A cut above - Surgeon moonlights as restaurant owner and chef

JOLIET, Ill. -- Rarely a day passes without Jeff Piccirillo wielding a knife.

During the mornings and afternoon, Piccirillo wears operating scrubs and works with a scalpel as an orthopedic surgeon with offices in Joliet and Plainfield. The slicing and dicing continues in the evenings when he reports for work as chef at Prime, an upscale restaurant Piccirillo opened last year in Joliet.

"The biggest fear is I use the wrong knife at one of my jobs," Piccirillo said. "A butcher knife is a lot different than a scalpel."

The moonlighting sort of happened as a fluke.

Piccirillo always had a flair for cooking while growing up in rural Pennsylvania and working at restaurants through college and medical school.

The cooking continued as a hobby after he became a surgeon, winning him a reputation as a culinary whiz among colleagues who were treated to elaborate 20-course dinners at parties in his New Lenox home.

Family and friends used to tease Piccirillo about opening his own place. But running a restaurant was always a dream, a gig to pursue down the road, something to chase for another day.

An innocent inquiry

The transition to restaurateur began last spring with an innocent inquiry into a building about to become vacant in west Joliet. Piccirillo liked the building. The landlord liked Piccirillo's ideas. Within a matter of days, a deal was inked.

Piccirillo suddenly was forced to take a break from medicine to plan menus, order wines, coordinate a makeover of the dining area and train a staff of cooks and servers.

The decision meant a life filled with 20-hour days, a month of silent treatment from his wife, and a crash course in starting a business from scratch.

There have been no regrets.

"I have always been a Type A personality," Piccirillo said. "If I wasn't taking on this project, it would be another project."

The typical Piccirillo day starts at dawn. After stints in the operating room and making the rounds at the hospitals, he starts his night job around 6 p.m.

Piccirillo is home about 11 p.m. to his wife, who has since resumed talking to him, and their 10-year-old daughter.

"My relationship with my family didn't change much," he said. "My deal with my family is that I work seven weeks and take a week off. That week is for them."

Prime specializes in classy American fare with a dash of Asian, Italian and French influences. The wine list is expansive. A lounge -- a rake room of leather furniture and splashes of soft light -- offers cognacs, small-batch bourbons, single-malt scotches and premium cigars.

The restaurant might not seem like a fit in a blue-collar climate like Joliet, a town known for poor boy sandwiches and hot dog stands.

But Piccirillo is not viewing the success of the restaurant in terms of profits and losses.

If the restaurant makes money, fine. If not, he has the day job to keep the business afloat.

It is a luxury most new businesses cannot afford.

"My medical practice, because of the nature of it and seriousness of it, comes first," Piccirillo said. "This is my release. I come here and laugh and talk to people."