NEW WATERFORD — A Cape Breton emergency room nurse has found the perfect cure for anyone who is sick of cooking.
After many years of wanting to own an Italian restaurant, Renee MacKenzie opened Nonna’s Italiano last week on Plummer Avenue in New Waterford.
The takeout restaurant is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. The menu is based on recipes from her Nonna, her late great-grandmother, Elva Pezzarello of Whitney Pier.
“She was 92 and right up until she died you could find her in her kitchen in a dress, kerchief on her head and high heel shoes, making ravioli,” she said. “If you asked anyone what Elva was known for, it would be her cooking and snappy attire.“
MacKenzie said it was her great-grandmother who taught her mother Cheryl Tighe how to cook great Italian dishes and in turn Tighe taught her daughter.
“My great-grandmother would make ravioli and spaghetti, her meatballs were legendary,” she said. “She’d make delicious stuffed peppers, gnocchi, and all that. I also spent years with my great-grandmother learning how to make her spaghetti sauce and meatballs.”
Growing up she could stop at her great-grandmother’s house anytime and unannounced with 20 people and there would be a full feast ready.
“And you weren’t leaving until you ate,” she said. “I get that from her. I love feeding people. Wherever I worked I’ve always fed everyone.”
LONG WAIT
For 20 years, MacKenzie, now 41, had been saying she was going to open an Italian restaurant.
“It was knowing how much people love this food and that you can’t get this kind of food anywhere,” she said.
About 19 years ago she almost opened a restaurant but she "chickened out" and went into nursing instead. However she always told her great-grandmother that someday it would happen.
“The last two years have been a roller-coaster for me,” she said. “I thought that life’s too short, you have to do what makes you happy, so I did it.”
MacKenzie works at the Glace Bay Hospital but in August she broke her foot and is still recovering, nevertheless she went ahead with the restaurant plans, with friends and family helping out.
“I have to sit and cook but it’s not too bad as I have everyone helping me,” she said.
THE MENU
Currently MacKenzie said the menu is simple but includes Italian favourites from her family’s kitchen such as ravioli, manicotti, stuffed shells, spaghetti and meatballs, meatball subs and Italian meatball soup.
The menu is limited and everything is homemade by MacKenzie, her mother, as well as her aunt and other family members.
“I do all the spaghetti and meatballs myself,” she said, adding she expects to expand the menu in the future.
The most popular item so far?
“Spaghetti and meatballs,” she said. “I’m really surprised.”
MacKenzie's children are also involved in the business. Son Kyle, 18, has perfected the technique for meatballs, daughter Ally, 16, works on cash, and daughter Katelin, 11, helps out.
"My husband Bruce is my emotional support at home,” she added.
One of the reasons she decided on a takeout restaurant is that she will eventually go back to work as a nurse and she can prepare the food but not have to be on the premises.
All public health directives are in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic and there is also a takeout window for anyone who does not want to enter the restaurant.
OPENING DAY
After announcing the Nov. 12 opening on Facebook, preorders piled up quickly.
“They were already sitting in the parking lot waiting to come in,” she said of opening day.
And some customers were already familiar with Nonna’s recipes.
“My cousin came from Port Hawkesbury and bought 18 dinners,” she said. “(Nonna) was her grandmother as well, so she was excited to get the food.”
Johnna Aucoin, a friend of MacKenzie’s who is helping out at the restaurant, said the reaction to the restaurant is not a surprise to her.
“I have tasted her food and I knew how delicious it was.”
People seem to be happy to have a new business in a community where numerous businesses have shut down over the last few years.
As people were calling in orders Friday, many more were walking in looking for menus including Russell Blanchard.
Blanchard said he was very glad to see a different type of restaurant opening in the town.
“I’m glad to see a new place or any new business opening here,” he said.
Nicholas Aucoin of New Waterford said it was "100 per cent time" for a new restaurant.
“Talking to people around town, they couldn’t wait for a new restaurant to open here,” he said. “This is something totally different and needed.”
MacKenzie said she knows her Nonna would be proud but sometimes also shaking a finger down at her.
“When she cooked, not a speck of flour (went) anywhere, when I make ravioli it’s everywhere,” she said.
“I feel like she’s with us when we are making it."
