 Restaurant Chef Bio  Born in Granada, Spain, Emilio Gervilla spent his youth working at his grandfather's bakery and tapas bar. It comes as no surprise that Emilio's dream was to have his own tapas restaurant one day. He developed a way of adapting each new cuisine to recipes for his little dishes, tapas, and recorded them to his memory. It was 1973, when Emilio moved to the United States. He worked from 1980 to 1988 at various restaruants for Lettuce Entertain You and opened Cafe Ba Ba Reba, the first tapas bar in Chicago. In 1988, Emilio took the great step and opened his own "Emilio's Tapas Bar Restaurant" in Hillside, Illinois. His success spurred new ideas and brought the opening of three additional restaurants: Emilio's Tapas in Lincoln Park, Emilio's Tapas Sol y Nieve in Streeterville, just east of Michigan av. Emilio proved that dreams do come true, but not with out a lot of love for food, people and hard work. |