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Not many people find their career path at 18, but as soon as Steve Nygren saw how the restaurant business worked he knew he was in the right place.
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Not many people find their career path at 18, but as soon as Steve Nygren saw how the restaurant business worked he knew he was in the right place.
Between his freshman and sophomore years of college (where he thought he'd study architecture), Steve worked in a resort community in Colorado as a bus boy. Though he went back to school (now in hospitality), Steve spent more and more time working at Top of the Rockies, the Stouffer's restaurant in Boulder, Colorado. They didn't usually take people into management unless they had a degree, but there was an opening for Assistant Manager, so Steve learned more about running a kitchen. This led him to being an Assistant Sales Manager in St. Louis, then setting up for the groundbreaking in Atlanta, and finally to HQ in Cleveland as the National Director of Marketing for 13 hotels at the age of 24.
After 2 years in Cleveland, he wanted off the "corporate treadmill," and asked to be moved to Atlanta to get that hotel going in January 1972. The Stouffer's Hotel of Atlanta opened that October with restaurant 590 West. One night, Steve and a group of coworkers were in Savannah and joked that they should quit their jobs and open their own restaurant. It was only an idea, but it stuck in Steve's mind and he thought "why not?" He did some research, found a location that came with all the equipment he'd need (and a cheaper lease), and talked his friends into following through with their plan.
In 1972, Atlanta had private clubs, exclusive fancy restaurants, and "fern bars" like T.G.I.Fridays. Steve came in with fresh linens and flowers, reasonable prices and no reservations, and offered a fresh look to the Atlanta dining scene.
How does a hospitality guy end up placemaking in the woods?
Why was Steve Nygren the right person to create a place like Serenbe?
How did Steve go from bus boy to maitre 'd in one summer?
What brought Steve to Atlanta?
What was different about the Stouffer's Hotel in Atlanta?
What was Steve's Big Splash marketing campaign for the Atlanta hotel?
What is a "Fern Bar"?
How did the Pleasant Peasant change the restaurant scene?
What led to Pleasant Peasant first expanding?
How many Pleasant Peasant restaurants were there?
Mick’s
Pennsylvania Development Authority
Pleasant Peasant
Richard Melvin
Spurgeon Richardson
Stanley Marcus
Stouffer’s Hotel
Top of the Mart
Top of the Rockies
Vernon Stouffer
Vic’s Delicatessen
Zell Miller
Atlanta Conventions & Visitor’s Bureau
City Grill
Dailey's
Georgia Hospitality Association
Marie Nygren
Marriott
Monica Olsen (1s): Hey guys, it's Monica here. I wanted to tell you about a new podcast that I've started with my very good friend Jennifer Walsh called Biophilic Solutions. Our last season of Serenbe Stories, Building a Biophilic Movement was so popular that we decided to dedicate an entire podcast to it. Every other week Jennifer and I will sit down with leaders in the growing field of biophilia. We'll talk about local and global solutions to help nurture the living social and economic systems that we all need to sustain future generations. More often than not nature has the answers. You can find Biophilic Solutions on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and follow us today so you don't miss an episode.
Monica Olsen (41s): All right, now let's get back to Serenbe Stories. Serenbe is a place where people live, work learn, and play in celebration of life's beauty. And we're here to share the stories that connect residents and guests to each other and to nature. This is Serenbe Stories.
Monica Olsen (1m 12s): Steve, welcome back. Really excited to kind of dig back into the history of how you got here. Not so much how you got to Serenbe, but people ask me all the time, you know, what Steve's history and how does a hospitality guy end up here doing placemaking and developing a community down memory lane? I know. So one of the things I wanted to talk about, which we've mentioned before is a little bit about your time at Stouffer's.
Monica Olsen (1m 52s): And we again think about Stouffer's as Stouffer's foods. And I almost want to say that at the end of Stouffer's, but it was really a hotel group, correct?
Steve Nygren (1m 60s): Well actually it started as a restaurant group. This was in the, gosh twenties, thirties, I guess that Vernon Stouffer and his brother started a restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio. It's been a while since I've remembered the history of that. And they progressed and interestingly, Vern Stouffer and Mr. Marriott of Marriott hotels were great friends back in those days. And so they shared a lot of stories and challenges and, and what have you, but Stouffer's was really the, the, the restaurant giant and then got into frozen foods. And then hotels.
Steve Nygren (2m 41s): I started working for them in college as a bus boy, and then ended up going into management and then their team of opening hotels.
Monica Olsen (2m 54s): And I think that we talked about, but I love the story. Maybe you can repeat it for me of how you went busing tables at one summer to basically being the maitre d.
