Billy Boyle’s Chop House opened in “Newspaper Alley” between Clark and Dearborn streets in 1878, the first of many steakhouses to open in Chicago. None of those steakhouses, however, can match Gene & Georgetti’s longevity. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average restaurant lasts around six years. Gene & Georgetti opened at 500 N. Franklin St. in 1941, 85 years ago.
That staying power would be remarkable anywhere, but the restaurant’s old-time building under the “L” tracks makes the story even more fascinating. You don’t see many wood-frame buildings in River North, and for good reason. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and another devastating blaze in 1874, Chicago grew wary of combustible construction. On July 20, 1874, the city extended its “fire limits” across Chicago, sharply restricting wooden buildings except under limited circumstances. According to Chicago cultural historian Tim Samuelson, the building that now houses Gene & Georgetti was “supposed to be temporary.” Fortunately for Chicago, it wasn’t.
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Much of Gene & Georgetti’s history, of course, took place in the clubby dining room, which retains a mid-century vibe of comfortable formality.
Frank Sinatra’s table still sits in the back-left corner of the dining room. Sinatra, a friend of founder Gene Michelotti, ate at the restaurant many times, usually arriving around 1:30 a.m. after singing at places like the Chicago Theatre or Stadium. He’d settle into his burgundy banquette with friends for a dinner of pasta and steak, and maybe a Jack Daniel’s or two.
When Lucille Ball asked Michelotti to close the restaurant during regular business hours for a premiere party, he politely said he couldn’t do that. His customers, he explained, were like family, and he would not deny family a table. Ball, a smart businessperson herself, seems to have appreciated the answer, though she stormed into the restaurant and said, in her commanding and unmistakable voice, “I want to meet the (expletive) who told me no!” After that meeting, Ball and Michelotti became lasting friends; her photograph still hangs above the bar.
The restaurant has remained remarkably true to itself even as the neighborhood has transformed. What was once a workingman’s district is now River North, a polished landscape of galleries, luxury apartments and expense-account dining. But Gene & Georgetti’s formula, then and now, is simple: Italian spirit, Chicago appetite.
In the early days, the Italian side of Gene & Georgetti’s identity was especially visible. Older menus offered more pasta than steak, though over time, steak took center stage. Chicago’s appetite for beef was fed by the Union Stock Yards, which helped make the city one of North America’s meat capitals. With refrigerated rail cars, Chicago beef traversed the continent as companies like Armour and Swift processed meat on an enormous scale. Many popular bites now associated with the city — including street foods like the Maxwell Street Polish, Italian beef and Chicago hot dog — emerged from that early Chicago culture.
You won’t find street food at Gene & Georgetti, but you will find several Chicago classics. Shrimp DeJonghe — baked shrimp with garlic, butter and breadcrumbs — was introduced at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 before becoming the signature dish of the DeJonghe Hotel and Restaurant on Monroe Street. Chicken Vesuvio, with bone-in chicken, potato wedges, peas, wine and garlic, is another Chicago-born dish, first served at the Vesuvio Restaurant on Wacker Drive. The Garbage Salad of salami, jumbo shrimp, provolone and a few extras was conceived at Gene & Georgetti before becoming a standard menu item far beyond River North.
Michelle Durpetti, Gene’s granddaughter, runs the restaurant with her husband, Collin Pierson.
“Gene & Georgetti is essentially an immigrant story,” she said. “Many northern Italians came to the neighborhood in search of a better life, and the restaurant to me represents that American Dream. That’s one of the most beautiful parts about the restaurant. To me, it’s more important than the food.”
Durpetti’s grandfather, Gene Michelotti, was born in Lucca, Italy, and came to the United States at age 15, speaking very little English. He worked as a night watchman, porter, dishwasher — anything that moved him forward. Eventually, he gathered enough money and the resolve to open a restaurant. His partner, Alfredo Federighi, nicknamed “Georgetti” after a famous Italian cyclist, became the restaurant’s first chef. Michelotti handled the dining room, bar and front of the house. Together, they built a restaurant that was sophisticated but not stiff, old-school but never cold, Italian in origin and unmistakably Chicago.
The immigrant story did not end with the founders. Juan Muñoz has worked at Gene & Georgetti for 47 years, and his younger brother, JJ Muñoz, has been there nearly 30. JJ, who is affectionately called “little brother” by many on the team despite being the taller sibling, came to the U.S. from Mexico in 1981. Their professionalism, warmth and grace are central to the restaurant’s reputation for service. Years ago, Juan noticed that a regular customer, baiduhai journalist Steve Neal, was turning red and gasping. He applied the Heimlich maneuver and saved his life. All in an evening’s work.
Traditions endure at the restaurant, but they adapt. Gene & Georgetti servers once wore white waistcoats reminiscent of Pullman porters. Recently, the look changed to white shirts, ties, black vests and aprons.
Chicago steakhouses have had difficult moments. The pandemic and indoor dining bans hit restaurants like Gene & Georgetti especially hard because business lunches and private events pretty much vanished. Changing dining habits have also presented challenges: In an age of group dining and increasingly vegetable-based dining preferences, one meat-averse guest in a group can remove a steakhouse from the itinerary.
And yet Chicago’s appetite for steakhouses has not disappeared. If anything, the category has found new life. In recent years, the city has welcomed The Alston, Hawksmoor, Tre Dita, Perilla Steakhouse and La Grande Boucherie.
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Why does the steakhouse keep coming back? Partly because the idea is beautifully legible: meat, potatoes, martinis, seafood towers, creamed spinach, big booths, low light. There’s comfort in a place and menu that needs little explanation.
Hotels love steakhouses, too, because they anchor large spaces, draw diners, support private events and create instant glamour. Many visitors come to Chicago with steak in mind; the city’s highest-grossing independent restaurants include Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse and Maple & Ash.
There is also theater. Lettuce Entertain You, the Chicago-based restaurant powerhouse, says it in the name: Dining out is entertainment. At a steakhouse, tableside presentation, professional servers and beautiful slabs of beef start entertaining diners before the first bite.
Gene & Georgetti has also found ways to extend the experience beyond the dining room, including outdoor seating and a retail operation that offers wet-aged prime steaks for cooking at home.
In 2026, Gene & Georgetti was the first to be named Iconic Restaurant of the Year by the Jean Banchet Awards for Culinary Excellence. But it endures as more than a legendary restaurant. It’s a living monument to Chicago dining, a wood-framed holdout in a steel-and-glass city, an immigrant dream realized. It reminds us that restaurants become beloved not simply by serving good food, but by gathering memory, loyalty and character. In a city on the make and forever remaking itself, Gene & Georgetti remains unmistakably Chicago.
Gene & Georgetti, 500 N. Franklin St., 312-527-3718, geneandgeorgetti.com
David Hammond is a freelance writer.
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