Dining Out — Restaurant Roving: Owners follow customers home
Posted
SUSAN S. YESKE
It used to be that when the parking lot at It’s Nutts in Titusville, N.J., filled up, many of the customers were from Lambertville, N.J., and Bucks County.
Knowing that, owners Stefanos Nyktas and Alex Carbonell realized that the best place to open another comfort food restaurant was in Lambertville. Last year they took over the former location of Lilly’s on the Canal and opened It’s Nutts on the Canal with a similar but slightly more sophisticated menu.
Still in place on the menu are the fried chicken, pizzas, fish and chips and meatloaf that helped make the original It’s Nutts so popular. But it also shows off the separate heritages of the owners: Carbonell added Cuban recipes such as ropa vieja (stewed flank steak with peppers and tomatoes) as an entrée and in tacos, plus pulled pork burritos, Cuban sandwiches and chicken enchiladas.
Nyktas is Greek, and his menu additions include chicken soulvaki, spanakopita, Greek fries, dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), saganaki flambe, mezze platter and gyros.
In addition to lunch and dinner all week long, It’s Nutts in Lambertville serves breakfast on weekends with an extensive menu of omelets and platters including huevos rancheros, biscuits with sausage gravy, chicken and waffles, red velvet pancakes, lemon ricotta pancakes, stuffed French toast and a variety of benedicts.
The menu, designed to offer something for pretty much everyone, has helped to draw customers who are coming back again and again.
"It’s been great,” said manager Demetra Nyktas. "We had an established following from the original It’s Nutts and that has been growing steadily.”
In addition to the regular menu, customers come for Greek Night once each month. For that, owner Nyktas offers all the usual Greek dishes, plus a variety of specials including dishes such as grilled octopus, pastitsio, steak kabobs and a Greek-style pizza. Greek dancers will be added to the mix in the coming weeks.
To find the restaurant customers need to know it is set back from Bridge Street in Lambertville. A sandwich sign marks Canal Street, which leads back to the restaurant parking lot.
With the weather turning warmer some days, customers already are taking advantage of added seating behind the restaurant, overlooking the canal. Customers are welcome to bring their dogs when they dine outside, Demetra Nyktas said.
It’s Nutts in Lambertville is a BYOB restaurant, but also offers wines through its affiliation with Old York Cellars in Ringoes, N.J. In warm weather they mix up pitchers of sangria which Nyktas said have been very popular.
