The new kids on the block

Want to start your own restaurant? Jeff Greaves and Michael Fabricant did just that with Il Covo in Bucktown, and they even lived to tell about it

By Brenna Ehrlich

They say that when one door closes, another door opens.

Well, when the doors of Bucktown’s Italian eatery Babaluci closed, Jeff Greaves ripped out the old door frames and inserted sleek new ones, which will be opening in a few weeks to admit customers to a new meeting/eating place, Il Covo.

Greaves, who makes his living in the world of engineering, is a big fan of restaurants; he eats out nearly every day of the week. After seven years in the engineering biz, Greaves decided that he wanted a challenge, and what better career for a die-hard diner than restauranteur?

To aid him in this endeavor, Jeff enlisted the help of general manager Michael Fabricant, a childhood friend of the family. Fabricant, a Johnson and Wales graduate, has worked his way up from dishwasher and busboy to his current dream position. The two were a perfect compliment to each other; as Greaves says, “The key is find the right people, and then, after that, you have to manage your cash flow, and that’s what I can do.

“We’re friends because we’re business partners,” Fabricant adds. “We know our strengths.”

Overall, Greaves and Fabricant subsist on a blend of passion and determination which has kept them going throughout the whole grueling process of constructing Il Covo’s doors.

A month ago, Il Covo was a shell of its present incarnation. Saws droned within its skeletal interior, boxes filled with furniture were littered across the floor of the lounge and Greaves was calling the tiling company frantically, trying to locate his order that had gone M.I.A. At that point, the restaurant was due to open on June 8, a date which has since been pushed back to due to unforeseen circumstances. But according to Greaves and Fabricant, the whole process of opening a restaurant is riddled with “unforeseen circumstances.”

The two launched the project a little over a year ago. Fortunately for them, a prime piece of real estate had just opened up. Unfortunately for them, the building required a substantial amount of renovation. Greaves decided to completely overhaul the place, installing a new kitchen, new fixtures, new everything. Most fledgling business owners are content to work with what they’ve got once they sign the lease, but not Greaves. He had a definite idea of his restaurant in mind.

“We want to get a really warm feel, exposed brick, cove lighting that washes down the wall,” he says. “We have a brick pizza oven that’ll be on display. You’ll be able to see into the kitchen; it’s all brand new. The upstairs will be more funky, still warm colors, but darker.”

Still, getting from point “A” to point “fini” has been anything but easy.

Greaves and Fabricant served the plans for Il Covo to their architectural firm in March of 2005, and two months later their blueprints were ready. Although they submitted their plans to the city in June, it wasn’t until January of ’06 that they got their building permit. Right away, the duo realized that this process was going to be harder to digest than a heavy Italian meal.

At that time, progress in the Chicago Building Department had slowed to an escargot’s pace due to past indiscretions. All plans were being looked at in greater detail than before. As it was, Greaves had to meet with inspectors from all areas of construction.

“There’s about 16 disciplines you have to get through,” he says. “If you meet with the guy and he doesn’t like just one thing in your drawing, he’ll just say, ‘Fix this.’ Sometimes you’ll get a nice guy and they’ll let you make changes on the fly, and sometimes you’ll get somebody who’s just had a bad day.

“I had to go over some people’s heads. I went to the city alderman, and he put me in touch with some of the right people. Some people are sympathetic to you trying to open a business. We’re going to generate a lot of money for the city, (so) it shouldn’t be this difficult.”

Greaves advises anyone who plans to open their own restaurant to start with their worst-case scenario and then add 10 percent. Fabricant bumps this estimate to 20. As always, it ends up being matters out of the individual’s control that puts the kibosh on progress, and Fabricant and Greaves had to put up with a lot of kibosh.

Still, there were some upshots to being forced to stop and smell the proverbial roses. When their first chef quit due to the time delay, Greaves and Fabricant hired chef Luka Lukic, the former Sous chef at Evanston’s Trio Atelier, which recently said ciao to E-Town for good. Greaves and Fabricant are thrilled with their choice.

Lukic, who comes from the school of “cook what you know,” plans to infuse Italian dishes with his own Australian flair, and with local Illinois ingredients. As Fabricant says, “Our chef is Australian, so we’ve encouraged him, as all good chefs know, and all good Italians know, to cook with what you know. You cook with what is local, with what is fresh, and him being Australian, we wanted him to put something in a little outside the box, something that we can educate the guests with, which sets us a little apart from what everyone else is doing.”

So while most Bucktown watering holes are serving up tiny tapas and the oh so passé sushi, Il Covo will afford diners a continental trip from Italia to the land down under.

After acquiring the most important staffer, the chef, it came time to hire the rest of the restaurant crew. Fabricant, who was in charge of hiring, was on the lookout for a staff with initiative and passion.

“We want to get back to how food should have been served,” Fabricant says. “How it always was served. You’re going to spend two, two-and-half hours with us, enjoy your time.”

Greaves adds, “One bad experience tells 10, while one good one tells three.”

Fabricant’s interview questions for potential staff members ran the gambit from “What’s your training background?” to “If you could do anything as a job, what would it be?”

Applicants were also expected to have a head for wines, as Il Covo will cater to selective sommeliers as well as the usual pinot grigio and merlot swillers. After sifting through multiple applicants — including one who claimed that her physical attractiveness made her a great asset to the restaurant and another who dropped the infamous “F bomb” mere minutes after sitting down — Fabricant found his crew.

Now that the building had been made over, the chef hired, the staff selected, the interior decorated and their fingernails metaphorically bitten down to the quick, it became time for the duo to “hurry up and wait.”

Inspectors pass in and out of Il Covo’s doors (sometimes on time, sometimes days late), and Fabricant and Greaves wait for the “OK” to get down to living their dream. Greaves is already talking about opening more restaurants, but when asked if he’s glad that he’s put this much work into the new Italian eatery he laughingly replies, “Ask me again after the doors open!”

Il Covo sits in wait on Bucktown’s Damen drag. The rich red wood on the outer facade is polished, the sleek, modern furniture is neatly arranged on the main floor, the brick oven is ready to fire up, the mirrored bar is itching to be stocked, the funky lounge furniture upstairs is primed for late-night cocktail dresses, and the plate glass doors are ready and waiting to be opened.

Il Covo is slated to open to the public on July 18. It is located at 2152 N. Damen. Call (773) 862-5555 or log on to www.ilcovochicago.com for more information.

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