Chicago is a town with a number of well-known families running exceptional restaurants. There are the Melmans of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises and the Mortons, a family that gave us concepts ranging from the Playboy Club and Morton’s Steakhouse, to the current Marshall’s Landing.
And then there are the Lombardos of Gibsons Restaurant Group.
Of the 14 restaurants operated by this Chicago-based family, seven restaurants are among the highest grossing in the country, according to this year’s Top 100 Independent restaurant list. Only one operator had more—Starr Restaurants, which had nine restaurants on the list.
It began in 1989. Steve Lombardo II opened a steakhouse with business partner Hugo Ralli in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood. Ralli was a classically trained chef who had been general manager of Tavern on the Green in New York City during its heyday in the late 1970s.
Co-founder Steve Lombardo II (lower left) and his children Steve Lombardo III (upper left), Michael Lombardo (upper right) and Liz Lombardo Stark. | Photo courtesy of Gibsons.
Lombardo had done some bars and restaurants, but not at the scale of this restaurant: a nearly 300-seat, high-end steakhouse, which was the first to serve its own designated spec of Angus Prime beef from Upper Midwest cattle that were slaughtered at a certain age after eating a certain type of grain for three months.
Here's Corporate Executive Chef Dan Huebschmann explaining the group's meat program.
“We think it tastes great and consumers seem to agree,” said Steve Lombardo III, the son of the founder and now CEO of Gibsons Restaurant Group, who is known as “Steve III”.
The first Gibsons wasn’t an immediate hit. When it opened, that part of downtown Chicago was “a bit bleak,” with only the well-established Morton’s nearby, the senior Lombardo said on a recent podcast, The Dining Table.
But the opening of Gibsons coincided with a resurgence of people moving back to downtown. And it didn’t hurt that the Chicago Bulls had a winning streak of six NBA championships. Michael Jordan and fellow teammates became regulars at the restaurant, added Steve III, and the crowds followed.
And, after 35 years, they keep coming. Ranking No. 8 on the Top 100 list this year, the original Gibson’s did nearly $30 million in sales in 2023. The concept launched a still-
growing restaurant group built around the seemingly simple ideas of great service, great hospitality and great food—and a commitment to give customers what they want.
“It doesn’t matter what business you’re in. If you give them what they want, they come back,” said Steve III.
Big thanks to Michael Jordan @Jumpman23 for snapping a pic w/ #TeamGibsons. #LunchWithALegend@chicagobulls#GoBullspic.twitter.com/5XqHEB3SSP
— Gibsons Steakhouse (@GibsonsSteak) August 20, 2015
Collaboration
Next came Hugo’s Frog Bar & Fish House, which opened in 1997, right next door to Gibsons Steakhouse on iconic Rush Street.
“It was a crime of opportunity,” said Steve III. The larger space became available when the now-defunct Hamburger Hamlet filed for bankruptcy, and the senior Lombardo took it over.
They didn’t know what they wanted to do with it, initially, so they called it Hugo’s—“Hugo Ralli hated the name,” said Steve III—and played with a bunch of menu ideas. Eventually they settled on a more seafood variation on Gibsons. But while the steakhouse is about 70% meat and 30% fish, Hugo’s flipped that ratio to sell 70% seafood and 30% meat.
Because it sells less steak, Hugo’s has a slightly lower check average, but it’s a larger restaurant. Hugo’s ranks No. 66 on the list this year, boasting more than $14 million in sales with nearly 400 seats.
Two years after opening Hugo’s, the Lombardo family agreed to a collaboration with Ralph Lauren to manage a restaurant called RL in Chicago. (The Gibsons group also later managed the Polo Club in New York City in partnership with Ralph Lauren, though that ended during the pandemic, Steve III said.)
Hugo's Frog Bar was a "crime of opportunity" when the space next to Gibsons became available. | Photo courtesy of Hugo's Frog Bar.
For the Gibsons group, a period of steady growth followed.
In 1999 came Gibsons in Rosemont, Illinois, a 410-seat restaurant that is No. 31 on the list, which did nearly $23 million in sales last year. A second Hugo’s opened in nearby Naperville, Illinois, in 2003.
In 2004, a “quintessential American bar” called Lux Bar launched, which Steve III predicts will be a contender soon for Top 100.
