‘Ted’ Marinos, longtime cafe and pawn shop businessman, dies at 91

Elefthious “Ted” Marinos, a longtime Costa Mesa resident, business owner and volunteer, has died.

Marinos died of natural causes in his home on Feb. 15. He was 91.

Marinos’ 60-year residency in Costa Mesa included operating the Wagonwheel Cafe, which eventually became the Goat Hill Tavern, as well as co-ownership of Young’s Pawn Shop, located where The Triangle is now.

His family described him as a generous Greek with a boisterous personality.

“He was loud and he was a character,” said daughter Nancy Marinos Parent. “You could never go to his house and leave empty. He was one of those Greeks that always believed in giving things,” whether it was cookies he got the day before or a magazine article.

Marinos was also recognized for his community service, including his 45 years as a Boy Scout leader.

Marinos was born in 1923 to Greek parents in Eagle Pass, Texas, a city along the Rio Grande just shy of the Mexican border. There, he learned to speak Spanish, a skill that proved invaluable decades later while connecting with Spanish-speaking Scouts in Costa Mesa’s Westside.

During World War II, Marinos enlisted in the Marine Corps and served aboard the USS Idaho as a gunner. He re-enlisted during the Korean War, leaving the Marines as a sergeant and Purple Heart recipient.

After marrying his wife, Jacqueline Louann Evans, in 1956, Marinos soon moved to Costa Mesa and took his first job cooking at Danny’s Donuts on Newport Boulevard and 17th Street. The restaurant later became Denny’s.

In a 2008 interview with the Daily Pilot — which called him “a patriarch of what could easily be considered Costa Mesa’s first family” — he commented that, more than 50 years later, he was a Denny’s regular.

During his interview in the restaurant, he even brought with him an old Danny’s Donuts menu, despite the fact that the waitress knew his order by heart.

Marinos’ other business ventures were Ted’s Coffee Shop on Harbor Boulevard and a coffee shop inside Mesa Lanes, a since-closed Westside bowling alley near present-day Michael’s and Trader Joe’s on West 17th Street.

“I was trying to get ahead in the world; that’s why we moved around a lot,” Marinos said in 2008.

He spent most of his business career at Young’s Pawn Shop. The shop closed in the 1980s and Marinos retired in 1983.

In addition to his activity with the Boy Scouts, Marinos volunteered his time with the Freedom Committee of Orange County and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3536, which once occupied a building on West 18th Street, across from Lions Park.

He also cooked for the Costa Mesa Senior Center.

“He would do anything that was asked of him,” Parent said. “He was one of those guys.”

Marinos’ wife, Jacqueline, died in 1990. In addition to Nancy, he is survived by his son John; daughters Lydia, Polly, Julia and Thalia; 10 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Public funeral services are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday at St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church, 4949 Alton Parkway, Irvine. In lieu of flowers, the Marinos family asked that donations be made to St. Paul’s.