Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt and Lucas Bumba.
Matt and Lucas, please share your story with us.
I got the bug to cook from watching my grandmother cook Sunday dinners. She supplied me with my first cookbook and helped push my passion. My first job came along at a local pizza place answering phones. As much as I enjoyed the food world and cooking, I have a huge passion for cars, so I decided to go to college for automotive customizing. But like most that cook you can only ignore the desire to be in a kitchen for so long. So, I decided to start working nights as a line cook. Eventually leading me to move to Florida to work at Walt Disney. I left there to take a position with Chef Paul Virant, which let me see another side of the industry and learn about local sourcing and preservation. I had a drive to always open my own restaurant and after some conversations, I started planning the path to find space. Western Springs was never on my radar even though I worked in the town. But driving home one night after searching for buildings for close to 10months I saw a for rent sign. After the walk through, this felt like the right space and we haven’t looked back as we are now in our 4th year.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As any business can tell you it’s never a smooth road. You just hope that the day you open your doors people show up and that they did. Western springs embraced us which goes a long way. If you do what you love and put that into the food and service people notice and that helps smooth the road. There are always struggles in anything but you need to just tell yourself at the end of the day to Keep Going. In the restaurant industry, there is always something that comes up but that’s what makes it enjoyable. You rely on your family to help you through they are the ones that will always be there.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Solstice restaurant – what should we know?
Solstice was brought about after years of enjoying breakfast with my grandfather. The goal was to bring a city style breakfast and lunch space to the suburbs something that you don’t see. We focus on seasonal and local ingredients to build our menus. Our focus is to bring the local farms to the breakfast lunch segment and now also to our dinner service. We believe that you should support your local farms. We specialize in seasonal scratch cooking, As we tell customers the only thing we don’t make ourselves is the bread. We are known for our biscuits, fried chicken, and our waffle. We like to take American classics and sho people they can still be made from scratch and with fine dining quality ingredients but at a reasonable price. We are using the same farms and ingredients as some of the best restaurants in the city just in a brunch concept in the suburbs. Our passion to educate and help people understand the seasons and products available locally helps drive us.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Supporting local farmers and educating guests on seasonality and locally sourced food. Staying true to our values of buying local and seasonally.
Contact Info:
- Address: Solstice Restaurant
800 Hillgrove Ave
Western Springs, IL 60558 - Website: www.solsticerestaurant.com
- Phone: 708-505-4684
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/solsticewesternsprings
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/solsticewesternsprings
- Twitter: @solsticecuisine
Image Credit:
Kira Anderson
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