The Levee House, built in 1826, is the only remaining original riverfront structure in Marietta.

The Levee House at 127 Ohio St. was built for Dudley Woodbridge, who sold dry goods and was the first merchant of the new Northwest Territory in town.

Due to its success, he moved his business to a larger building and turned his store into a hotel.

At one point it was known as La Belle Hotel and later as the Golden Eagle. A one-story addition was added to the hotel to create a saloon in 1911. The building has also served as a liquor store, an auto repair shop, the final assembly location for Studebaker automobiles and apartments.

In 1977, Harley Noland, the current owner, bought the property from Jack Gammon, Roy Snediker and Jim Mitchell.

Noland opened the Levee House Cafe in 1980 on the main floor of the Levee House to serve the people of the Mid-Ohio Valley.

In 2010, David Hearing, a local chef, and his wife, Kimberly, took over the restaurant and made a few renovations. The Hearings changed the menu to traditional American cuisine and opened the Levee House. The Hearings closed the restaurant in 2017.

After the restaurant sat vacant for a few years, Tom Hickey and his wife, Casey, decided to lease the main floor and open the Levee House Bistro in February 2019. Hickey is a chef from Boston, Mass., and his wife is an accountant from Marietta.

“I was a chef at The Buckley House and my wife one day said to me, ‘Why don’t we just do this for ourselves?,’ because I was working harder than the guy who owned it at the time,” he said.

Hickey said they changed the concept of the menu, increased the quality of the food, renovated the outside with comfortable seating and outfitted the kitchen with new equipment. He said the kitchen was just a shell when they first started.

The couple didn’t think opening a restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic was the best idea, but figured they would be more successful working together. Hickey said in the beginning, the wait for their liquor license hurt the business, as well as the increase in food prices, which were both effects of the pandemic.

Hickey said the restaurant is now flourishing and receives a multitude of new and returning customers. He said they serve several seafood dishes including scallop risotto, lobster ravioli and crab cakes, as well as steaks and bone-in pork chops for those who aren’t a fan of sea food.

“This restaurant is the one and only restaurant that sits in front of the water, I’m a seafood chef, it was a perfect marriage,” he said.

Levee House Bistro is open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

The restaurant opens for dinner from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday through Thursday and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturdays.

Over the summer dinner ends an hour later due to daylight savings. The restaurant is also open every second Sunday of the month for brunch, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“It’s like family here, most of the people that are here have been here for two years,” said Hickey. “We work as one team and we just move forward.”