SEQUIM — The restaurant business has always been about family for Billy and Mary Nagler, who are marking the 30th anniversary of The Oak Table Cafe on Thursday.
So it is little surprise that the next generation of Naglers is hard at it, running new restaurants in Kingston and, coming soon, in Walla Walla, using Mom and Dad’s successful business model.
The Oak Table Cafe is Sequim’s oldest restaurant under a single ownership.
“We’ve had 30 years of steady growth,” Billy said at the restaurant that he and Mary designed and decorated.
The Naglers now consider themselves semiretired, though Billy still does the books and Mary helps schedule staff.
“If we leave for a few weeks,” Billy said, it runs “just great.”
Mary’s brother, Bill “Little Billy” Zuzich, has worked at the restaurant for 27 years and is now general manager.
Cathy Hoover is Oak Table’s oldest employee and after 29 years is floor manager.
Hiring the children
“They’ve gotten older, and now, we’re hiring their children,” Billy Nagler said of the Sequim staff.
“We may die here,” he joked, adding about his staff: “I guess the problem is when they wear out, what do we do?”
After they decided to settle in small-town Sequim, the Naglers in 1981 remodeled and opened what was a small home at the corner of Bell Street and South Third Avenue with just 600 square feet of space.
Today, the restaurant has doubled its size to an occupancy of 120 seats, added a foyer to get people out of the rain and expanded the kitchen.
The Naglers have stuck to the gourmet breakfast and lunch menu, and that model has paid off for the Oak Table family.
Many on their staff have been around for years, including their cooks, who own homes and are also raising families, he said.
The cafe has 30 employees, and the Nagler children are now independently running restaurants in Kingston, also called The Oak Table Cafe, and another opening next month in Walla Walla, The Maple Counter.
Billy grew up in Chicago. His parents, Ann and Henry, were also in the restaurant business, and he met his future wife, Mary, when she was just 14.
“I got a job at the Dog and Suds at 14 where Billy was manager,” she recalled with a smile.
They went on a date to a Who concert, and the rest is history, he fondly remembers.
The Naglers’ three children, Kory, Casey and Nikki, all contributed to the success of their parents’ business, Mary and Billy said.
Second Oak Table
In 2009, a second Oak Table was opened by Ross and Nikki Nagler McCurdy in Kingston.
Soon to open is The Maple Counter Cafe, owned by Kory Nagler and his wife, Rachel, and the Nagler’s youngest son, Casey, is now helping his brother open in Walla Walla, which has experienced explosive growth as part of that region’s wine country.
Billy and Mary have been visiting Kingston and Walla Walla frequently to help their children get a strong foothold in a tough business.
When they moved to Sequim, the Naglers remember one flashing red light and maybe 10 or fewer restaurants in Sequim.
Today, Sequim has at least 40 restaurants.
“It’s kind of been everything we’ve wanted it to be,” Mary said of The Oak Table in Sequim.
“We have realized our dream.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.