Page 24 - The Peorian, Vol 3 Issue 2

24 thePeorian.com
Another part of his menu peo-
ple like is that it offers vegetarian
and gluten-free dishes everyday,
not just by request. “Our grits
and rooms, which is grits with
sautéed mushrooms instead of
meat, is very popular. You don’t
even miss the meat. Vegetarians
love coming to a place where
they don’t have to ask for special
foods,” he said.
To open Hearth, Higgins gave
up a lucrative job he’d worked
hard to attain. He was down-
state Illinois manager for Pernod
Ricard, the second largest liquor
manufacturer and supplier in
the world, for eight years. Before
that he spent 23 years as a wine
salesman for Southern Wines and
Spirits, a large wholesaler.
Those jobs not only made him
an expert on wines and spirits
but it taught him a lot about the
restaurant business. He could
already cook, something he said
seemed to come natural to him
and something he enjoyed.
“My passion for cooking has
always been there. It never went
away. In fact, it increased. I knew
this was something I had to do,”
he said.
When he made the decision to
start his own restaurant, it didn’t
come without some trepidation.
The Pernod Ricard job, he said,
“came with all the bells and
whistles” in the way of salary and
benefits. “It was tough to walk
away from those things and into
such a volatile business. But here
I am.”
So now he has 12- to 14-hour
days, making sure to be there
early enough to help prepare for
lunch and then dinner. While
most of the cooking is now
handled by his brother Rudy Hig-
gins for lunch and his 26-year-old
son Seth for dinner, “I still have
to see every plate that goes out to
make sure it’s good enough. Then
I visit every table and listen to my
customers. It doesn’t end there,
of course. I tend bar when I need
to and I bus tables…whatever is
needed, I will do it. I’m certainly
not above it.”
“I’m working harder than
I ever have. But I knew it was
going to be that way, so I’m not
complaining.”
The Prospect Road location
wasn’t Higgins’ first stop. He’d
looked at several places before
stopping in to chat with Mary
Kilpatrick, owner of French
Toast, while working his previ-
ous job. “She’d heard through
the restaurant grapevine that I
was thinking of starting my own
place. She tried to ward me off,
but I didn’t let her scare me off,”
he said.
Hugh Higgins, who opened Hearth in Peoria Heights last fall, stands in front of the rustic wooden door that leads into
the restaurant’s private dining room. Before opening Hearth, Higgins worked for one of the world’s largest liquor and
spirits makers so when it came to stocking his bar, pictured below, he did it with top-notch brands.