A building that once housed a movie theater now is home to what probably is Marco’s first merger of two restaurants. The building facing Elkcam Circle next to the Post Office now is Vandy’s Five Brothers Pizza.

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John and Huguette Nachef opened their part of the integrated operation — food service including Five Brothers Pizza — on Dec. 28. They had to leave their venue at Marco Walk because the center’s owner declined to renew their lease. So how’s it going now?

“I’m like walking on water,” John says with a grin as big as the restaurant’s oversized kitchen and huge rectangular bar.

“I’m thrilled to be working with the Vanderjagt family. The first day we had our hiccups, our bumps getting organized, but everything came together.

“Have you seen the TV show ‘Hell’s Kitchen? That’s what it was kind of like on opening night (Dec. 28) We were going wild, but got it together fast.

“We had a packed house, probably more than 200 people at one time and a waiting list to get in. People understood the occasional confusion,

John and Huguette moved Five Brothers Pizza to the new location in one day, the day after Christmas, including the pizza ovens and other heavy equipment.

“Some problems didn’t seem funny at the time but we can look back and laugh now,” John says.

“For example, the electrician crossed the wires hooking up the (pizza) dough mixer. The spindle was running in reverse. When Huguette went to make the dough and we heard a scream in the kitchen. The dough was crawling out of the bucket rather than spinning properly. But it got fixed.

“The stack pipe for the gas oven didn’t show up so the gas company wouldn’t let us turn on the gas until the pipe was installed. Then we were sent the wrong size pipe and had to go to Sarasota to get the right one. It was touch and go but we made it.

“Then the phone guy had trouble wiring the new phones. He spent all day and when he finished, the phones started ringing with people making pizza orders and reservations. Wow.”

The new VFBP (can we call it that for short?) has the best of the two venues’ menus, plus some new selections, in the “Italian Room” and in the main bar and booth area.

The full menu and of course pizza, in-house and via deliveries, are available until midnight.

As I mentioned, the building began as a movie theater, before Marco Movies opened its multi-screen movie-and-real-food concept at Marco Walk in 1993.

Then it was the Prawnbroker for several years, followed by several other restaurants including Jake’s, The Anchor and Bub’s. The Vanderjagt family, John and Susan and their sons Michael and Lee, acquired the place from Bub’s about two and a half years ago.

As Bub’s and Vandy’s, it’s been a popular sports bar with food. Now it’s a popular sports bar plus a restaurant with a doubly well-established name, not only for pizza and other Italian dishes, but also for Lebanese food that Huguette prepares every Thursday.

“Also, we have no parking problem here,” says John Nachef. “We had six or so customers the first night who came in and said they’d gone to the old location at Marco Walk but couldn’t find a parking place so they came to Vandy’s not even knowing we were here. They were stunned.”

John says his temporary unhappiness about leaving Marco Walk evaporated quickly.

“Now that we realize what we have here, it’s even better than we thought.”

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Chris’s email: chris@chriscurle.com.