ELLWOOD STEAK AND FISH HOUSE

A P A SSION FOR INNOV A T ION

By: D.M. Herra

Bill Hristakos fell into the restaurant business by accident and discovered his calling on the way.

Hristakos arrived in the U.S. from Greece in 1975. Like many of his countrymen, he said, his first work in America was in a restaurant.

“It’s tradition,” Hristakos said with a shrug. “Everybody, when they come here from Greece, works in restaurants. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but little by little, I grew to love it.”

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, Hristakos sat at a table in the window of The 1879 Lounge, the cocktail lounge attached to his DeKalb restaurant, the Ellwood Steak and Fish House. He paused to say hello to customers beginning lunch at high tables of dark wood, and to admire an elaborate bloody mary garnished with vegetables, shrimp and a miniature burger.

Hristakos worked in restaurants until 1984, then took a 17-year hiatus to operate a wine

and spirits store–the first liquor store to open in the city of Evanston, he said. In 2001, he went back to his roots, opening a restaurant in Long Grove.

After 13 years in Long Grove, Hristakos retired –or so he thought. But it turned out the restaurant industry wasn’t through with him.

“In 2014 I had just retired from the restaurant business when my friend told me there was an opportunity out here (in DeKalb),” Hristakos said. “I’ve been in cities all my life, so when I came out here, it was different. I wasn’t so sure at first, but then I said, ‘Let’s try it.’ It’s been five years, and so far, so good.”

Hristakos wanted to open a steakhouse –a high-end casual restaurant that borders on fine dining. The menu includes sandwiches and burgers but focuses on choice Black Angus steaks wet-aged 35 days. He wasn’t sure if there was a market for what he envisioned in a rural area like DeKalb.

“It looked like a fast-food town,” he admitted. “I wasn’t sure how successful this would be. It was hard when we started, but every business is hard to start. We found a place here and I’ve made a lot of friends. DeKalb is a beautiful town.”

Ellwood’s and 1879 are located at 2219 Sycamore Road, a neighborhood dominated by fast food, quick casual restaurants and big box stores. While that may have initially intimidated Hristakos, an upscale dining option was exactly what the neighborhood needed, according to Matt Duffy, the executive director of the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce.

“Having a fine dining option on

Sycamore Road is a huge thing,” Duffy said. “It’s nice to have that option in a busy central location.”

The Sycamore Road corridor is also home to the local hospital and a number of professional offices, and Duffy noted Ellwood’s has become a staple for the business lunch crowd.

During the week, Hristakos said, the restaurant’s small plates menu is popular. Larger than an appetizer but smaller than a full meal, the small plates offer diners a lighter lunchtime option.

Weekends, the owner said, are largely all about the steaks, though the menu offers a variety of other options. True to its name, the Ellwood Steak and Fish House also has fresh fish brought in twice a week.

The care taken with securing the best meats is extended to the rest of the

restaurant’s ingredients. Hristakos is particularly proud of the olive oil pressed from his own olives grown in Greece.

Hristakos inherited several olive farms from his parents, he said. Once a year, he travels to Greece to oversee the harvest and the pressing of the olives. The extra virgin olive oil is used at the restaurant and sold to the public at DeKalb and Sycamore’s summer farmer’s markets.

Hristakos is a hands-on owner, working regularly in the Ellwood kitchen. On his days off, you can find him creating new recipes from his kitchen in Des Plaines. He says he loves asking people what foods and flavors they like, always seeking inspiration for new combinations.

“This is my passion,” he explained. “I cook here, I cook at home, I cook

on my days off. I love cooking, and I love trying new things.”

Extensive as it may be, Hristakos’ experience can’t help his customers unless he can share it with them. To that end, he holds short staff meetings every night before the dinner service begins. Staff receive more extensive education in meetings every three months.

“In this business, you have to keep your employees up to date because they are the ambassador to the customer,” Hristakos said. “They don’t have to be connoisseurs, but they have to know the basics –the difference between prime and choice meats, how a chardonnay is different from a chenin blanc.”

While Hristakos’ years in the liquor business proved valuable in helping him develop the Ellwood wine list, he shrugs off well-known food pairing rules like red wine with beef and white wine with fish.

“There are people who act like if you drink white wine with a steak you’re going to die,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I say drink what you like. Maybe your palate wants white wine and you want to eat a steak.”

After all, he said, knowing when to break the rules is the secret to crafting new flavors.

“Sometimes the book will tell you not to do something, or the recipe will say only do it this way,” he said. “But you experiment. You think, the recipe doesn’t have garlic, but I think garlic would taste good in this. So, you try it and it’s even better. That is the beauty of creating new dishes; you can follow your palate and let that guide the way.”