Steve Nygren (3m 4s): Well, that was my, my first summer off the farm. So of course I had had grown up as a child of generational farmers in Boulder county, Colorado, and I was determined. I was not returning to the farm nor going to be a farmer. And so my break between from university of Colorado friends that said, come on up to their resort in Granby, Colorado. And there were lots of jobs, cause this was a big summer resort and lakes and hiking and all that. And so I arrived and they apologized that they had no idea how many returning kids came. And there were very few jobs, but they had gotten me a job as a dishwasher, but clarified.
Steve Nygren (3m 47s): It was in the finest resort in town. Well, I didn't care what I did as long as I wasn't working back on the farm. And so I gladly accepted dishwashing. And the third night the owner came back and asked if any of us had brought suits with us for the summer. And I have no idea other than my mother told me to always be prepared, but I was the only person who raised their hand. And so he said, go put the suit on you're the maitre d cause I just fired the maitre d so you're going to be the maitre d for the next couple of nights. Well, I ended up being the maitre d for the whole summer, and I had decided I had arrived in paradise. All of the waitresses of course were over 21 to serve liquor. And, and suddenly I was the most wonderful thing they had seen because I of course was responsible for the early seating, the late seating.
Steve Nygren (4m 34s): So they got me a fake ID, took me out drinking, and I decided this was really a lot more interesting than architecture, where I was starting out. And, but then I returned to school and needed money for Christmas and decided that I was really an experienced restauratuer. And I could get a job in, in one of these nice restaurants in Denver that was looking for people after two weeks of humbly coming back and realizing that no, I was just an 18 year old kid and I accepted a job as a bus boy with Stouffer's who was opening the top of the Rockies in Denver. And it was brand new and they were just opening and it was great.
Steve Nygren (5m 15s): I enjoyed the whole camaraderie with the restaurant folks. And there were a lot of college students also working there from the university of Denver and university of Colorado. And, and so it just naturally fell into, so I continued working and then became an assistant manager and they put me through the paces of, of running a kitchen. That's where I really learned my controls and what have you. And they were really starting to expand their hotel division. And so asked me if I want to go to St. Louis. And I was the assistant sales manager in St. Louis.
Monica Olsen (5m 56s): And at this point, just to stop for one second, you had left school for the Christmas. You went to go for work and never went back.
Steve Nygren (6m 3s): No, I, no, I, I, I returned working, you know, supposedly a full-time student, but I was working more and more. And then in those days, Stouffer's only, you had to have a college degree to go into management. And that's what I was working to. And, you know, like so many times you're short of managers. And so they asked me if I would take a break and they would help me pay for my education, but they had a closing manager's position for the restaurant. And so I took that break in junior year and never returned because I was, I was this bright-eyed young blonde, energetic person that just saw things logically and I related to people.
Steve Nygren (6m 49s): And so I, I went to the opening team in St. Louis and they, then they would decide to sign the deal for the Atlanta hotel. They moved me to Atlanta before we'd even broken ground to set up all the arrangements for the groundbreaking. And I was into that a few months and I got a call one day to come to Cleveland and I packed the bag for two days and go to Cleveland. And I was offered national director of marketing for 13 hotels.
Monica Olsen (7m 20s): And you were what, all of 20?
Steve Nygren (7m 23s): I was 24.
Monica Olsen (7m 24s): Wow.
Steve Nygren (7m 25s): And so I, the world was an oyster.
Steve Nygren (7m 31s): And so this was an incredible opportunity. Most people reporting to me were in their forties and fifties, it was just the right place at the right time. But it was a unique time to be at Stouffer's because they had a big headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio with the many divisions. And my office that happened to be available was two doors down from Vernon Stouffer. And in his senior years and we were the two first people in every morning. So at the coffee machine, I got to know him and chat with him. And I was there at a unique time when he sold the company to Litton industries and the struggle in that inheritance and who does he leave it to?
Steve Nygren (8m 15s): He had three children and a whole story there in, in, in interesting. But then in my period of time, I was two years that I decided to come back to Atlanta and I'll come back to that. But Vernon's son-in-law was with Nestle chocolate and managed to buy the family company back through Nestle to the son-in-law that he didn't didn't leave it-didn't feel he could leave to just the son-in-law when he had a son and daughter and brought it back. So I watched a lot of lifetime employees that were with the company and here I was in my twenties, and I saw these people in their sixties and seventies who were putting into early retirement through the big corporations of Litton and Nestle's.
