Dean Gregory is the son of the late "Rib King" Ted Gregory and is Vice-President of Montgomery Inn.
1.) So… what's the secret of the famous Montgomery Inn sauce? The secret Barbecue sauce was created by my mother Matula in the mid 50's. My parents purchased McCabe's Inn in Montgomery in 1951 and re-christened it Montgomery Inn. The Inn had a bar, dining room and pony keg in the back of the building where customers would drive up ring a bell and my father would run out and sell them beer or soft drinks to take home. There were no convenience marts in those days the consumers shopping choices were very limited. My father thought he could make a living running the bar and pony keg and didn't need the extra burden of operating a kitchen and small dining room. He leased the kitchen out to a lady who served lunch and dinner. My father wasn't very fond of the new operator's cooking so my mother would cook his dinners every night and deliver it to him, always making extra for a friend or two. One night she cooked ribs and made up her own barbecue sauce which was a huge hit with my dad and the lucky few that were there that evening. The requests for her ribs and sauce became quite frequent so it was only natural for my mother to take over the kitchen and thats how we got into the rib business.
My mother was always afraid of someone finding out her recipe, my father didn't know it nor did any other males in our family. My mother, my sisters Vickie and Terry along with my Aunt Tasha are the only ones who know the recipe. Every so often someone will come up to me and say I have the recipe for Montgomery Inn BBQ Sauce, I just smile and say good for you.
2.) How did your family end up in the restaurant business? Both sets of my grandparents were Greek immigrants who came to this country in the early 1900's. They didn't have formal educations and couldn't speak English but if you worked hard you could get a job in a restaurant. My parents more or less followed them into the business.
3.) What is your greatest memory of your father, the late Ted Gregory, who was known as the "Ribs King?" I honestly couldn't give you one single memory of my dad that I could identify as the greatest as there were many, many, many! He was extremely kind, had an incredible sense of humor, he was just great to be around. He was extremely proud of his family... that's probably what I remember most about him.
4.) What is the most popular item on your menu? The most popular item on our menu for the past 56 years is our specialty Barbecued Loinback Ribs.
5.) What is the one dish you wish more people would try? The best kept secret on our menu is the Barbecued Duck. I think it fantastic!
6.) Did you ever have a menu idea that didn't really work? Usually if an item doesn't sell well as a lunch or dinner special it won't make it to the menu. We once added our most popular dinner special ever, Tournados Margaux, to our menu because it sold so well. Once on the menu, it quit selling so we took it off and ran it as a dinner special again with great success.
7.) President George W. Bush made a stop at the Boathouse this week… did you know he was coming and how does one prepare for a visit from the President? If I would have known that the President was coming to the Boathouse last week I would have sold tickets. We didn't know he was coming until about 10 minutes prior to his arrival. Secret Service came in and began to secure the building, our General Manager Tom Kunkemoeller was told that we had a very special guest about to arrive. What a tribute to Johnny Bench to have the President at his birthday party and what a thrill for my family to have the President in our restaurant.
8.) Are there other celebrities who are fans of Montgomery Inn? We have had quite a few celebrities dine with us throughout the years but none with as much fondness for our ribs than Bob Hope. We catered a dinner for 500 people at his Palm Springs home during his Bob Hope Desert Classic for over 20 years. Whenever the Hope family had a celebration, they always served Montgomery Inn ribs. Bill Cosby also loves them. I don't know how many times he has made a stop at Lunken Airport to pick up a load of Montgomery Inn ribs.
9.) What's the best restaurant you've ever visited? I love going out to dinner and have been to many outstanding restaurants, there are so many different types of restaurants that are so good I don't think it would be fair to say that one of them is the best. I will tell you my favorite dish is the garlic noodles at Crustacean in Los Angeles. Crustacean is a Vietnamese restaurant with locations in L.A., San Francisco and Las Vegas. They specialize in dungeness crab with garlic noodles. The noodles are nothing short of incredible. I eat 3 orders whenever I am there and also finish my wife's. I also love our home town favorites and can't go a week without a LaRosa's delivery or a 3 way and 2 cheese coneys.
10.) What is the best thing about living in Cincinnati? Thats easy, the people. There are more wonderful people here in Greater Cincinnati than in any other city in the world.
11.) How has the internet changed the restaurant business? The internet has changed every business: the way we communicate, the way we purchase and receive orders, our market used to be local now we sell our products nationally, we can advertise on the internet. it seems like we are at our computers more and more each day. I am pretty old school, the restaurant business is about people and service. There are a lot of days when I feel that all I do is answer E-mails when I should be in my dining room with my guests.
12.) What do you see for the future of Montgomery Inn? We have plans to open our 4th location in Dublin,Ohio (northwest Columbus) late next fall after that maybe one south of Cincinnati as we are ready for expansion with a lot of great employees.
