A Conversation With ... Nancy Miller

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned?

Have good insurance, obviously. And be proactive. Don’t sit around waiting for things to happen. You’ve got to make them happen. If you’re going to be in a leadership position, you’ve got to act like a leader. I knew curling up in the corner and going, ‘Woe is me,’ was not the way to present the situation, because that’s not what you do. You’ve got to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again.

What was the biggest obstacle you faced in having to shut down operations for about four months after the fire?

The unknown – dealing with the insurance company and also constantly looking for a new location during that whole time, to see if anything would fit – but the not knowing if we were going to build, the costs and so forth, the waiting and getting insurance estimates and what that all entailed. To rebuild, we would have been out of business for a really long time. They gave us six to eight months as a timeframe.

Was timing the main reason you chose not to renovate the Kentwood Avenue location?

Yes. It just wasn’t going to be time-friendly at all. Could I take that risk, even though I had wonderful clientele and a great reputation in the community ... and be out of business that length of time and have people still come back? You can’t predict what people are going to do. There could have been another Nearly Famous-like restaurant that opened up in the meantime, and all of those customers would have gone to that, and where would we be? We kept in touch with our customers at www.nearlyfamous.net. We did weekly updates to keep everybody up to speed.

What about your staff? Did you lose several team members?

I lost a couple. One moved ... and others went ahead and got other jobs in the meantime, but it’s very few. And George Mikkelsen is still here. George has been here 23 years. He is the man, and is the general manager. I feel really fortunate. The staff came in and helped get this building ready. They were ready to come back and be part of this experience. They wanted to paint. They wanted to clean. They wanted to make sure it was something they would be comfortable coming back to. We have about 25 employees. We might have more, especially with banquet service starting.

How does your new location compare to the old one in terms of size?

We’ve only got 14 more seats than we had in the other place. It’s just spread out. The lunch counter has been really great, and then we will have a banquet facility available for parties up to 40 people. There’s 4,470 square feet here as opposed to 2,000 at the old place.

Right now, you’re only serving lunch – when do you hope to open for dinner? Any other goals or plans you’re also working on?

Definitely the banquet facility is going to be a big plus for us. A lot of people who enjoy the Nearly Famous experience will be able to do it in a private area. We can have more business for meetings. We’re keeping our catering. That will be up and running shortly in full capacity. For dinner, we are really, really close. We went through a schedule ... and we’re just a few people short. I hate to give you a date or a range, but I want to be up and ready by the end of the month.

Tell us about your family.

I have two brothers and a sister. My sister, Anita, has actually come to work for me. One of my brothers works for the Springfield Cardinals, and my other brother works for American Family Insurance.

Where do like to go out to eat?

I really enjoy Tong’s Thai Restaurant on South Campbell. Tong is awesome, a nice fellow. We’ve just started going to Big Easy Grill. It’s so good – shrimp po’ boys and catfish po’ boys, and they have a really good red snapper. [[In-content Ad]]