If you want to know how to run a successful restaurant, ask Diane Nagler.
She has been a driving force in not one but two of the most popular restaurants on the North Olympic Peninsula, the First Street Haven and the Chestnut Cottage, both in Port Angeles.
“Do what you do well and stick with it,” she said.
Nagler, 55, has “stuck with it” for 32 years, since purchasing the First Street Haven at age 23.
She had run it for two years prior to then with her then-husband, Rick Cesario, and bought out his share when they divorced in 1978.
In her blood
“I was scared to death,” she said about running a restaurant on her own.
But then, being a restaurateur was in her blood.
Her parents, Henry and Ann Nagler, were longtime restaurant owners on the south side of Chicago, and she grew up in the kitchen.
Her mother often repeated an old Polish expression, “When a guest is in the house, God is in the house,” Nagler said.
Her father was more straightforward.
“My dad told me all my life, ‘You need to open a restaurant,'” she said.
But first she took a detour to the West Coast and a stint at University of California, Berkeley, where she “dabbled” in school and cooked in restaurants and at a fraternity.
In 1976, she came to the North Olympic Peninsula to visit her parents, who had retired to Sequim.
It was a busy time for the 20-year-old, moving to a new town, getting married and opening a restaurant in one year.
Downtown diner
They purchased a simple breakfast and lunch diner on First Street in downtown Port Angeles, then called “The Soup.”
After the divorce, Nagler said Toggery owners Jack Montgomery and Bud Rinehart, who own the building that houses the First Street Haven, were like uncles to her, helping to fix things and just being supportive.
She also got a “huge amount of support” from Kenny Nemirow, a longtime cook at another restaurant, the Bushwhacker.
With her Chicago and California culinary expertise, Nagler introduced the blue collar town to its first espresso machine and offered herb tea and sandwiches with alfalfa sprouts and avocados.
“I gave everyone their first espresso drink free,” she said. “It was mostly mochas.”
The menu had just one page each for breakfast and lunch.
“It looked all laid back, but there was nothing laid back about it,” she said of the long hours required to make it look easy.
Over the years, the menu, and the restaurant, expanded.
Three major remodelings covered an expansion of the square footage, a kitchen renovation and the addition of a curved “barrel” ceiling.
“There’s nothing that hasn’t been done,” Nagler said.
While the restaurant grew, Nagler became more grounded.
“Being in business really anchored me,” she said. “It made me feel I had a place in the world and in the community.”
Nagler and Nemirow married in 1980 and began thinking of how they could work together.
They also wanted to own the building that housed their business — something that was not an option with the First Street Haven location.
In 1982, their daughter, Zoe, was born, and Nagler began juggling new motherhood with running a restaurant.
“It was very difficult — I’m not candy-coating that,” she said. “I felt guilty if I was at the Haven and not with her, but if I was home, I would feel guilty that I wasn’t at work.
“I was constantly working at balancing the two.”
Loyal employees
Nagler credits her long-term employees at the First Street Haven (in addition to her husband) with helping her manage the juggling act, particularly cooks Renee Boesenburg, who came onboard in 1983, and Laura “Jesi” Byars, who has been part of the team since 1984.
Byars is now the manager at the First Street Haven, while Boesenburg cooks at the Chestnut Cottage.
“I’d be nowhere without them,” Nagler said. “They are the creative forces in the kitchen.”
In 1992, the couple “took a huge risk,” Nagler said, and built a second breakfast and lunch restaurant from the ground up.
They chose a site outside of the downtown core — in an area that wasn’t known for fine dining, at the corner of Front and Washington streets.
The restaurant had one advantage — a built-in customer base, many of whom Nagler still greets by name, although she admits to knowing many people only by what they regularly order.
Their risk paid off, and the Chestnut Cottage is going on 20 years in business.
Nagler has “slowed down” to just four days a week, while Nemirow works closer to 50 hours a week, she said.
They don’t usually work side by side.
“I love working with him. It’s fun having that in common,” she said.
“But we don’t work together — that would be too stressful. This is a good balance for us.”
The two have on one day off in common — Saturday — and Nagler said that is their “date day.”
“We always go hiking or biking. It’s important to remember your relationship when you are working,” she said.
The two have one key element in common: “We’re huge people pleasers,” she said.
They are also enthusiastic “foodies,” and vacations often become adventures in eating, whether it’s Italy, France or places closer to home.
Month in France
Nagler recalls spending a month in France with Zoe, doing a lot of walking and sampling French cuisine.
“I like they way they dine in Europe, taking two hours for a meal. We should do that here,” she said.
Surrounded as she is by freshly baked goods and other high-calorie foods, Nagler said she works hard at being healthy.
On a recent morning, she ordered just a poached egg and dry toast for breakfast. Then she didn’t have time to eat it.
At home, she said they eat a “ton of fish,” along with roast vegetables, or chicken, all simply prepared.
Nagler spends most of her free time with her family, including her mother, brother Billy Nagler, who owns the Oak Table Cafe in Sequim with his wife Mary, and her nieces and nephews. Her father passed away nine years ago.
She also contributes to her community through donations to different organizations and giving gift certificates for fundraisers.
The Chestnut Cottage hosted the Port Angeles Food Bank fundraising spaghetti dinner for years and now hosts the annual “Pink Up” benefit dinner for breast cancer research.
While Nagler followed in the family footsteps in running a restaurant, she said she didn’t push Zoe in that direction.
Zoe lives in Seattle where she works as an actuary.
“I wanted her to find her own bliss,” Nagler said. “Restaurants are so risky — that would scare me.”
