OPERATIONS
C hicago is a town with a number of well-known families running exceptional restaurants. There are the Melmans of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises and the Mortons, a family that gave us concepts ranging from the Playboy Club and Morton’s Steakhouse, to the current Marshall’s Landing. And then there are the Lombardos of Gibsons Restaurant Group. Of the 14 restaurants operated by this Chicago-based family, seven restaurants are among the highest gross- ing in the country, according to this year’s Top 100 Independent restaurant list. Only one operator had more—Starr Restaurants, which had nine restaurants on the list. It began in 1989. Steve Lombardo II opened a steakhouse with business partner Hugo Ralli in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood. Ralli was a classically trained chef who had been general manager of Tavern on the Green in New York City during its heyday in the late 1970s. Lombardo had done some bars and restaurants, but not at the scale of this restaurant: a nearly 300-seat, high-end steakhouse, which was the first to serve its own designated spec of Angus Prime beef from Upper Midwest cattle that were slaughtered at a certain age after eating a certain type of grain for three months. Here's Corporate Executive Chef Dan Huebschmann explaining the group's meat program. THE LOMBARDOS OF GIBSONS RESTAURANT GROUP ARE READY TO TAKE THEIR HIGH-END STEAKHOUSE MAGIC (AND MORE) TO REGIONS OUTSIDE THE MIDWEST. BY LISA JENNINGS MEET THE CHICAGO FAMILY BEHIND 7 OF AMERICA'S TOP-GROSSING INDEPENDENT RESTAURANTS
47
JANUARY 2025 RESTAURANT BUSINESS
PHOTO COURTESY: GIBSONS RESTAURANT GROUP
Powered by FlippingBook