DUNCANSVILLE – The food is what brings them.

Melissa Robinette of Bedford and Cyndi Cristillo of Hollidaysburg both proclaimed it at their table in the Duncansville location of Marzoni’s Brick Oven & Brewing Co., owned by Hoss’s Steak & Sea House Inc., on a recent Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s very good,” Cristillo said.

“I tried the wings for the first time today, and they were very good,” Robinette said.

Normally, she likes to get the Bacon-Chicken Mac and Cheese, which is what her daughter, Makayla, home from college, came to enjoy.

The dish is a “baked penne pasta with Swiss, cheddar and parmesan cheeses, broccoli florets, rendered bacon and blackened chicken,” that is dubbed “Grown-up Mac ‘n Cheese,” according to the menu.

“Their food’s excellent,” Diane Summers of Altoona said at another table, noting her favorites are the fish and chips and eggplant parmesan.

“It’s friendly. It’s quick,” she said.

That satisfaction is sure to please Hoss’s Steak & Sea House Inc. president John Brown.

“We want them to experience … great food, great atmosphere and very friendly hospitality,” he said.

The Duncansville location opened in November 2003. The Altoona location at 1830 East Pleasant Valley Blvd. opened in December 2012.

A third restaurant located in Selinsgrove is aiming to open in January, a fourth in Scranton is scheduled to open in the spring and a deal was just struck to open a fifth in Mechanicsburg, Brown said.

Hoss’s Steak & Sea House Inc.’s corporate offices are adjacent to the Duncansville restaurant. Bill and Nancy Campbell and their family are majority owners.

Brown, who is Nancy’s son, said the idea for Marzoni’s began in Florida.

“Down in Florida, (the Campbells) ate out a lot. Bill really thought that if you combined a brick oven-type restaurant with a sports bar-type atmosphere and a traditional dining room atmosphere and then throw in a brewery that it would appeal to just about everyone,” Brown said. “He dreamed up this combination of offerings and then we all as a team brought it together with practicality.

“How we would make it work, what we would name it, what we would put on the menu, and all those kind of things.”

The made-up name Marzoni’s was picked from a group of names, he said.

Salads are popular menu items, Brown said, particularly the Fancy Nancy, which is made up of “Mesclun greens, honey almonds, dried cranberries, crumbled bleu cheese, tomato, cucumber, red onion” and the restaurant’s house Italian dressing. Chicken, grilled salmon and shrimp or bacon-wrapped scallops can be added to the salad.

The restaurant also sells many appetizers, pizza and sandwiches.

A popular sandwich is the Smokin’ Turkey Ergler, said Chef Anthony Mazoff.

The sandwich has “smoked turkey, bacon, jalapeno coleslaw and pepper jack cheese on griddled marble rye bread.”

“I think we try to keep it as simple and focused as possible to appeal to as many people as possible … yet we got to make it feasible for our employees to prepare on a daily and regular basis,” Mazoff said of the menu and what they try to give to customers.

The brewery at the Duncansville location, which ships to the other restaurants, offers hand-crafted lagers and ales including Locke Mountain Lager and Highway 22 Wheat, a “light bodied beer” that “pours a hazy yellow and is pleasantly tart with hints of citrus in the finish.”

The restaurant also offers specials, and customers can keep up on Facebook.

On Nov. 3, the Duncansville location offered buffalo chicken Poutine: “crispy fries with fried white cheddar cheese curds, creamy Buffalo sauce, shredded chicken topped with crunchy bacon and a ranch drizzle,” it said. On Nov. 4 in Altoona, they served up a roasted pork Cuban: “slow roasted pork, shaved ham, roasted garlic mayonnaise, chipotle mustard, ghost pepper jack cheese and pickle on pressed French bread.”

Coming up with menu items is a group effort.

“A lot of times we try to actually include our employees as well; let people give their two cents, and everyone has good ideas is basically my perspective. We usually start with that or something we’ve run as a special or a feature in the past and then we … take and try to tweak it and make it work for us,” Mazoff said.

Mirror Staff Writer Amanda Gabeletto is at 949-7030. Follow her on Facebook (Amanda Gabeletto Altoona Mirror), Twitter (@AmandaGabeletto), and on her Mirror blog “House of Gab” at www.altoonamirror.com.