In 2005, Quartino Ristorante, the group’s largest restaurant at that point with 528 seats, leaned into more-casual Italian dining with $14.7 million in sales last year, despite an average check of about $34.76—far lower than the more than $90 average for other concepts in the group.
It ranks No. 61 on the Top 100 this year. Quartino, however, was the only of Gibsons’ restaurants to decline in sales from $14.9 million in 2022. Steve III blames problems with lack of staffing.
Another Gibsons Steakhouse opened in Oak Brook, Illinois, in 2010. It’s a monster of a restaurant, with 710 seats. That location is No. 20 on the ranking with $24.6 million in sales last year.
Then, in 2015 came another collaboration that has been hard to top: Gibsons Restaurant Group partnered with famed restaurateur Steven Schussler—creator of The Rainforest Café and the brains behind some of the flashiest restaurants in the country—to open The Boathouse at Disney Springs in Orlando. It’s a 23,000-square-foot, 1940s-era boathouse with amphibious vehicles, water-themed merchandise and wooden boats called “floating works of art.”
The Boathouse in Orlando, Florida, is a collaboration with famed restaurateur Steve Schussler. | Photo: Shutterstock
Food-and-beverage sales of $45.5 million last year put The Boathouse at No. 3 on the Top 100 list. If merchandise sales were added, it would be another $6 million, Steve III said.
“Disney has been a great landlord, and Steve a great partner,” he said. “We’re hoping to do more with him at Disney.”
River North
The next big launch came in 2017 with Gibsons Italia, which Steve III says has really taken off. At No. 7 on the Top 100, the somewhat higher-end modern steakhouse with an Italian accent recorded $31.4 million in sales last year with 387 seats.
It’s a stunning restaurant with one of the best views of the river in downtown Chicago. The location led to another collaboration, this time with the acclaimed chef and restaurateur José Andrés. Blocks from Gibsons Italia, the Lombardos worked with Andrés to open locations of the Spanish chef’s Bazaar Meat by José Andrés and Bar Mar.
It was another situation where there was a great deal for a great location available, said Steve III.
“We reached out to [Andrés] and we spent a good year or more getting to know each other to make sure our cultures [worked together]. They’re not the same, and they never will be the same, but there was enough overlap that we see and view the customer and the culinary experience very similarly,” he said, noting that the two restaurants together did about $17 million in sales last year. “It’s been a great relationship.”
Now the Gibsons group is looking more outside Chicago. A location of Quartino opened in Dallas about 18 months ago, for example. And Steve III said the group is looking where people are moving, in places like Florida, Texas, Arizona and Nashville.
Gibson's Italia on the river in downtown Chicago is said to have one of the best views in the city. | Photo courtesy of Gibsons.
But that doesn’t mean Gibsons restaurants are giving up on Chicago.
The next launch is slated for Fulton Market, a restaurant and bar hot spot in Chicago. Steve III said the group is planning two concepts—one more casual, like a tavern, and the other a luxurious supper club, along the lines of the Grill Room in New York City.
Those are projected to open the second quarter of 2026, he said.
Preparing for the future
What comes after that remains to be seen. Fundamentally, the big thing, said Steve III, is finding the right deal.
“Some landlords really don’t understand restaurant economics and the rents they want to charge don’t make sense,” he said. “Maybe it makes sense if you’re charging customers $150 to $180 per head.”
Steve II, the group’s founder, meanwhile, is on a slow “10-year” retirement plan, though he’s still deeply involved in the day to day. He prefers to take more of a creative role of designing the group’s restaurants and menus.
“He could have been an architect in another life,” said his son.
Ralli has fully retired. Steve III took the CEO chair about a decade ago after working as an attorney and entrepreneur earlier in his life. His brother Michael Lombardo is chief strategy officer for the group, having worked essentially all positions, except chef.
Sisters Liz Lombardo Stark (director of marketing and public relations) and Christa Vrabel (director of digital experience) lead the marketing team. And there are 10 grandchildren as a potential third generation to take over, though all are too young to know whether there’s interest at this point.
Whatever happens, Steve III said he and his siblings agree that the next generation should work in other industries first, and then decide if they want to come back to the family business.
Steve III proudly noted that the Lombardos have built the family empire slowly and organically.
“We’ve not raised $100 million from some private-equity fund to go open 30 restaurants in two years, or something like that,” he said. “To do it right, it takes some time.”