When Illinois took the plunge and legalized medical marijuana in 2013, restaurateur George Archos decided he would get in on the ground floor.
Archos, who grew up in the family restaurant business, had already opened several successful Wildberry Pancake and Cafe locations in Chicago and the suburbs, and was convinced his hospitality experience would serve him well in the nascent cannabis industry.
The budding entrepreneur has since turned Chicago-based Verano from a pipe dream into one of the largest publicly traded cannabis companies in the country. And he still owns seven Chicago-area restaurants.
"I love the restaurant business, and everything that I've learned in the restaurant industry is directly applied to our success in the cannabis industry," Archos, 46, said during a recent interview at Verano's new Chicago headquarters.
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