namesake North Rampart Street restaurant, Johnny’s.

Marcev — an immigrant from the island of Molat in the Adriatic Sea — was a constant presence at his restaurant, greeting, glad-handing and backslapping regulars and newcomers alike into the wee hours.

He was, by all accounts, a one-of-a-kind guy.

Except he wasn’t, really.

Turns out, there was another John Marcev, born on the same tiny island, who also immigrated to New Orleans in the early 20th century, and who operated his own fondly remembered bar and restaurant just down the street from Johnny’s.

His full name was John P. Marcev Sr., and for some 30 years, he owned and operated the Marble Hall Branch Restaurant at 800-802 N. Rampart St.

Here’s where the story takes an unexpected twist: Despite their seemingly parallel lives, the historical record doesn’t indicate John P. was related to the other John Marcev. (Full name: John M. Marcev Sr.) In fact, they insisted they weren’t.

Which means we’ve got either an exceedingly weird string of coincidences or some type of unexplained family beef to attempt to untangle.

According to his 1950 obituary, John P. Marcev came to New Orleans around 1907 and first got into the restaurant business on Baronne Street.

After learning the finer points of the trade, he struck out on his own in the early 1920s, purchasing the Marble Hall Branch restaurant from Nick Gentilich.

Originally, Gentilich operated the Marble Hall on Lafayette Street, but by the time Marcev took over, it had been moved it to 800-802 N. Rampart St., at the corner of St. Ann Street. Like Johnny’s, it was across the street from the Municipal Auditorium, which regularly generated hungry after-event crowds.

(Around 1925, a nephew of Gentilich who was also a former waiter for Marcev opened a third Marble Branch Hall just two blocks from Marcev’s. That sparked a notable Louisiana trademark lawsuit, Marcev v. Mandich et al. — but that’s a whole other story.)

The corner building housing Marcev’s Marble Hall was a 1½-story, gable-ended Creole cottage believed to date as far back as 1863 — maybe.

An 1863 architectural drawing held by the Orleans Parish Notarial Archives suggests that, if it is indeed the same building, it was heavily modified. That includes altered ground-floor openings, as well as the addition of two dormer windows on its St. Ann side.

It’s possible, however, that the 1863 edifice was rebuilt before it became home to the Marble Hall. An item published in The Manufacturers Record in September 1923 reported that Gentilich intended to erect a two-story masonry building at 800 N. Rampart designed by the firm of Muntz and Maroney.

That building was to measure 45 feet by 29 feet. According to the Orleans Parish Assessor’s Office, the building there now measures a close 45-by-26.

Either way, old newspaper advertisements suggest Marcev’s Marble Hall offered a typical New Orleans bill of fare: coffee, crabs, fish, hot roast beef.

Oysters, though, were the star, available in every imaginable style.

“Oysters served at the Marble Hall Branch are received fresh daily from the famed oyster beds of the lower coast territory,” read a piece published Feb. 10, 1930, in The Picayune. “They are placed on board fast boats and rushed to New Orleans, and Mr. Marce(v) makes it his personal responsibility to make selections from the daily oyster offerings.”

Marcev’s real secret weapon: fellow immigrant Frank “Dad” Frenulich, his business partner and the chef at the Marble Hall — who also happened to be his father-in-law.

In fact, the Marble Hall was a true family affair. Lillian Frenulich Marcev — John’s bride and Frank’s daughter — was the restaurant’s hostess, according to Brenda Marcev Yokum, a granddaughter of John and Lillian. And that was just the start.

“My Uncle J (John P. Marcev Jr.) bartended there, as well as my father, Hilliard P. Marcev,” Yokum wrote in an email exchange. “The other brother, Clifton Marcev, shucked oysters there.”

Yokum still has fond memories of hanging out at the Marble Hall as a child, right down to the BLT sandwiches of one of her favorite cooks there, a Creole man named Leslie.

“Of course, my favorite memories were watching all the parades that rode past it on the corner of St. Ann and Rampart on their way to their final destination, the auditorium,” she said.

But what about the lingering question: Were John P. Marcev and John M. Marcev kin?

“Those two were related but denied it,” Yokum said. “I was told they grew up in the same neighborhood, which was probably around the block from one another. Not sure if they were friends or not. Guessing there might have been some competition.”

Dad Frenulich died at the age of 80 in 1948. John P. Marcev followed two years later, in 1950.

The Marcev boys continued to run the restaurant for a few years without them. By 1959, they closed it down and all took jobs with the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad.

By 1963, it was operating as The Player’s Club. Other businesses associated with the address include the Jamaican Village night club, Ristorante Luna, Donna’s Bar and Grill, Groucho’s Club and Gina’s.

Today, it awaits its next chapter.

“The building has been in disrepair for many years,” Yokum said. “I drove by last week and it’s being renovated. It will be interesting to see what is being done to it.”

Know of a New Orleans building worth profiling in this column, or just curious about one? Contact Mike Scott at [email protected].

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Sources: The Times-Picayune archives; Marcev v. Mandich et al.; The Historic New Orleans Collection’s Collins C. Diboll Vieux Carré Digital Survey; The Manufacturers Record.