Gross' Gourmet Marks New Year in New Location

It's a Friday, the week before Christmas, and Leslie Bilotta is busy.

So are her longtime staff members who help create the food that Bilotta and her husband, Andy, sell to a hungry clientele in Doylestown.

On this particular day, they were catering several Christmas parties. And the front case was chock full of the fried chicken for which their business has been famous for decades.

But don't try to weasel the recipe out of them. The Bilottas use the same recipes at Gross' Gourmet that the Gross family pioneered - and they guard them jealously.

"We keep them in a safe," Leslie told a visitor. "We guard them with our lives."

The team at Gross' Gourmet has spent the past few months settling into a new home at 266 S. Main St., in Doylestown. They moved from the previous location on Campbell Drive, off of Rt. 313, and opened in the new space on Mother's Day 2011, Leslie said.

Formerly home to a veterinary practice, the new location offers several amenities that the old location did not.

A sunny front space, with plenty of light streaming in through the windows, boasts several tables for customers.

"We're so excited to be able to offer eat-in, now," Leslie said.

Free wi-fi service and coffee are also on the menu. The Bilottas hope to attract customers who want to linger a bit in their new space.

The familiar refrigerated cases are full of potato salad and homemade soups, ready to supply a quick family meal, as they have done for generations of families in the Doylestown area.

The business began decades ago as Bargers Chicken House, Leslie said. In 1956, Bargers sold an order of barbecued chicken with "filling and gravy" for $2.59 from its location at 70 W. State St.

The Gross family bought the business and changed the name to Gross' Gourmet. For years, Gross' supplied untold numbers of picnics and fried chicken take-out nights.

Andy Bilotta, meanwhile, had learned the restaurant business under Walter Conti at Conti Cross Keys Inn, perhaps Doylestown's best-known restaurant for decades. After the inn closed in 1995, Bilotta worked at various Doylestown-area restaurants, including Roosevelt's Blue Star.

When the chance came to buy Gross', the Bilottas took it.

That was 2005.

More than seven years later, they're still going strong.

"We love what we do, and we think it shows," Leslie Bilotta said, as she put the finishing touches on a catering order. "We love making homemade food, with old-fashioned recipes, for today's busy families."

For more information or to see a menu, visit Gross' Gourmet's website.