Steve Nygren (9m 5s): And so that was a real eye-opener is, is I was looking at what my future was going to be. I'd fallen in love with Atlanta in the time I spent here. And then, because this was in a hotel, we were developing, I was here probably every month. And so watching what was happening, I made the decision, I was moving back to Atlanta and that I was going to take myself off the corporate treadmill,
Monica Olsen (9m 30s): And this was 19...
Steve Nygren (9m 32s): So this would have been in 1972 and I was 26 years old. And I said that I was either going to quit, or we were making a change in Atlanta. And I suggested that I take that position and, and acknowledged that I was taking myself off the corporate treadmill. I might, I might stay there forever. I, you know, I, I didn't have any plans other than I wanted to go to Atlanta and I wasn't going to be moving.
Monica Olsen (10m 1s): And were you then brought then going to run the whole,
Steve Nygren (10m 4s): No, I came back to head up the marketing effort. And so I came as part of the marketing team. So I came back in January of 72. We opened the hotel in October. Part of the team that had opened St. Louis with me, came to open the Atlanta hotel. The food and beverage director, the catering director, and various other people that was kind of the opening team. So here are all my buddies coming back. Kind of all back together in Atlanta. And it was great fun.
Monica Olsen (10m 34s): And this was call the Stouffer...
Steve Nygren (10m 36s): It was the Stouffer's hotel.
Monica Olsen (10m 37s): Stouffer's hotel. And they had a restaurant called 590 West.
Steve Nygren (10m 40s): That's right. 590 West was on top of the hotel.
Monica Olsen (10m 42s): That was their equivalent of the top of the sixes, or
Steve Nygren (10m 47s): That is correct. Now. But however, Atlanta already had top of the Mart, which was on top of the merchandise Mart that had open, opened here probably in the sixties.
Monica Olsen (10m 58s): Okay. That's great. That's really interesting. And so tell me a little bit about the hotel. You've got all your friends back from St. Louis you're opening the hotel. What interesting things were you able to do at this hotel? Or tell me a little bit about what was different about it.
Steve Nygren (11m 14s): Well, 1972, Atlanta was just emerging as the capitol of the south. You know, this is coming out of the big campaign of Atlanta, too busy to hate. And there was a lot of things happening. A lot of young people, it was really an energetic, but it was, it was still a little over a million people. It was not a big town. This was Atlanta had premiered the, the Hyatt hotel, which was the beginning of the big open atrium. So there was a lot of hotel focus. Marriott had one of their first prototype, their major convention hotel was here and Stouffer's was coming in with a smaller, those were all in the eight, 900 rooms. We came in with 500 room hotel that was not in the center city, but just in Midtown, because it was on north avenue, a few blocks from Coke's headquarters.
Steve Nygren (12m 3s): So there was a whole thought that, that, that corner there of Peachtree and West Peachtree and north avenue would become a mini center that never actually emerged. It was life of Georgia's headquarters so the insurance company was there and the hotel was next to that. It was designed by Harry and Harry, the architects in Atlanta the day. And the unique feature was four suites each with their individual dipping pool. And so then we had, of course, the main pool for the hotel, which is up on the fourth floor, above the lobby. You really didn't see that from the street, but it sat up as the hotel jotted back. And so they thought about the campaign.
Steve Nygren (12m 43s): They want to make these suites the big deal with their own pool. And so we built our whole opening campaign around the big splash and to create that big splash, literally, we brought in the cliff divers from Acapulco, and they dove off the 22 story building into that pool. So this was quite a logistics that you had to know the depth of the pool and that they could actually do that. And we all still held our breath and the, the wind couldn't be any more than a certain degree. And we'd had this whole big house. So it was great fun. Our whole, all of our literature, everything was a big splash to really bring focus in that we were unique in having hotel suites.
Steve Nygren (13m 30s): I love that whole image.
Monica Olsen (13m 33s): So you open a hotel in October, everything's going great.
Steve Nygren (13m 37s): So we open that hotel up in October, and of course, these are all my buddies. And so we're, you know, we're 20, we're working hard. Partying hard. And one night in Savannah, four of us were in Savannah and drinking way too much and decided we should all just quit our jobs and open a restaurant, seen this restaurant that was for sale and
Monica Olsen (14m 3s): In Savannah?
Steve Nygren (14m 5s): In Savannah. And so we came back to Atlanta, but somehow that stuck in my mind is why not? Now this is, this is just after we've opened the hotel. And I went back to Savannah the next weekend to negotiate the purchase of the restaurant, which didn't turn out. So I came back sort of, you know, disappointed, but thought, well, why Savannah? Wouldn't Atlanta be a better place who wants to leave Atlanta? And so I proceeded to do my light work and I found this closed restaurant, or just a few blocks from the hotel Midtown in the seventies was a pretty sad place.
