‘The right balance’: The Greggory brings live-fire cooking, emphasis on hospitality to South Barrington

The three partners behind The Greggory say their goal for the new eatery is to become “an institution” in South Barrington.

The Hearth Hospitality Group restaurant, which opened in March in the Arboretum of South Barrington, is led by seasoned restaurateurs Gregg Horan, Bill Veremis and Executive Chef José Sosa, whose collective backgrounds include years spent with the Gibsons Restaurant Group, Rosewood Steakhouse, RL, Polo Bar New York and more.

“We want it to be the neighborhood spot and, in the long run, you want it to be an institution,” Veremis said. “A place where customers are perfectly comfortable coming in on a Monday, Tuesday night, sit at the bar, have a great cheeseburger, but still have that great ambience and great service. Or come on a weekend and use it for a special occasion.”

The 10,000-square-foot, stand-alone building, located near The Hampton Social, is centered around live-fire cooking in an open-show kitchen and has offerings that range from elevated bar food, such as Wagyu pigs in a blanket and corned beef bites, to unique appetizers like a charred seafood tower and Wagyu beef tartare and bone marrow, to myriad steaks, fish and handmade pastas.

It’s American classics with influences from throughout the Mediterranean.

“We think we’ve struck the right balance here between more approachable items at an approachable price point to … the best of steaks and seafood that you can really get anywhere in the country, let alone suburbs,” Veremis said.

Sosa said everything on the menu centers around the live-fire cooking.

“It’s not just the show, it’s the flavor,” he said. “It’s day and night from gas to open fire. It’s amazing with the seafood.”

The refined space, which features multiple dining areas, a dedicated bar space with a custom-designed S-shaped counter, an expansive wine room and private dining, has come a long way from where they started a couple of years ago, when it was “four walls, a roof and a gravel floor,” Veremis said.

The building was originally built to be a Rascal Flatts-themed restaurant and country music venue, but that fell through and the shell of the building sat empty during the COVID pandemic.

Veremis said it’s about 30% bigger than they would have preferred, but they spent a lot of time developing the layout so as not to be a “cavernous” dining room while still being cohesive.

“We’ve got sight lines that go from one room into another, and everyone can kind of see the hearth, and the hearth is the heart of the restaurant,” he said. “It allows some of the energy from the bar to flow back and forth between the dining room so it’s not completely separated.”

The three men formed Hearth Hospitality Group about two years ago, but the partnership was more than 25 years in the making.

Sosa started as a dishwasher at Rosewood Restaurant in Rosemont, which was owned by Veremis and his family. He worked his way up the kitchen ladder for about four years before moving on, later working with Horan at the Gibsons group.

Veremis and Horan had known each other for years and became friends when Gibsons opened a restaurant in Rosemont near Rosewood. They had conversations over the years about teaming up.

“The thought of working together was always appealing to us,” Veremis said.

Before they even formed their restaurant group, Horan and Veremis talked about how they felt the attention to service and hospitality in the restaurant industry had really suffered post-pandemic.

“Hospitality is one of our core values and is something that we talked about on a nonstop basis at the Gibsons Restaurant Group, and something that Bill and I feel equally passionate about,” Horan said. “We really saw that commitment to service and hospitality and taking care of customers kind of went by the wayside, and we were determined to bring it back.”

Horan said each of the three bring something unique to the partnership.

“José has just been an unbelievable driving force in creating the menu. Bill has been amazing with design, and he and his wife and sister-in-law are really responsible for how beautiful the restaurant turned out,” he said. “I'm more the nuts and bolts guy, the operations guy. This is a great project that suited all of our talents.”

Now that they’ve settled in after a frenetic first few months, The Greggory is holding its first chef collaboration and wine dinner Wednesday, May 21.

Sosa and chef Marcos Campos, executive chef at multiple popular Chicago restaurants, including the Michelin Bib Gourmand-designated eatery Mama Delia, will team up for “Hot, Hot, Heat! A Live Fire Spanish Wine Dinner” combining Sosa’s Mexican roots with the Spanish heritage of Campos.

They recently collaborated on a fundraiser dinner to benefit those affected by last year’s flooding in Valencia, Spain.

“We’ve been friends for a while and he’s a great chef, so I knew when we were ready, our first dinner like this had to be with him,” Sosa said.

The five-course dinner and wine pairing will start with a welcome glass of wine and passed pinchos, followed by four savory courses that will include a poached lobster tostada, paella, a flame-grilled Australian Wagyu steak and more. A Campari-inspired dessert will end the evening.

Reservations for the $200 per person dinner can be made on OpenTable.