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The Red and Black • Thursday, May 24, 1990 • 3
The Grill’s Sgarlato has done it all
Restaurant man is a jack of all trades
By BILL DAVIS
Contributing Writer
Steve Sgarlato has been a col
lege student, a lobster fisherman, a
racehorse owner, and, at 41 years
of age, still doesn’t know what he
wants to do with his life.
He is the present owner of the
popular downtown restaurant, The
Grill, where he started working as
a waiter in 1981 before he bought it
in 1983. What people might find
surprising is that he is a strict veg
etarian.
Sgarlato was born in Jackson
Heights, Queens, N.Y., in 1939. At
2 1/2 years old, he moved with his
family to Huntington, Long Island,
N.Y., where he lived off and on for
the next 27 years. Huntington was
his home until he settled in
Athens.
It was during his Huntington
years that he fell in love with res
taurants as a 15-year-old busboy.
“I kind of liked the action, the
excitement of getting so busy that
you get buried and you have to
work real hard to get out of it.”
His love for excitement is evi
dent in his decision for originally
coming to Athens."It was a very
well thought-out decision." It came
about when he was sitting in a
Huntington bar in July 1967 and
saw a high school chum.
“I had been to school in Europe
for a year and he said that he had
been going to school in Georgia,
and I said that was interesting,
and he said would I like to come
and I said sure." He applied, was
accepted to the University, and en
rolled that fall.
Sgarlato graduated in 1972 and
spent six years in New York. He re
turned to Athens in 1978 when his
"options had run out." It was
during this six-year hiatus that he
owned the racehorse, a trotter
named Newport Laddie, and sub
sequently lost $15,000 on the horse
in one year.
In 1981 he was working as a
waiter at Rous bo’s — what’s now
Gyro Wrap on Broad Street. He
bought The Grill from Bob Rousso,
a local businessman who was in
strumental in restaurant devel
opment in Athens. Rousso not only
started The Grill and Gyro Wrap,
but also Rocky's Pizzeria — origi
nally Chow Goldstein’s Kosher
Chinese-American Delicatessen.
Last year, Sgarlato moved The
Grill to its present location on the
square. He said the original site
was too small. In moving the res
taurant, he and local businessman
A.J. Curtis bought the rest of the
building that The Grill is housed
in. Despite the high costs of remod
eling and the failed restaurant,
Schlotzkys, which he acquired
when they bought the building,
Sgarlato is optimistic it will be a
profitable move in the long run.
He offers this advice to others in
terested in following his footsteps
as an entrepeneur: "Don’t go into
any business under-financed. If
you believe that you can cheat and
cut corners because you don’t have
enough money; you are dooming
yourself for a lot of heartache.”
Sgarlato said that he puts in
about 60 hours in five to six days.
He has found that the most diffi
cult problem faced by restaurant
managers is dealing with staff.
The turnover rate is surprisingly
low, but it’s hard to fill some of the
less glamourous jobs, like busing
tables and washing dishes.
Lisa Rivera works as a waitress
and sometimes buses tables at The
Grill. She said busing tables, "is
like working in hell."
Sgarlato said he believes his
ability to retain a seasoned wait
and kitchen staff is contingent on
higher pay and a flexible sched
uling process.
Michael Carver, a cook, said
"Steve is the best boss I have ever
had. I would work for him any
where, anytime.”
When asked how The Grills’
prices compare with other fast food
establishments, Sgarlato said,
“Higher for sure, but, for a dollar
more than McDonalds you are get
ting more food and better quality."
He said that on any given Friday
from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m., between
300 and 400 customers are served.
Saturdays are the biggest days due
to the continual flow of customers.
During football weekends, about
500 will be served before each
home game.
Of the items on the menu, he
said the Swiss Burger is by far the
best seller. The other big seller is
the milkshake. "We sell more ice
cream than Kroger. We use the
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Sgarlato insists everything
served at The Grill be as fresh as
possible due to his dislike of "proc
essed to death foods." The fries are
cut several times a day, the cole
slaw is made fresh every morning,
and the beef is ground daily.
His insistence on fresh ground
beef is in contrast with his per
sonal strict vegetarian stance.
"I am not putting people down
who eat meat. I feel that it is a per
sonal decision." It began in his
teens when a friends mother
served him cow tongue.
"I ate a piece and it tasted good,
and then I realized that I was
eating an animal’s tongue and that
bothered me for a long time after
that."
He eats mostly legumes, dif
ferent kinds of beans and what he
calls "whole foods”.
Today, he claims his only re
maining vice is drinking coffee.
Even then, he uses soy milk and
raw, unprocessed sugar.
Regardless of the strains and
hectic lifestyle of being a restaura
teur, Sgarlato has been able to re
tain the spirit that first brought
him to Athens.
"I am 41 now, and I still don’t
know what I want to do yet. Every
thing is temporary. Everything."
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