Why Chicago Cookshop had no hootch

That scuttlebutt about how the new Chicago Cookshop at 384 McNabb lost its liquor licence? Nothing to it, says Aaron Gridzak, co-owner of the Sault’s newest steakhouse.

That scuttlebutt about how the new Chicago Cookshop at 384 McNabb lost its liquor licence?

Nothing to it, says Aaron Gridzak, co-owner of the Sault’s newest steakhouse.

“I’ve heard all kinds of rumours about how we lost our licence,” Gridzak told SooToday.com last night.

“There was no after-hours party. There was no underage drinking. We just made a couple of mistakes on the paperwork and by the time it got back to Toronto, it took a few days. But we’re all good to go now,” he said.

Owned by Gridzak and John Perri from The Harp Bar and Grill, Chicago Cookshop opened its doors a week ago.

But by Tuesday, in an action befitting the eatery’s Al Capone prohibition theme, its liquor licence had been pulled.

“We just forgot to cross the t’s and dot the i’s on our form,” Gridzak said.

By last night, prohibition had been repealed, hootch was again flowing freely and Gridzak and Perri were beaming over a capacity crowd of happy customers.

Gridzak is well known to local diners from his days at Dock’s Riverfront Grill, followed by a couple of years at Algoma’s Water Tower Inn, where he managed Casey’s and the Water Tower Pub.

“Everything that’s on the menu is homemade,” he said about his new venture.

“Nothing comes in frozen. The bread’s homemade. The salad dressing is homemade. The noodles are homemade. So our wait times for food are a little longer because of that. But it’s well worth the wait, I promise you.”

Few renovations were needed to Ben Pino’s building: a little paint here and there, new lighting and lots of old photographs of Al Capone.

The place seats 250.

Gridzak is planning to redo the floors, reupholster the chairs and, in the new year, convert a downstairs storage area into an 80-seat banquet room.

The former takeout area will also be transformed into a private dining room.

“Ben Pino came to see me. I had this concept in my head for six or seven years,” says co-owner Perri.

“It’s a great building. It’s sad that no one could make it go. I know that Mr. Pino spent a lot of money in here. He took a chance on me. He spent a lot of money addressing things for me. I told him, I’m not coming in here to lose.” Perri said.

“He had faith in me that I could do it. I hope I can prove him right.”

“There are lots of Italian restaurants here but not many Italian restaurants do steaks. Our concept is casual fine dining, affordable to anybody. We’re not high-end and we’re not low-end. I think we’re very comfortable in the middle.”

“I love feeding people,” says Perri. “Being Italian is feeding people. My concept here is a meal that I would expect when my mother brings it over for Christmas supper or any special occasion.”

“Sault Ste. Marie is a blue-collar town, so we need to cater to everybody. I think everybody deserves a meal that’s high-end for a price that they can afford.”

“We really wanted to do the steaks. I think this place is too big just to be an Italian restaurant,” Perri says.

“You’re Italian. You’ve got to feed people. My mom gives you a plate of pasta, it’s a heaping size, enough for five people. But she’s going to tell you to eat it. And if you don’t eat the whole plate, she’s going to be mad at you.”

By this summer, with the downstairs banquet room and an outdoor patio ready, Perri expects Chicago Cookshop to be operating at 400-seat capacity.

But can Gridzak and Perri survive in a venue that has gobbled up such notable former occupants as Aurora’s, Amici’s and Casa Mia?

The new owners have poured over invoices from the failed establishments and figure they’ve found ways to cut costs significantly.

Especially in the utility bills.

“I found out we have an 80-pizza rotisserie oven in the kitchen,” Perri says.

“I’ll never turn that thing on. It was turned on to make bruschetta bread and six pizzas a night. It was costing them somewhere between $5,000 and $7,000 a month to run the pizza oven. Little things like that are going to destroy you.”

Then, there was the lighting.

“There’s over 650 light bulbs in the building,” Perri says.

All have been replaced with LED high-efficiency bulbs.

One out of every two exterior light bulbs have been removed.

Chicago Cookshop entrees include a generously portioned chicken zucchini parmesan for $18 (staff insisted SooToday.com was the first to completely finish the dish) and a 10-ounce lobster tail for $30.

Steaks range from a 12-ounce New York strip for $29 to a 14-ounce “Capone cut” bone-in beef tenderloin for $42.

Chicago’s pasta is homemade and includes Calabrese lasagna, fusilli, and ravioli dell marr in lobster cream vodka sauce.

A gluten-free corn pasta is also available.

Salads include kalette (deep-fried kalette flowers, fried prosciutto, hickory sticks and lemon vinaigrette) and caprese (roma tomatoes, cucumber, bocconcini, olive oil and red wine vinegar).

Appetizers include battered frog legs and wild boar sausage ($10 each), coconut shrimp ($12) and cheese and meat charcuterie boards ($19).

The meat charcuterie selection is proscuitto, sopressata, mortadella, satitza, padano, stilton blue, smoked mozzarella, friulano, olives, crostini, taralli, baby bocconcini and Peruvian peppers.

The cheese board consists of padano, smoked mozzarella, cheddar, stilton blue, friulano, brie, crostini, taralli breadsticks, baby bocconomi and Peruvian peppers.

A selection of “prohibition-style” cocktails includes a Lucien Gaudin (gin, Campari, Cointreau, dry vermouth, orange twist), named after a French fencer who won four gold and two silver medals at the 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games.

The red wine list ranges from an Argentinean Marcus James Malbec for $32 a bottle to an Italian Antinori Peppoli Chianti Classico for $45. The preferred red pour is Jackson-Triggs Merlot.

White wines vary from American Beringer White Zinfandel at $30 to New Zealand Kim Crawford East Coast Unoaked Chardonnay at $45. Preferred white pour is Jackson-Triggs Chardonnay.

Open 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and Friday, Saturday until 1 a.m.

Reservations recommended. 705-450-5879.

(PHOTO: Aaron Gridzak and John Perri had a full house Saturday night at their new Chicago Cookshop in the former Aurora’s/ Amici’s/ Casa Mia location at 384 McNabb. David Helwig/ SooToday.com)