Steve Nygren (14m 47s): It was basically been vacated because the hippies had taken over in the late sixties. And when they left, there was just empty storefronts. And so this was a building that had been built in 1900 and was fixed delicatessen for years. And then it had gone through bad times, once that closed. And in the previous five years, it had been five different restaurants. It was awful, but I could buy all the equipment and the lease and everything for $10,000. And the rent was only $400 a month.
Steve Nygren (15m 28s): And so I could, I could afford that. And so I talked my friends into, we should all quit our jobs. And so in one session, we all went in to our general manager and it was the food and beverage manager, the banquet manager, and I was the head marketing manager and we all said we were leaving. And it was great. He smiled, I mean, he was thrilled for us. And he said, if I didn't have three kids, I would join you. So we had the full support of, of all the management. And then the fourth person who was a friend was, was Dick, was in the personnel for Neiman Marcus, which had just opened in Atlanta.
Steve Nygren (16m 15s): And he was, had been drinking with us in Savannah. So he was in on this deal. And so just it was one of those carefree moments that looking back, what were we even thinking of? But we were in the, the, the moment and we, I talked to the local bank that I'd worked with with the, in the hotel to loan us $225,000. And we put a keg of beer in the middle of the building, and we started stripping the plaster off the walls to find those brick walls. The drop-in ceiling revealed this old tin ceiling that was kind of scarred up, but what the heck?
Steve Nygren (16m 55s): And then that awful greasy carpet that was down, we started scraping that up and there was that old octagon tile. And so it was just like Christmases. We were, we didn't have to add to, we just, we just took everything away. And here was this wonderful, like New York neighborhood restaurants that emerged, which, which fit this very casual design. Now, 1972 Atlanta had private clubs, very fancy reservation restaurants. And it was the emergence, the beginning of, of what you call, we called the Fern bars. But this is the beginning of TGI Fridays. So these were bars that were serving food. That was kind of a new, new thing that was happening.
Steve Nygren (17m 37s): But here we came in with this, this restaurant with fresh linen, flowers, no reservations, reasonable prices, fun, young servers. And it, it was just a fresh new look in the dining scene of Atlanta.
Monica Olsen (17m 54s): Well and that's what I, you know, having grown up in California, it and in grew up in the seventies, I was too young to be going to restaurants at that point. But you know, I, I was born in 70, but it was the same thing. There were clubs, there were really fancy tablecloth and there really wasn't anything in between. There was like Marie Callender's, we would go to, right. I don't know if that's something that in the south, but what were some of the things that you did differently?
Steve Nygren (18m 15s): Well, you know to, to play on what you just said, that I remember the national restaurant association at the big convention, they were talking about the emergence of new casual restaurants and from California, it was Spago's and Richard Melvin out of Chicago. And I represented the Southeast and I forget who there was someone from the, from the Northeast. And so they had us from four different regions talking about the emergence of a new dining style. And so it's how far we've come in to the front of the seventies. So we had fresh food. We had to drive a truck to Florida to get fresh seafood. It shows you where we are.
Steve Nygren (18m 56s): So it, it was a struggle to actually bring fresh food in. We did a lot of what you would think of, of your more parisian recipes, but with an American flair. So coq au vin, steak au poivre, scallops parisienne, and some of those things, but people still remember our bread, which was sliced rolls dipped in a garlic Parmesan and toasted. And you could smell them when you walked in. We we'd created this incredible dressing on the salads with, with a bit of an, an anchovy. And it just was a unique flavor that people would rave for. And then our dessert, you know, I think that we always like to be a little bit decadent, but how could we do this in a, in a new flare?
Steve Nygren (19m 38s): And here again, we were using some traditional, so baked Alaska's at that point were hot in all your fancy restaurants, you know, and they would roll them out for two and they would flame them at the table. And so we decided to do our own version. So we took a clay flower pot, and we put the sponge cake and the, and the ice cream and the creme de menthe all in there. And then we had merengues that formed the top as the earth. And we, we brown them and put a straw in it and a live Daisy. And so we called it our flower pot. And so that was our version of the baked Alaska. And, and that became a real iconic image. But through the years, you know, we were some of the first to put candy and cookie in cheesecakes.
Steve Nygren (20m 22s): And you look at all that whole emergence where the cheesecake factory, we were the beginning of, of, of that trend and a lot of things of having fun with food, but yet it had high quality and freshness.
Monica Olsen (20m 37s): Well, one of the other things that- cause people will stop you on the street still to this day, and they remember the restaurant and I mean, you, you obviously built it up to, you know, over 30, but that original, that was the place to go for birthdays and anniversaries and graduation. But the thing that I thought that was interesting is that you guys use chalkboards for the menus, is that correct?
