Owner and head chef Michael Mariola has had a lifelong interest in good food. He was influenced at the earliest of ages by the hearty home style cooking of his French mother. He started in the restaurant business in his teens, working first in the kitchen of The Wooster Inn and then moving on to Parker's in Cleveland, ranked among the top restaurants in the country. He assumed the mantle of sous-chef at Parker's at the age of 20. While at Parker's, he also traveled to serve internships under esteemed French chef Christian Constant at Le Violon d'Ingres in Paris and under French chef and baker Michael Richard at Citronelle in Washington, DC. It has always been Michael's dream to return to his hometown of Wooster and open a small, “fine casual” restaurant. That dream has become a reality with the opening of the South Market Bistro in July of 2002.
