MANAYUNK

Originally Published in Manayunk.com Magazine

By Caitlin Maloney

If one thing is for sure, Greg Gillin, owner of Greg’s Kitchen, has always loved food. He learned about food at a young age, always being the taste tester as his mother and grandmother cooked. “My mom is a great cook and her mom is a great cook and Sunday dinners were very important to us,” he says.

Greg worked at a deli for over a decade throughout high school and college as a short order cook and always wanted to open a brunch spot of his own. Ideally, he dreamed of opening a place at the beach, but after a friend of his spotted the space at 4460 Main Street, Greg was hooked and opened his doors in Manayunk on December 16^th, 2013. “When I first got in here, I saw the space and how I would lay it out,” he says. “It’s great to look around now and see that this is exactly how I pictured it.”

Opening in the winter allowed Greg to slowly ramp up his business and word began to spread.  “Once the spring hit it was crazy, there were lines out the door,” he says. “It has exceeded my expectations which makes me proud.”

Originally Greg was going to call his restaurant Yolanda’s to pay homage to his grandmother who has inspired his cooking, but after getting advice from friends (who told him the name sounded more like a soul food place) Greg decided to keep it simple. “A conversation was brought up that this is my place, not my grandmothers, it’s my kitchen, so I thought why don’t I just call it Greg’s Kitchen,” he says.

As for the name, it may be simple but it implies exactly what he wants. Walk into Greg’s and you feel like you are walking into his home, right into his kitchen. “I had a girl just sit here drinking coffee and doing work all day and she said ‘it felt like I just walked into your house and you’re cooking for me,’” Greg says. “That’s what we’re going for; we want to make people feel comfortable.”

When it comes to the menu, Greg likes to make classic items that he grew up eating like creamed chipped beef. Though he often uses his mother’s recipes as the base, he regularly puts his own spin on dishes to make them his own. For his specials, Greg finds inspiration while going to brunch around the area. “Nobody’s recipe is really their own,” he says. “You eat things you like and then you take items from different dishes and combine them to make it your own.”

His favorite item on the menu, the pork sandwich, is definitely a labor of love. It takes hours to marinate and cook in the oven, it’s an all day thing Greg explains. His favorite dish to make is an easy choice, it’s the corned beef hash. Most people are use to eating it out of a can, but Greg makes his version completely from scratch. “Making it from scratch makes all the difference in the world,” Greg says. “That’s an item I won’t skimp on; it’s got to be from scratch.” And his customers are noticing; there are over 10 reviews on Yelp alone mentioning the corned beef hash.

While most menu items are homemade, Greg admits that some items are store bought. Though you may gasp, he has an explanation. “You realize what your strengths are and it’s not just that it’s easier to buy certain items, it’s sucking it up and realizing that you can’t make it as good and maybe it’s not your thing,” he says. “So let someone else make it, that’s what they do best.”

His shining stars of the menu though are his tater tots. You can’t go into Greg’s Kitchen and leave without getting the tots and Greg’ confesses they aren’t on the list of homemade items. “How long would it take to make a bag of tater tots, that would be terrible, I would have to have clones,” Greg says. “As long as people like them and they come out good, that’s all I care about.”

Finding the perfect tot was hard work. Greg tested five or six different kinds before settling on his token tots. And when his go to brand was out of stock and he had to change it up one day, Greg says people actually noticed. “I guess they take their tots seriously… I mean I take them seriously,” Greg says. “It’s something so simple, but it’s a comfort food and reminds you of being a kid.”

Though most of his business is through word of mouth, Greg’s Kitchen has also been gaining a reputation on Yelp, currently they boast four stars. The positive reviews are all about the food; the negative reviews, they always come down to one thing: slow service. Ninety Nine percent of people say the food is worth the wait, Greg says. “Just know that if you come on Saturday or Sunday you’re going to wait a little while,” he says. “Just be patient and relax because the food will be good so eat it and be happy.”

The wait all factors down to one thing, Greg is a one man show with one small griddle. Though his mom often helps with prep, it’s just Greg cooking and until he gets another griddle or expands, that’s how it is he says. “Every piece of food that goes into someone’s mouth I’ve touched,” he says. “When 20 people come in all at once, I’m feeding 20 people.”

For Greg, this allows him to enjoy not just a level of control, but also a level of personal satisfaction. “When they come in to Greg’s Kitchen and they sit down at a table I want to make them feel welcome in my home and give them the level of care that I want to in each dish,” he says.

Greg understands that the wait isn’t always for everyone because sometimes you have the time for it and sometimes you don’t. But to him, the wait is all part of what makes brunch so great. “If you go out on the weekend for brunch you are usually going to sit somewhere and you are suppose to relax and enjoy your food,” Greg says. “If you are sitting here with your boyfriend and you run out of things to talk about in the time you get your food, than you should probably rethink your relationship.”

Now that Greg has completed a full year in business he is most proud of the reputation he has built so far. “It’s only been a year and I’m anxious to see what I’m able to do now that I have a rhythm,” Greg says. He’s hoping to add on catering and maybe branch out to another location or open a food truck in a couple of years. But for now, it’s making sure this location stays above water. “That’s more important than making tons of money and having a lot of locations that have only three stars on Yelp,” he says. “This is the one I have right now so it has to be awesome and if I open another one it has to be just as awesome.”

And when he has a free moment to sit back and relax and look around, he is happy to see what he has created, even if it’s just a little corner spot in Manayunk. “Going from not liking my job to having the opportunity to basically fulfill my dream, this is it, this is always what I’ve wanted to do,” Greg says.