Steve Nygren (20m 57s): We did. And it was, you know, with, we were out of money and we were ready to open and no one had thought about printing a menu. And so it was kind of like, well, how can we do it? Well, let's just write it on a chalkboard. And, and then we would, it was five items. And so we would discuss, we would bring the chalkboard and discuss the, each of the items. And that was fairly unique. That was very unique at the time. So we did a lot of things that were not normal at the time.
Monica Olsen (21m 27s): Servers' first names. That was another thing.
Steve Nygren (21m 30s): All of our servers would introduce themselves.
Monica Olsen (21m 32s): And that was like shocking, right. To have that kind of relationship with your server. That's so fun. So now it gets off the ground. I'm sure there are like, you know, highs and lows and that kind of stuff, but you know, you did grow it to over 35 or 33? 35?
Steve Nygren (21m 47s):36 restaurants.
Monica Olsen (21m 49s):Okay. So what was the sort of next step after that first one?
Steve Nygren (21m 53s): Well it was, you know, here, it was really exciting, but here we had four executives doing menial- We, we did everything. We had a dishwasher, but we scrubbed the floors. We did everything and it was difficult for some. And so the food and beverage director who had been a high profile person, it hit her on some emotional things. And she tried committing suicide and we did not realize the triggers it had caused. And so that next morning she said, I can't stay here. And she left. And she said, just pay me whatever you want to.
Steve Nygren (22m 33s): Well, at that point, it was a bank debt. There was no- we were three months into this restaurant. And so we were drawing up those papers and the catering manager who was fabulous cook. And so she was running the kitchen and we were getting busier and busier and hiring staff, but she would come in earlier and stay later and you could see she was losing weight and wearing herself out. At that point, was when I stopped waiting tables and swung into the kitchen, because I could, I, I was worried. And she went into the hospital with mono and was in for 10 days. And she had really run herself right down to the core. And so she, then when we had the papers to sign for the other partner, she said, just duplicate them.
Steve Nygren (23m 18s): She says, I can't, I can't do this. And so they both left, but this was, we didn't know where it was going. I mean, we assumed the debt and paid them. I forget it was very minimal, a couple thousand dollars, but they were just happy to be out from under the debt. And we got the bank to take their names off of it. So it was still questionable. We weren't, you know, we were starting to get busy, but we, it wasn't a sure thing. And by month six we had lines out the door. And at that point, we, we opened the doors at, at five o'clock and people would be lying to get the seats. We only had 62 seats, and it was the, you know, you were coming to the wrong part of town in those days, this incredible food and the parking lot was full of very fancy cars.
Steve Nygren (24m 9s): And so it became more, it was the thing. It was the thing. If you, if you had not been to the Pleasant Peasant, you just, were not in.
Monica Olsen (24m 18s): Right. And this was across the street from what is now Emory Crawford long. So, I mean, not-
Steve Nygren (24m 27s): And there was a- the Crawford Long Hospital was there but not this new- you know, it was the older hospital and the, and that was there. So that's why people knew, I have to say you're across from Crawford long and on Peachtree street. So, so we realized if people could identify where you were, no matter how bad the town was, they knew how to get there. And so, and Atlanta was emerging. The Omni had just opened. And so you started having entertainment stars that had not been to Atlanta. And we were the place. So every week we had someone famous in whoever, whatever was happening in Atlanta, we were the place to come. And we were known as really drawing all these incredible people. And one of our regular customers was the general manager of Phipps Plaza.
Steve Nygren (25m 10s): Phipps Plaza at that point was five years old. They had brought Saks and Lord and Taylor, and Tiffany's all to town, and this was a big deal for Atlanta, but it seems Atlanta wasn't ready to really support these big New York stores. And in the fifth year, the second level, which had a restaurant in it, and several shops was basically all shuttered. The hair salon and Merrill Lynch were the only things opened on the second floor now. And so the general manager had been enamored with what we were doing and the crowds we were bringing and made us an incredible deal to take over the closed restaurant there.
Steve Nygren (25m 55s): And so I decided it was such an incredible deal that, and they were going to totally redo the restaurant too, to our specifications. And that I was fine if we just did lunch because the mall was closed five nights a week. So how was I going to get people through a closed mall to a restaurant? Stan Topol was teaching school at that time had never designed a professional restaurant, had done a few houses. And we asked Stan, if he would take on totally redoing the peasant, this space, which we call the peasant uptown, of course, that launched Stan's design career. With our first lunch, we had 400 people.
