Chef Nathan Gebert is from Merrill, and he has a passion for creating unique but delicious meals. He says, "I think if you spend every holiday and every weekend in a business, passion is what drives it, 16, 17 hour days, everyday in the kitchen you have to be very passionate about what you do."
He even spent time working at restaurants in Wisconsin and a hotel in England, perfecting his culinary skills. While he was in England, he met his wife Fiona. Chef Gebert says, "We wanted to come back here, where my family is, and do something for the community and since I'm a chef and we thought the best way to go about it was to open a restaurant."
In October, the Gebert's bought The Wright Place on 6th, a staple in the community for years. Fiona says, "We've really enjoyed the process, we love Wausau, we love the community here, this place is exactly what we've been looking for, we've had fun changing a few different things here and there, we've really, really enjoyed it."
But they're taking a different approach to preparing a meal. The Gebert's are turning to local farms and businesses for items on the menu. They say, "It's our philosphy and it also helps the community, some of the best products as far as freshness is concerned as well, they're right in our back garden, that's why our menu will change everyday because we don't want to commit to having a certain item we can't then get on that day."
They're even putting up a greenhouse, one that will provide fresh ingredients for the restaurant all year long. Chef Nathan says, "It's a challenging process, the chefs I work with in the kitchen, I've now been in this building 5 months, so we've come along way in training them, in just instilling the philosphy with our staff."
While the Gebert's will be changing the menu, they say, "The food will always evolve, on our website it's say we're Progressive Modern European, that's because their foods always evolve, we use modern technology to create modern dishes with different textures, different flavors."
There's one thing that's won't change anytime soon, their philosphy os using locally grown and produced ingredients. Fiona says, "We just want to keep moving forward with what we're doing, keep getting everything in locally, we want to try and teach the community how important it is."
