In Her Words: Nia Asimis, Restaurateur, Serves Up Mediterranean Fare with a Side Helping of Kindness & Empathy
Through the highs and lows of her business and personal life, Nia Asimis has navigated it all with perseverance and grace.
Running a restaurant is like riding a roller coaster. It’s up and down all the time. You have to roll with it. You learn to work with whatever comes your way. You’re dealing with managing people. You’re also dealing with the general public. You’re trying to run a business. You’re catching it from all directions. I’m a circus leader here.
I meet a lot of people. What I love about the restaurant industry is you’re just constantly meeting people, and you’re trying to please people. Sometimes it happens successfully, sometimes not so much. In this business you basically have to be a really empathetic person. You have to constantly put yourself in your customer’s shoes and be empathetic. You have to be super kind. The kinder you are, the more people gravitate towards you. It’s just naturally in my blood, but then I have to manage my staff to do it too. I’m like, “Come on guys. We’re here to make these people happy. How else do you think I’m gonna be able to pay you?”
You have to constantly put yourself in your customer’s shoes and be empathetic. You have to be super kind.
Managing people is hard. You have to be really, really smart about who you hire, because they are a reflection of who you are. If you don’t hire the right people, you’re going to be very sorry. If you get the right people to back you, they will make you smile. Or they’ll make you cry. It’s a small, restaurant, so the people that I do have are key. I was lucky to lock in on some really good help when I opened in 2008. We had a little turnover, but I had a pretty good run with most of that help. They lasted with me for maybe 10 or 12 years before the pandemic. And then hiring was just impossible.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020. I closed down for a year because I had to go do chemotherapy and infusions. I felt so bad because I didn’t want to do that to my staff, especially to the back of the house who were with me for so long. We were running like a nice, well-oiled machine. I lost two really good workers.
I was originally diagnosed with cancer in 2014. I had a mastectomy and I thought I had beat it, but it came back right when the pandemic hit, so I had to deal with that. It was stage four. It was in my lymphatic system. When that happens, they want to know that it didn't jump into your bones, or into your liver. There’s a new drug I’m taking, and it seems like it is working really well, but I still need to be very careful because there’s always a chance of it coming back. Practically all the breast cancer out there now is not really genetic. It’s the environment and diet. So now I’m a vegan. I don’t eat any animal product anymore, because research shows that animal products are what drives insulin growth factor (IGF) in your body, and that’s what feeds cancer. If you can keep your IGF level down, you’re ahead of the game.
The pandemic really corrected a lot of things. Essentially everybody had to pivot or do something to stay afloat. It was hard, but we got through it and then I met my current chef, Chef Daniel. He’s a young man at 35 and he’s wonderful. (I opened the restaurant when I was 34 and now I’m 51!) Chef Daniel is actually a first generation Spaniard. His folks came from Spain, so he’s wonderful because he has an affinity to Spanish food. And I’m like, “Come on, man, let’s do some more Greek.”
The menu at Nia is Mediterranean. I’m always pushing my chef to put more vegetarian items on there, because a lot of our clientele comes in seeking vegetarian items. People naturally assume that Mediterranean diets are more vegetable-based. There are no limitations as to what you can do with Mediterranean food. We primarily focus on southern European food, so it’s more Spanish, Italian, and Greek style. You can also do some middle eastern food. You can do northern African, you can do some Arabic.
The best thing about the changes made for the pandemic is that it allowed us to use our service drive for patio seating. We’re no longer limited to the sidewalk. Randolph has two service drives, one on either side, then you’ve got two lanes for traffic, and a median. There’s no other street quite like Randolph in the city, because it was predominantly a fruit market years ago. There were fruits and vegetables on Randolph and meat on Fulton. These businesses would cater to the hotel industry and the hospitality industry, which was just to the east. My dad was one of the produce vendors.
I’m a child of immigrants. That’s where I get my perseverance. My parents came from Greece as newlyweds in 1969. My dad was already running his own fruit and vegetable stand by the early ’70s. He knew he needed to do something that followed his heart, which was essentially selling fruits and vegetables. It’s what he knew intrinsically, just from coming from Greece. Then my sister was born in ’71, I was born in ’73, and my brother was born ’74. They had three little ones that they had to raise, and they persevered.
In 1980, my folks bought the property that I’m in. The area was transitional at the time. We knew it was going to take off. We just didn’t know when it was going to take off. When my parents bought the building, it was in major disrepair, but they had a corner. They fought tooth and nail to hang on to it, to meet the regulations of the city, and bring the building up to rentable standards. They needed to be able to operate their own businesses out of it while providing a living for themselves and continuing to raise their family. My mom opened up her alterations shop in the space I’m in now, and my dad’s fruit and vegetable stand was across the street, in what is now Lone Wolf Tavern.
For my parents, it’s always been about overcoming obstacles. Being raised around that, resilience was instilled in me as well. When I opened up my restaurant, I knew there was no looking back. I had to just keep looking forward and doing whatever I could to make it work. Because if I can’t make it work, and they made it work, what am I?
What would is your greatest pain point for the business?
I think restaurants are predominantly marketing. That’s really what they come down to. And if you become really good at it, you do well and if you don’t, you'll suffer for it. That’s why a lot of times, people just throw in the towel and give up. Again, it’s like riding a roller coaster: one minute, you’re it and the next minute you’re not.
If you could go back in time and give advice to your 25 year old self, what would you tell her?
You have to keep persevering in life.
Belle Curve Stories is about women who are navigating life with grit, grace and growth. What do those three words mean to you?
Whatever comes your way, continuously look forward because eventually you do come out ahead and you’re better for it. Sometimes you can stagnate, and sometimes it’s too much. It’s too overwhelming for some, but you just persevere. You’ll be a little tattered, but don’t get bitter about it. When I got cancer I thought “Why me? I don’t have enough crap coming my way? Why did this have to happen?” I knew it was because God selected me and because I have it in me to get through it.
As told to and edited by Teresa Bellock and Sandra Ditore.
Nia Asimis, 51, a pioneering restaurateur, founded Nia Restaurant, a Mediterranean food and wine restaurant, in 2008. As one of the first to open on Chicago’s Randolph Street, Nia Restaurant faced its share of challenges, but Nia’s determination has endured. 16 years later, Nia and her restaurant continue to thrive.