Steve Nygren (26m 35s): It was amazed. We opened it for dinner six weeks later with lines again, and within six months, every vacant space on the second floor was leased. And so as word got out about the draw that we had and that a restaurant could have, as I look back, this was the beginning of placemaking. And this was in a period of time, this is 1974. Retail really wasn't using hospitality as a draw. We were at the beginning of that trend, but that paved the way for deals that I was able to make then to build our restaurant career.
Steve Nygren (27m 22s): And so we either bought properties at very depressed values or the developer or owner of the building made us incredible deals to sure, because we were a destination
Monica Olsen (27m 34s): That's still happening. That's still happens today with restaurants. They use that as an anchor and a draw. And so I know that, so that was the second one. Are there other ones in Atlanta that sort of stick out in your mind that were sort of interesting?
Steve Nygren (27m 47s): We were, we were really pivotal in a lot of the development that you look back has happened. And so we were the first liquor license in Roswell and in the old town square, when it was boarded up as well. And Dick Myrick brought us in and actually was able to extend his, his lease on the area. And he gives us credit for having saved that real estate for him. In Decatur we were the first table service restaurant there and by then I realized that we needed to do more than, than just help the landlord where I could. So there, we bought the building at depressed prices and created the restaurant there on the old town squares in Decatur.
Steve Nygren (28m 33s): That was a mixed restaurant that we, that was the beginning of our casual concept mix. Dailies in downtown Atlanta was the first restaurant outside of hotel in 30 years. We took over then the old federal reserve building in the hurt building and that was Atlanta's finest dining room in downtown Atlanta. And that was called city grill. Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus loved our concept. And he wanted us to go to Dallas and I wasn't interested. And he said, okay, what city that Neiman's is in do you want to go to? And I said, well, we're interested in Washington DC.
Steve Nygren (29m 13s): And he called me two weeks later and said, good, I've negotiated your lease at the Mazza where Neiman's was. And he understood the lease we needed and he had, and so we opened our first out of Georgia restaurant in DC.
Monica Olsen (29m 28s): And, and was that also that that was a mazza was an indoor mall?
Steve Nygren (29m 34s): That was an indoor model. And we, we had a key corner as a two-story restaurant there. Oh, it was, it was with an, oh, we were at 250, you know, it was quite a, it was quite, it was quite a, a restaurant. We were, it was a real anchor for this, or rather exclusive mall and in DC. And, and then we had a presence in DC. And so when the Pennsylvania development authority were in the midst of redoing Pennsylvania avenue from the white house to the Capitol, which was also a really depressed, awful area in the sixties. They talked to a number of restaurants to, to come in because they realize they need to, to change it.
Steve Nygren (30m 15s): And we were one of the five restaurants that opened there. And I think that was 1982. And in those days you didn't dare walk on Pennsylvania avenue after dark. And it's great to see it today. It's one of the really happening places. So we were, well, we've been at the beginning of really restoring inner city neighborhoods through creating great places for people to meet.
Monica Olsen (30m 44s): And I think that you also went to Philadelphia, is that correct?
Steve Nygren (30m 47s): We were in Philadelphia, we were in Memphis. We were in Minneapolis.
Monica Olsen (30m 52s): Wow. And each of those, were they the same concept, a mix or?
Steve Nygren (30m 55s): So we opened generally with a Pleasant Peasant, which was our table service, continental, casual. And then our extreme casual was mixed. And that was fresh pastas, burgers, you could choose to have a beef burger or a chicken breast. And we did, then we did everything else the same. So you could get the same toppings. And we had a whole line of things. And of course our great desserts chocolate cream pie and these incredible cheesecakes and just really decadent, fun desserts.
Monica Olsen (31m 28s): One of the other things I think Midtown is really interesting today because anybody who is from Atlanta, you know, Midtown is pretty much fully formed and incredible place to be in the BeltLine and colony square and all these things, but in the seventies and eighties, it really wasn't and in fact, when I moved here 20 years ago, it's still, you really didn't quite walk Peachtree street. But tell me a little bit about like, there's the Midtown Alliance, which I know you were very involved with. I know there's a couple of stories there that I'd love to hear.
Steve Nygren (31m 59s): Yes, Midtown is, was the dear spot. Of course, back in the day, we had restaurants in downtown Midtown Buckhead, the perimeter. So we were really involved in the business community around Atlanta, on various activities that were happening. But Midtown was that area where there really wasn't a lot happening. And so in seventies, mid seventies, I'd already had the restaurant, the central Atlanta progress, which is the business group downtown was very concerned about the condition of Midtown because all of executives from the banks and the law firms and the businesses mostly lived in Buckhead and traveled Peachtree to downtown and Midtown was vacant.
