Opinion: Nearly Famous specializes in casual comfort

Our party of three arrived for lunch at around 12:45 p.m. We were seated for less than a minute when we were greeted by our server, Melanie, who presented us with menus and took our drink orders.

The menu embraced soup, salad, sandwiches, pasta and Nearly Famous’ signature quiche, as well as desserts best described as decadent.

The restaurant bustled with diners of all ages, from a family with children to a 30-something couple, a pair of young college students, middle-aged men and women and several seniors.

The atmosphere is pleasant, capitalizing on natural light, a colorful display of paintings by the Springfield Visual Arts Alliance and small arrangements of fresh flowers in fall colors, thoughtfully placed on each table.

The crowd was congenial, and there was a constant babble of conversation. While that also means a significant noise factor, the restaurant’s setup – mostly two- or four-person tables – creates its own intimacy.

While diners might have to raise their voices to be heard while leaning back in their chairs, the tables are the perfect size that, by leaning forward over the table, you create your own private space – a cone of silence – in which you can speak and hear without being overheard.

Within five minutes of distributing menus, Melanie was taking our orders. She was friendly and efficient, and the coffee drinker at our table never had to wait for a refill.

I ordered the pasta of the day, seafood alfredo, which combined fresh crab and shrimp with fetuccine, plus salad and bread for $9.99. A companion ordered the quiche of the day, which she said was flavorful and “loaded with crab and swiss,” served with salad and bread for $6.95.

My salad came separately about seven minutes after ordering and before my companions’ food arrived. All of our entrees arrived about 15 minutes after we placed our orders.

The pasta portion was just the right size, and both it and the quiche featured real crab, not the imitation stuff.

For the diner on a budget, I highly recommend the specials that include choice of soup or salad and are quite filling.

A third member of our party ordered a custom sandwich – turkey and swiss on croissant – with chips, and while pronouncing the sandwich excellent, she was still a little peckish when she finished her meal and wished she had ordered soup or a salad.

We made up the difference by splitting a dessert – white chocolate raspberry love cake – that Melanie recommended as a Nearly Famous favorite, and it lived up to expectation.

While Nearly Famous is not the place for a group meeting, tabletop presentation or detailed deal making, it is an excellent venue for dining with colleagues and friends, and for sharing close conversation in a casual and comfortable setting.

Clarissa French is the editor of Springfield Business Journal.

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