Article by Maxwell Patton  and photo by Diana Jaber - The Writght State Guardian

Company 7 BBQ in Englewood has been serving award-winning barbecue to customers from across the country for the past decade, combining the aesthetic of a 1920s firehouse with well-made food.

Bill and Mary Grilliot started the restaurant with their son Will and son-in-law Patrick Murty in 2010, two years after the Grilliots sold their manufacturing company Morning Pride Manufacturing.

“We enjoyed seeing people, and a restaurant is like a huge living room,” Mary Grilliot said. “Family friends and new friends arrive all of the time.”

The name Company 7 came from a variety of sources, including Bill Grilliot’s first badge number and the number of people in their family.

Crafting a winning recipe
They crafted the menu by bringing in a variety of recipes, including some from Bill’s mother.

“She could make anything taste wonderful, and between her recipes and the fire service recipes, we developed our menu and invested heavily in state-of-the-art barbecue technologies,” Mary Grilliot said.

These technologies include wood-fire and gas-fire smokers that can cook up to 1,000 pounds of meat at a time.

“We can be cooking 3,000 pounds of meat without batting an eye all day long seven days a week, so it gave us great capacity and it gave us great control over the quality of the product,” Mary Grilliot said.

As a result of declining COVID cases and hospitalizations, Ohio has rescinded the COVID related emergency requirements for restaurants and most other businesses effective 6/2/21.

Thank You
We want to thank our deeply valued customers for their help during this difficult period including understanding product shortages and supply line issues. We would not have made it through without your unwavering support and understanding. Your kindness in this regard has only made us more dedicated to providing the very best in award-winning BBQ, excellent service, and a first-class friendly facility that you are proud to bring your family and friends to. We will NEVER forget that YOU got our local, family-owned business through.

So What Will Change?
1. We can now, again, book our free no-charge banquet room for your parties, graduations, rehearsal dinners, smaller weddings. funeral dinners, re-unions, etc.
2. We can now, again, accept and schedule catering events.
3. The game room is now re-opened.
4. We will allow customers to make their own decisions about whether to mask or not mask.
5. To allow the banquet room to be re-opened, we are returning to normal table spacing in the dining room. We enjoyed the wider aisles, but the hard reality is that we were barely keeping our head above water with that reduced seating. We need normal dining room seating and an available banquet facility to move back to normal profit levels.
6. It will, no longer, be necessary to limit table sizes to 10 individuals.
7. Paper towel rolls will be back on the table, so you have access (without asking) for all the "napkins" you could need. All of our Company 7 BBQ Sauces and Salt & Pepper will also again be on the table.