Taylor Hughes and Crystal Sego are owners of Niles' newest downtown restaurant, Agrestic Grille. Leader photo CRAIG HAUPERT

Niles friends Taylor Hughes and Crystal Sego are finally living the dream, instead of just talking about it.

In January, the two opened a new restaurant, Agrestic Grille, 206 E. Main St., in downtown Niles. It’s in the former Hob Nob building.

“We’ve wanted to do it for awhile now,” said Hughes.

Everything on the American-style menu is almost entirely made from scratch, from the sauce to the gravy to the biscuits baked fresh every morning.

“It’s about as fresh as it gets,” she said.

Open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day, the restaurant deals primarily in breakfast and lunch options, although hearty meals, like chicken fried steak, grace the menu.

Breakfast items include everything from bagels to biscuits and gravy, to burritos, omelets, skillets and pancakes.

Lunch items include several varieties of salads, garden wraps, soups and Panini grills as well as homemade chicken pot pie, quesadillas and shrimp and chicken baskets.

Most menu items range in price from $5 to $9. Breakfast is served all day.

Turkey bacon and chicken links are offered as a healthy alternative.

There is a children’s menu and meals for seniors (65 and up) that include a free beverage.

The head chef is Jack Bukowski, who worked for years as a chef at the now-closed Silver Tower in South Bend, Ind., Hughes said.

“He’s been a friend of mine for 15 years and he’s always been a great cook,” Hughes said. “I’ve always had him in mind for when I opened a restaurant.”

Soup has been the most popular item on the menu so far.

“It is hard to determine how much we should make,” Hughes said. “There are some days we had to make five-gallon buckets of the sweet tomato basil and we’d still run out.”

Agrestic Grille daily specials and soups are updated daily on the restaurant’s Facebook page.

Hughes and Sego said they went with the name agrestic to reflect the small town, rural feeling of the area.

Hughes has more than 15 years experience in the restaurant business and Sego around 10 years. Hughes was a manager/server at Blueberry Hill in Niles for six years and Sego a manger/server there for two years.

Hughes does some cooking and prep work, while Sego handles customers.

Call Agrestic Grille at (269) 683-6244.