Steve Nygren (32m 52s): Buildings had gotten so bad that there was prostitution's so blatantly actually sitting in plate glass windows advertising. And the weeds were everywhere. It's hard to believe. And there are pictures sometimes comparing how you see it and we all forget how bad it really was. And so central Atlanta progress had come to some of the mom and pop businesses that there was a, an architect and a, an art gallery photo folks. And they formed a, the, the business association to help clean it up and central Atlanta funded that. And so this was wrapping up the fourth year of this, and they had done a good job of cleaning it up.
Steve Nygren (33m 34s): And, and I was aware of it and funding it and attended a couple of their meetings. And so central Atlanta progress, it had declared cleanup and they had told them that, thank you very much and we're done. And so they came to me and said help. And at this point I had a business profile within and they felt that I could help them negotiate. And so they asked me if I would take chairman. Now, I had never even been to any of their executive meetings. I'd, I'd come to a few luncheons, but at that point I had four restaurants in Midtown. And so I agreed to take the chairmanship. And I said, I would, I would do it for two years.
Steve Nygren (34m 13s): And I met with Dan Sweat at, at central honor progress and asked them to fund it one more year and then to support our effort to be a standalone organization. And he did. At that time AT&T had just completed their headquarters building at 14th and Peachtree. And in fact, I don't think they'd even had the grand opening yet, but I asked them to, to let us use their, their boardroom. And I'd gotten several of the really bigger companies, not the mom and pops, but some of the big companies that were headquartered there, Holder Construction and, and various other businesses.
Steve Nygren (34m 57s): And so we had this very professional looking board room with a great new board, and I had 12 board members. And it just it's, it transitioned this idea of this mom and pop that was meeting around a table at Mary Mac's for their board meetings. And suddenly we were in a boardroom with nameplates and Pat Gan who ran the Dogwood festival had come on the board. And so we did a whole arts festival and we really positioned Midtown at that point as the center for the arts and the place where people could live. We brought in the neighborhoods of home park and Ansley park and Midtown to be part of the association.
Steve Nygren (35m 37s): The name was later changed to the Alliance because it was more than a business association. It was truly Alliance of everyone in Midtown, both residents and businesses, and the leadership that we put in place in that first board in the two years remained the leadership for the next couple of decades. Susan Mendham had had come in to work in the office. And in the second year I elevated her to executive director and here was a, a single mother raising three kids, not the person that normally would be seen as that person. But I saw a spirit in Susan that was, could get things done.
Steve Nygren (36m 20s): And she remained there for the next 25 years until she retired. And so we really moved Midtown. And of course, one of the great things is as we brought this spirit in, we'd brought the neighborhood people and the business people and, and to pull weeds on Peachtree street. And, and I mean, it was that bad that we had to pull weeds. And so we did a weekend and we bought a truckload of pansies to put in all the tree beds and to just, and so here was all these yellow, blue, and white, and we cleaned it up and it was a whole neighborhood effort that was just to clean Peachtree street. What I did not realize is that IBM was looking at Atlanta is a headquarters.
Steve Nygren (37m 3s): So they had chosen Atlanta to put a headquarters building. And the media was all speculating that there were three sites in downtown, two sites in Buckhead, and the far distant possibility would be a perimeter site. Midtown wasn't even mentioned as a possibility that's how, how Midtown was just not in anyone's thought. It was just this place that was between and IBM chose Midtown. And that was really when financial and real estate people in the business world took Midtown as through different lenses.
Steve Nygren (37m 45s): And later someone told me the story that while it wasn't the deciding factor, that they were so impressed that the, there was such a spirit in the neighborhood that we had come together to plant all these flowers. And it looked great. It was just this emerging area, but these fresh flowers on the streets. So that timing was key.
Monica Olsen (38m 7s): Another thing that I think you worked on a bit was the Atlanta conventions and visitors bureau. The ACVB, who's obviously central and instrumental in all hospitality in Atlanta. But tell me a little bit about that because that's also early day, not early days, maybe, but,
Steve Nygren (38m 23s): Well absolutely. Early days. And, and, and before that, Monica, as I was head of the Georgia hospitality association, which we had brought together, the hotel association, the restaurant association, the airlines and the travel. So we had united all organizations that were involved in hospitality and had created and then I became chair of that organization. And it was in that period of time that I was chairing that organization, that we changed the laws to allow outside dining. Believe it or not, you could not, the health department would not allow you to eat on the street.
Monica Olsen (39m 5s): No way. You couldn't sit on the sidewalk. So all these sidewalk cafes,
Steve Nygren (39m 8s): Sidewalk cafes. So we brought that about, we brought Sunday liquor.
