In the Wild Hare Tavern’s windowfront kitchen, the flat-top grill hisses against a layered rectangle of mortadella, Genoa salami and capicola (or “gabagool,” as the cured pork neck and shoulder is known among Sopranos fans and spanning the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border). Flipped onto a split Amoroso roll with mayo and circles of provolone, shredded lettuce, tomato and sweet-hot cherry peppers, blessed with oil, vinegar and oregano, it’s the warm, salty heart of Greghini’s Italian hoagie ($16).
“It’s my favorite sandwich,” says Michael “Grego” Gregin. “I was tired of not being able to have that sandwich so we had to put it on the menu.” The extra step of grilling the meats is his own touch, “to bring out the juices.”
Grego and his sister Amy Gregin have been following a number of cravings for regional and familial favorites as they hammer out the compact Greghini’s menu. Having grown up in Philadelphia, the siblings have long talked about cooking in their own place or running a food truck serving the food they grew up with. Their weekends in the Wild Hare Tavern’s kitchen rotation are the first step and winning them a grateful following.
“The Hare has been amazing … helping us out getting this business rolling,” says Grego. “It’s given us space to put our concept out there so when we get our truck, we know what the community wants.” Greghini’s uses the space on Saturdays and Sundays, while Kevin Hover, who leases the kitchen from Wild Hare still serves Chicago dogs and comforting bar food other nights. Karachi Kitchen is on the schedule, too, and Mainely Lobster has dates upcoming.
The Gregins’ father Emilio Enzo Greghini immigrated from Chieti, Italy, in 1950 via Ellis Island, where officials chopped the last syllable from the family name. Emilio went on to own a pizza shop for 50 years, where the family’s four kids got their first lessons in the business. Cooking lessons came earlier, though. Grego recalls early memories of rolling meatballs with his mother Nancy at the age of 3.
Grego and Amy use a scooper now for consistency, but they are still making meatballs the same way, hand mixing Italian sausage and ground beef with egg, parsley, basil, salt, pepper and breadcrumbs. For the crumbs, you want “the cheapest white bread you can find,” soaking them in warm water before squeezing out the excess, which keeps the meatballs moist and tender. They still toss them hand to hand instead of pressing and absolutely do not overmix.
Nancy is not to be doubted. The meatballs hold together but break easily under a fork, revealing a juicy and almost fluffy interior. The straightforward Sunday dinner flavor is amped up with the Golden meatball option, which sees them fried in their grandmother Giovanna’s savory batter, to which marinara sauce clings wonderfully ($8 for three).
An accomplished home cook, Amy moved to Humboldt from Georgia to start the business with her brother in January, following a corporate career. Her chicken piccata is the inspiration for the Francese sandwich, a cutlet fried in that same batter and served with shaved Parmesan, capers and arugula in a lemon-garlic aioli ($16). “We’ve been wanting to do this for years,” she says before hustling to the oven to retrieve the lasagna.
The lasagna ($22 with garlic bread), also made with a mix of pork sausage and ground beef, is a two-layered Italian American behemoth packed with ricotta and topped with mozzarella. Its substantial noodles made by hand with a fork before Grego puts it through a roller. The whole process, from pasta-making to plating, takes about eight hours. “It’s worth it,” he says. “At this level, the amount of food we’re making now, we can do it.”
Having worked in professional kitchens including the Pub at the Creamery, he knows handmaking everything is tougher in a larger spot, cranking out more plates at higher speed. An ambitious Valentine’s Day pop up at the Wild Hare made the challenges of scale clear and shaped some menu decisions, like focusing on hot sandwiches and adapting to the small kitchen.
The Philly cheesesteak comes with a set of non-negotiables. The Amoroso roll, says Grego, is a must if you’re not baking your own, as it needs a certain chew to hold together and soak up the meat juices. He’s happy swapping in sirloin for costly ribeye that would have bumped up the price, but he isn’t willing to take shortcut on caramelizing onions. “You actually want a lot of onion on that. It adds a lot of flavor,” he says, and that’s worth the 30 to 40 minutes it takes. White American cheese is a more locally appealing option than the other Philly standard Cheez Whiz (though he’s thinking about it for displaced fans).
The pizza steak sandwich ($2 extra) is doused with the same marinara that makes the tender and crusty chicken parm ($16) and the lasagna. And it’s not a secret. “I want people to make good sauce,” Grego says. Greghini’s marinara sauce starts with caramelizing the onions and deglazing the pot with wine before adding parsley, basil and dry oregano and thyme. Then it’s more wine, cooking until it’s reduced, before adding San Marzano tomatoes and letting it cook down for two to three hours. Though at home, the Gregin’s keep it on the stove for nearly 24 hours.
He says he’s shared the family recipe with people after finding their versions wanting. It may chafe in Northern California, he knows, but, he says with a laugh, “It’s how we do it in Philly.”
Some things are non-negotiable. “It’s that gene my grandmother gave me — when you’re in the kitchen, you just want to make things the right way.”
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill (she/her) is the managing editor at the Journal. Reach her at (707) 442-1400 ext. 106, or jennifer@northcoastjournal.com. Follow her on Bluesky @jfumikocahill.bsky.social.
This article appears in Know Your Rights.
