The New, Candid Nonna's

Have you been to Nonna’s Italian-American Café? Have you  experienced the ol’ you-get-to-wait-minutes-before- an-employee-greets-you phenomenon? Or the vexing I-have-my-food-but-not-my- flippin’-silverware phenomenon? Despite former owner Mary Faucett’s near-unrivaled panache and personality among downtown restaurateurs, Nonna’s reputation was not always sparkling.

Tim Caldwell took over the place this summer, along with three other co-owners (chef Marty Almaraz, architect Craig Anderson and pastry chef/wine expert Julia Ferrell). He doesn’t need prompting to admit it. He comes right out and says it. “There was a real lack of consistency, a real lack of efficiency, a real lack of cleanliness,” Caldwell says. Wow.

“It happens to restaurants, especially older restaurants,” Caldwell adds. “It” is complacency. Caldwell, who worked at Nonna’s during his college years at then–SMSU, says he found that when Faucett or her children weren’t working the place, employees let stuff slide.

Well, no more. Caldwell and co. are:
1. Banishing complacency in favor of a kind of ownership society within the restaurant. Many of the staff are the same people whose art is on the walls or who play in a downtown rock band, say. By fostering a tight-knit neighborhood creative community, Caldwell says employees keep up their morale and take pride in their work.

2. Re-looking the restaurant. New satiny paint, new photos of nonnas (“grandmas”) on the walls, new work by local artists. New restroom fixtures. (“It’s like a beeline into our kitchen,” says Caldwell. He means that figuratively.)

3. Adding cabaret soirées. Each Sunday, from 6 to 8 p.m., “The Cast Party” provides an open-mic evening for guests who’d like music with their dinner (and who want to put head to pillow at a decent hour). Performers such as Jennifer Armstrong (recently in The Full Monty by Springfield Little Theatre) have been thronging Nonna’s to display their talent, says Caldwell.

4. Getting rid of the crappy coffee immediately. “Crappy coffee” is Caldwell’s phrase. “Don’t write that!” he says. “We’re switching over to MudHouse coffee.”

5. Revamping the menu. Gone? The chicken livers. They filled the dining room with a perfume that liver-lovers love, but ordinary people do not. Also, heavy, garlicky things at lunch. Added? A new chicken pasta dish, a longer wine list mixing U.S. and Italian wines, local tomatoes in the Italian Flag Salad. “I’m a fan of the Slow Food movement,” Caldwell remarks.

6. Fighting standardization. Caldwell says he and his
co-owners are under constant pressure from food suppliers to purchase processed, standardized items, similar to fried appetizers you’d find at, say, Chotchkie’s, the horrid chain purgatory featured in the movie Office Space. But Nonna’s is not the sort of place where the servers wear 37 pieces of flair. “We don’t even have a deep fryer!” belts out Caldwell. He’s keeping as many things as possible made from scratch.

Nonna’s Italian-American Café
306 South Ave., Springfield
417-831-1222; nonnascafe.com
Open daily for lunch and dinner. To discover a Nonna’s seafood lasagna recipe, see our “Comfort Food” story in the November 2006 print edition, available on local newsstands.