Monica Olsen (39m 17s): Still a little bit of a battle.
Steve Nygren (39m 19s): I think it was one of the fun pictures with governor Zell Miller signing that, that law. And that's- but yeah, you can do it, you see baby face. And, and then I headed the Atlanta commission of issues for two years. And I became known as a reorganizer because we changed the key staff there and put Spurge Richardson who also retired as executive director of that organization years later.
Steve Nygren (39m 52s): And so it was, it's been, it's been fun and rewarding to be a key part of these organizations and to establish leadership that carried it on for several decades, even after I left the leadership positions.
Monica Olsen (40m 6s): One of the things you touched on just very briefly was Mary Mac's, that you started to do some of your board meetings there. Mary Mac's is a very pivotal place for you. Will you tell us a little bit about Mary Mac's and Margaret Lupo, who you met and why that's important?
Steve Nygren (40m 22s): Well Mary Mac's, you know, for Atlanta, it it's, you know, one of the political salons that, and that happened. Margaret Lupo bought the, the tea shop from Margaret McKinsey, which is why it's Mary Mac's, not Margaret's whatever. So when we were scraping paint off the walls of the Pleasant Peasant, that was our treat to go down a couple of weeks. And we ate at Mary Mac's cause you could eat all this great wholesome Southern food for very reasonable prices. Of course, the, the, the reason Mary Mac's is part of our history is because Margaret's daughter Marie was working there. And I just saw her as Margaret's daughter
.Steve Nygren (41m 4s): And then we were snowed in together one night and nine in, gosh, that was what, 1982
Monica Olsen (41m 10s): At Mary Mac's?
Steve Nygren (41m 11s): At, well, no, we were actually snowed in at Daily's downtown. She was dropped into dailies with a group of people, and I was checking on our restaurants. And so a romance started there and we were married a year later. And so, yeah, so that's where where Mary Mac's is a key piece. And as our daughters were being raised, they thought everyone owned a restaurant because they either went to grandmother's restaurants or dad's restaurants. We never ate anywhere else. So they just thought that was natural.
Monica Olsen (41m 43s): So now after, you know, years in the restaurant business, you end up with 36 restaurants that are all over the Southeast. Tell us a little bit about sort of those last couple of years before you were bought out, or, you know, you retired, what was sort of going through your head? You sort of made it to the top of the, of your vision.
Steve Nygren (42m 3s): The, well, as I was growing the restaurants and then married and three children, I was no longer the carefree person that it didn't matter what happens. Suddenly I had responsibilities beyond myself. One of the, the great things about selling is it gave us some financial resources to do other things. And one was to buy a weekend farm, which was just a whim at the time, which I told that story, but it was through the sale that gave us the revenue that we could be able to do that. And then that was just before we actually went public. And so that was quite a year that was very different than running a group of restaurants.
Steve Nygren (42m 47s): And then I was running a public company and I found that wasn't quite as much fun. We made decisions very differently. And so as my time came to do another five years, I had serious reservations and the three weekends, or the three years of coming down to the farm on the weekends was my real value shift of what was important. And that's when I made the decision that I was not going to renew and that I would cash in my remaining shares. I had not converted to stock. And so I had a, a nice parachute and I took that and stepped off the treadmill.
Steve Nygren (43m 33s): And that's when I thought I was fortunate enough to have early retirement, which I did. And so that's what brought us to the farm full-time.
Monica Olsen (43m 42s): I love that story. I think that all of your, sort of really visionary marketing ideas from the flowerpot to the divers off the building, you know, come forward into like the Serenbe box and the really thoughtful, even the streetlamps of like thinking differently. And I think your whole career really, you know, comes forward, but you probably had no idea when you bought the farm and you were retiring that there was going to be a whole nother placemaking ahead of you. And so I really thank you for sharing the background and the history. I just think it's fascinating. And I'm sure our listeners will really enjoy it, especially the ones that had been to the restaurants over the year. So thank you so much, Steve.
Steve Nygren (44m 19s): Well, thank you. It's been fun going down, remembering some of these things and these times.
Monica Olsen (44m 28s): Thank you for listening to Serenbe Stories. New episodes are available on Mondays. You can subscribe anywhere you listen to podcasts. For more details visit our website, serenbestories.com.
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Steve’s early career was in hospitality and in 1972, he opened the Pleasant Peasant, which became a restaurant corporation that grew to 34 restaurants in eight states by the time he departed in 1994. Steve and his wife, Marie, retired to a farm just outside Atlanta with their three daughters and six years later, he became concerned about urban sprawl invading their adopted country paradise.
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