Maria Pasta

Maria Pasta is a small Ligurian restaurant in the heart of South Pole City. Managed by Maria Denise, this small eatery is immensely popular and praised for his quality food and wide selection. By far, though, the most popular dish is their spaghetti alla pinguinne. Since Maria is a minor, power of attorney is provided by Hermeshroom on her behalf. He really just rubberstamps whatever Maria wishes to do, as "the rules" so command him to do.

It is because of Maria Pasta that Maria maintains relations with TurtleShroom's Family, who have been seeking to aquire the company from Maria since it became popular.

Background
Maria always adored eating. Normally, she is a lazy penguin, but in certain areas, she can take initiative and apply herself, excelling in whatever it is she chose to do. Maria only performs mediocre in school because she hates it; in reality, she is actually a brilliant penguin with a pretty good knack for running a business.

Maria decided to apply her rare work ethic to start a restaurant. She had always wanted to sell her recipes for Ligurian cooking, which she and her family always took pride in, so she called up TurtleShroom for a favor. Havign worked in Jones-owned companies in the past, she hoped that TS, or one of his relatives, would help her through the paper work and around the fact that she was "too young" to own a company.

TS, being a penguin that loved to see young entrepeneurs, agreed to see if there was some way to do it. In the end, he managed to convince his brother, Hermeshroom, to act as Maria's POA, signing items in her name and avoiding the "too young" bar that kept her from running the business.

It proved to be a very worthwhile investment. Maria Pizza, with the startup costs covered by TurtleShroom's family, paid itself back in a mere six months after it opened.

Involvement
Today, Maria's Pasta is one of the most popular restaurants in the South Pole City area, at least in its genre. It trails behind Pizza Seven, though.

Maria usually delegates the operations of the restaurant to the manager, simply called "Joe" by her and the Maria Pasta staff. She hopes to assume full ownership of her company when she comes of age.

TurtleShroom and family have been attempting to get Maria to sell the restaurant to them ever since it paid their inititial investment back. Maria constantly refuses, and Hermeshroom is both too rule-obbsessed and too pure to abuse his POA abilities to sign over the company. It seems that Maria's Pasta will remain Maria's Pasta for many years to come.

Trivia

 * This is a parody of Mona's Pizza, a restaurant from the Wario-Ware series of video games.
 * Veranda enjoys eating here almost as much as she does eating at the Pizza Parlor.
 * Despite its success, it still trails behind Pizza Seven and can not even dream of matching the Pizza Parlor.
 * The company has a jingle that is so catchy that it was prohibited from being played by the municipal government. Once heard, it's never forgotton.