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Community Corner

The Culinary Croatian Cooks Up Success

This week's Patch Portrait series also features Wilmette's piano man and Northbrook's original state champ football coach.

This week's Patch Portrait series also features and .

Violet Sego has been in the restaurant business for 40 years. After learning the ways of the kitchen under master European chefs, she left her home of Croatia to visit the United States, and she never left.

“I just came to visit," explained Sego. "I wanted to explore the world, I was pretty young, and I just stayed."

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After working here for only a couple years she ventured to open a fine dining restaurant in Park Ridge that she ended up running for the next 20 years. With two decades under her belt, though, Sego began to look for something else to do.

“I didn’t want to go into the restaurant business anymore," she said. "I wanted to move to Europe.  I went to my country and explored to see what I could do and actually I didn’t like anything there."

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Around this time, Sego’s daughter was just beginning kindergarten. As a single mom, Sego wanted to be around more after school for her child.

“I wanted to be home by three so I could be home when she got back from school, so I could be with her,” she said.  “That’s why I bought this place. We close at two, and I could be home by three.”

These days her daughter is away at school, but Sego still enjoys her free days.  “I read, I do yoga, I walk,” she said.

The restaurant owner says her favorite part of the business is seeing people every day.

"You grow with people," she said. "You become friends.  If you're a friendly person and you like the people and you like yourself, you'll have a great time."  

Sego continued: "Whatever you do in life, have a great time. Enjoy it. Whatever you do enjoy it, and then you are successful."

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