The Barstool Fund - Nick's Restaurant
Up next: Nick's Restaurant (Kingsport, TN)
In 1938 Nick Nave originated the idea of Nick’s, the longest standing restaurant tradition in Kingsport, TN. Nick committed to serving the best of Southern Traditional food and is credited bringing the long-standing tradition of Broasting to Kingsport from Louisville, KY.
Reader Email
Our business, Nick's Restaurant, is the oldest restaurant in Kingsport, Tennessee. It was established in 1938 by a well known man in our community named Nick Nave. He had a dream of sharing his love of food with our community. Since then Nick's has been one of the few family owned restaurants in our town and has become a staple of Kingsport.
We are truly a family owned and operated restaurant. My husband and I both work at the restaurant along with my mother, siblings, and cousins. We purchased the business in July of 2019 just shortly before the pandemic hit. My husband and I wanted to carry on the legacy that Nick Nave left behind because we know how much it means to our community. Several of our employees have been working at Nick's for over 30 years. It has become their home and I can't imagine having to tell them that we would have to close down. Not only would it be a devastation to us, but also to our community.
We love giving back to our community as much as we possibly can. During these difficult times meals on wheels contacted us to see if we would be interested in delivering meals to the elderly that have been impacted by COVID because there was such a need in our community. Since March we have delivered 25 meals every day to the elderly that are at risk. That is over 7,850 meals that have been delivered to our community. My brother delivers the meals everyday and has developed relationships with all of these people and realized that for many this is the only meal a day that they receive. I can't imagine having to stop delivering these meals to people who need it so much. We have also delivered countless meals to our local hospitals, fire and police departments, and etc during this time.
We have the most loyal customers who also feel like Nick's is their home. Many order from us 5 times a week and have tried to support us the best way they can during this pandemic. We also have customers who drive two hours just to come and eat our famous chicken! My husband and I have been so thankful for the customers that have tried to keep us afloat during these times. In March we were forced to go to carry out only and this really took a toll on our business. We received the first round of ppp funding, but that only helped cover our employees pay for a couple months. In the past couple months we have been able to open indoor dining, but due to our restaurant only being able to seat 55 people normally we can't seat many people now at all due to the COVID guidelines. We even tried to improve our restaurant and add outdoor seating, but in these winter months no one can dine outside and the amount of outdoor space we have is so small it never helped much.
Our business was also hit with a round of COVID forcing us to struggle even more. Our whole family and many employees ended up with the virus and it was a hard time for all. In the past two months, two restaurants within 1/2 of a mile radius of us have been forced to close their doors for good. We are scared of what is to come for us and we are doing everything we can to keep our doors open, but realized that we won't be able to for much longer with all of then obstacles we are having to face. We are one of the few locally family owned businesses left in our community and we just can't imagine having to close our doors for good. Thank you for Dave and the barstool sports team for this opportunity to keep our business alive!