Owner and Chef Eric Winbigler Discusses Crostini

Last week, Gut Check told you about Crostini Restaurant & Lounge, a new venture at 4501 Manchester Road in Forest Park Southeast's Grove. Today I had a chance to speak with Eric Winbigler, Crostini's owner and chef.

Crostini, says Winbigler, will be an "old 'Mama'-style Italian restaurant, a family-style restaurant." An Ohio Native, Winbigler likens Crostini to what he experienced visiting Cleveland's Little Italy.

Winbigler worked in restaurants from age fourteen through twenty-two. Of his experience in the industry, he explains, "Now, I look back, they called me a line cook. Knowing what I know now [about the industry], I was more like a sous chef."

Winbigler projects a soft opening around the Fourth of July, pending permits and all of the other usual restaurant-opening details. Crostini isn't his first experience opening a restaurant in Forest Park Southeast, however. He and his wife opened a salon, Arco Hair Company, last year at 4301 Arco Avenue.