08/01/2026
4 YEARS OF THE BIG GARLIC 🧄🤍
🎉
AUGUST 1st 2022, we opened the doors to The Big Garlic for the very first time.
Today has me reminiscing these last four years. Still makes us laugh we genuinely thought Tony was going to run this place by himself. 😅
To be fair, he had over 20 years of restaurant experience, had worked at a bar/restaurant, and spent a decade in management. So naturally we thought, yeah, he’s got this.
And then opening day happened. 😆
I will NEVER forget looking up and seeing a line all the way to the door the whole day. We just kept going. Figuring it out as we went, working our butts off, and hoping everyone would be patient with us.
And they were. 🤍
People were so kind and understanding. They could see how hard we were working, and so many of those people who gave us a chance in those first days are part of the reason we’re still here four years later.
We could have never imagined what those four years would bring.
Two locations.
30 current employees.
A whole lot of chaos.
And TONS OF GARLIC🧄😂
Here’s some BIG GARLIC HISTORY.
How did we come up with The Big Garlic?
And the answer goes back way before the restaurant ever existed.
When Tony played magic the gathering at Galaxy Comics the building where we eventually opened our first location. he had a hat that said “BIG GIGANTIC.”
Someone read it wrong.
They called him Big Garlic. 😂
And somehow… it STUCK.
For nearly a decade, Tony was Big Garlic.
Who would’ve thought that ridiculous nickname would eventually be hanging on the front of a restaurant?
Years later, Chris offered Tony the opportunity to try running his own business out of that same building. Tony had watched me take the leap with my photography business, and I think somewhere along the way it made him realize he could take a chance on his dream, too.
So we started brainstorming.
Ideas. Names. Concepts.
We knew one thing for sure: we REALLY loved garlic. 😂
Then one night I was sitting in the living room while Tony was standing in the kitchen, and it just hit me.
“THE BIG GARLIC.”
We both sat with it for a second.
And Tony goes…
“Yeah… that’s it.”
And somehow, it really was. 🥹🧄
Four years later, we’ve survived a grand opening, a grand RE-opening, another grand opening, more chaos than I could possibly fit into one Facebook post, and enough garlic to keep every vampire in Wisconsin far, far away.
And through all of it, this little idea became something so much bigger than we ever pictured that night in our living room.
We truly could not have built this without all of you.
It really does take a village.
Four years down. Two locations. 30 employees. Countless memories. And somehow, we’re just getting started. 🤍
Next year is FIVE YEARS… which sounds like a pretty good excuse for one hell of an anniversary party. 👀🥳
Cheers to 4 years. Cheers to chasing crazy ideas. And, of course, CHEERS TO GARLIC. 🧄🤍
