Illustration by Jonny Ruzzo
When one pictures “Cincinnati food,” next to a cheese coney and scoop of Black Raspberry Chip, there will inevitably be a bottle of Montgomery Inn’s signature barbecue sauce. Over the last 75 years, the restaurant has become one of the city’s mainstays with ribs and Saratoga chips delighting Queen City residents for generations. Despite Montgomery Inn’s massive success over the decades, the restaurant has stayed in the hands of the Gregory family, with brothers Dean and Tom running the two locations. Tom, who owns and runs the original restaurant in Montgomery, sat down with us to discuss what the 75th anniversary means to both his family and the city.
What does 75 years mean to you?
It’s pride. I’m really proud of what my parents started. Actually, my parents and my grandparents all worked here when it first opened. There’s pride in what the four kids have continued since their retirement, and since both passed. I love the place. I’m 74, and people ask me when I’m going to retire, and this is it. I mean, I love being here. My duties have changed over the years, but I’ve got my staff. They’re tremendous. I would venture to guess a good percentage of employees here are longtime.
We’ve got one of our cooks—he preps. He does the ribs. He does the chickens. He’s been with us almost 40 years, his name is John McCafferty. He is deaf, and he is the hardest worker I think I’ve ever seen in my life. He’s amazing. One of our line cooks has been here 40 years. Kitchen managers have been here anywhere from—I think the newest one is 25 years. We’ve got 20- to 25-year servers, and being around these people all that time, it is family. I mean, you hear a lot of that, “this is family,” but they are.
I think if I left here, retired, I’d be bored to death. It’s just fun. We grew up in the area. I have a lot of friends, people I want school with are still around. They come up and see me. The holidays are great because we get all the out-of-towners come in that I’ve known for years, and it’s just a wonderful place to be.
How have you seen the restaurant grow and change over the years?
When [my parents] first opened, it was limited. As I told you before, in ’51, Montgomery was just starting to develop, and our menu then was probably beers and shots and burgers, double-deckers, and chili soup. We’ve evolved thanks to my mother, who was, as you can tell with my physique, a great cook.
You know, it’s a great story about how the ribs got started. In the late ’50s on busy night here, Dad would probably make $200 a night, which was big. His best friend, Dr. David Kerman, had an office in the back. There was a barbecue place downtown—I think it was the Old Hickory—but they would go down there on Saturday night and have dinner. They’re eating the ribs one night, and Dad looked at Mom. He said, “Do you think you could come up with something like this?” She said, “Well, I’ll try.” So, she tried several versions and finally one Saturday night, she comes up and some of Dad’s cronies are at the bar. It’s about 7, 8 o’clock, and she brought about 10 racks of ribs up, and that was it. They all loved them, and I mean, I’ve been eating them all my life, and I’m still amazed at the barbecue sauce that she came up with. I mean, we go out of town, and I’ll pick up a bottle of X brand and try it. And there’s really no comparison. It’s just completely unique.
Now, we’re looking to do some other changes now with the younger generation because they’re eating differently. When I was 25, 30 years old, I’d go out and have a big steak or a slab of ribs and didn’t worry about the health aspect of it. We have an executive chef, Andy Hicks, and he’s working on some new recipes, like grilled shrimp. We’re going to add some fish dishes to the to the menu as well.
Do you have anything planned for the anniversary?
We will probably plan something last minute. On our 50th, we had just closed off the banquet rooms and brought everybody up, longtime customers, friends that had been supporting us for years. We had them come up, and Mom put on a spread that was tremendous.
Are there any other things that you’re looking to do as you go past 75?
Not really. I mean, we’ve done our expansions. They haven’t worked out, unfortunately, and as hard as it was at that time, I think back, and I think it’s because the family wasn’t there putting our special touch on the place. My brother Dean [who runs the Boathouse] is much better than I am on, you know, going to tables and checking, and he’s a great conversationalist. My sisters Terry and Vicky, too. Terry’s starting to come out and help down here a little bit too, and it’s great. It’s just, the family is still together after all these years. You hear the stories about husband and wife working together. Mom and Dad were on total opposite sides of the spectrum. He was boisterous. He was great with the crowd. Mom didn’t want any of the fame or the notoriety. She stayed in the kitchen and cooked and worked back there with my aunt for years, and she was a great cook too. I’ve got a lot of her recipes that we used to make 40 years ago for lunch specials, things like a breaded pork tenderloin with milk gravy. We may even play around with making that stuff for the 75th anniversary, you know, come up with some old specials that made us what we are today. There’s a lot of options. This is going to be fun.
