Nick Kustala just keeps going and doing

I’ve known Nick Kustala for many years, since he came to Willoughby fresh from culinary school. He’s a talented and very creative chef with other skills ranging from design and construction to farming.

Kustala’s imagination and willingness to work hard to achieve what he’s envisioned has been a driving force in all his endeavors. He personally built much of what became Lure Bistro in Downtown Willoughby and hired a sushi chef to create the first-ever sushi bar in the area.

He’s had several restaurants since then, moving steadily east until ending up in Austinburg Township, where, in 2009, he began the Estate on Coffee Creek. It’s framed around a beautiful 1840 Italianate mansion on Route 45, about a mile south of Interstate 90. Special-event dining with fine wines was the focus.

But Kustala, by nature, does not easily settle into doing just one thing. He’s taught cooking classes, mentored other chefs and opened other eateries. All along he was considering how he could develop the 20 acres and buildings surrounding the mansion into what would one day become a resort nestled into Ohio wine country.

He expanded a 9,000-square-foot former auction house behind the mansion into a down-home familystyle restaurant, naming it The Farmer Butcher Chef Bistro. He bought adjacent acreage to develop a farm to grow produce for his restaurants and those living in the area. He built a small home and established a greenhouse to nurture plants for the farm. And he’s not yet 50.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s offered restaurant-quality provisions and supplies to those who order from a weekly list and pick them up on Saturdays. He recently figured out how to deliver them on Sundays to home in western Lake County communities. Kustala is a man who seems to thrive on adversity, meeting challenges, conquering them and creating something new — and often better.

He’s just established Bula Ghost Kitchens inside The Farmer Butcher Chef Bistro family restaurant, opening five kitchens as incubators for other chefs to try out their concepts.

First in line was his own Red Nick’s Southern Fried Chicken Shack, which rolled out last week with a menu of chicken tenders, wings, dinners and sides for carryout. Next will be Upper Crust, for pizza and pasta; followed by Up in Smoke, for barbecue; and East Meets West, for hamburgers and sushi.

It’s all going to be for carryout with no table service, he explained.

“We have probably 100 picnic tables and other social-distanced places on the property for people to take their meals for picnic-style eating,” Kustala said. “They’re in the barn, on the patios and on the lawns.”

Many of those who came to pick up groceries and other provisions May 16 discovered the chicken restaurant and stayed to eat.

In the meantime, adversity has reared its ugly head again with the announcement by the state of an 80-day closure of Route 45 for Coffee Creek bridge work.

“I just ordered a nice sign for Interstate 90,” Kustala said. “But to get here people will now need to exit the freeway at Route 534, drive south to Route 307 and travel east to Route 45. They’ll turn right on 45 and find us on the left.”

The closure is set to begin at the end of May.

Get info at facebook.com/ TheFarmerButcherChef.

SUBMITTED Nick Kustala and his tractor just finished clearing brush from 15acres that will be picnic grounds for carryout from his new Bula Ghost Kitchens and The Farmer Butcher Chef Bistro.