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The Nuthouse Grill Owners: Amy and Brian Poag, Dale
Kamps You’ve got to have a few screws loose to get into the restaurant business in the first place,” says Brian Poag, with a big smile on his face, but this Tennessee native seems to know just what he’s doing. The friendly, crew-cut manager/co-owner of The Nuthouse Grill is having fun and so are his customers. In his first week, he’d already seen repeat customers. Situated in northeast Lynden’s Bender Plaza, Poag hopes to draw people not only from Lynden, but from Sumas and Abbotsford, B.C., as well as Bellingham and points south. “The building is beautiful and new, and it’s just a mile from home,” Brian says proudly. The inside of the restaurant is bright and country-modern. The first thing you see upon entering is a giant wheelbarrow filled with a quarter-ton of peanuts. Just beyond that, through a tempered glass window, there’s a grill. When the kitchen is hopping, the cooks put on an admirable show. Once inside, there are buckets of peanuts on each table and on the bar, which is in a separate lounge area. As I tapped my toes to the lively country music, it was made even more enjoyable by the crunching of peanut shells, which patrons are encouraged to throw on the floor. Brian has over 11 years in restaurant management, spent mostly working for family chain-type restaurants. More recently, he was the food and beverage director for Homestead Farms in Lynden. Amy Poag, Brian’s wife of almost five years, is a Lynden native. Her experience is in the promotional side of country radio, which is what brought her to Nashville, Tenn. She and Brian met in a restaurant like The Nuthouse Grill and they’ve come back to Lynden and put their experience to good use in the planning and setup of their business. The Nuthouse employs 33 people, including 10 in the kitchen. In addition to being the mother of Jake (3 years old) and Abbey (almost 1), Amy works with the front-line people and handles the bookkeeping and promotions, while Brian manages the operations. The idea for The Nuthouse Grill was born in the spring, when the couple couldn’t find another place like it. With the help of partner Dale Kamps, owner of Kamps Painting in Lynden, they’ve been able to bring that idea to fruition. They considered a number of locations, including Bellingham, but the new Bender Plaza, just north of the Bender Fields recreational complex in Lynden, seems to be in an area of positive growth. It’s also at the intersection of East Badger Road, the primary route for travelers between the border crossing at Sumas and Interstate 5. Brian Poag hopes The Nuthouse Grill will appeal to families as well as the lunchtime crowd from Lynden, to people from Bellingham and the rest of Whatcom County, and to visitors as well as neighborhood folks. In the restaurant area, nearly 20 tables were filled after 1:30 p.m. on a weekday with retirees and their grandchildren, mothers with their babies, blue-collar workers on late lunch and a couple of professionals with their clients. His aim is “to have fun, and to have people remember us. I haven’t found a fun atmosphere (in the area) where you can get good quality food and service and a great price, and I think we’ve found a good opening. I want to have a fun, old-timey, roadhouse feel.” Warren Levine
The Auction House Owners: Shelley and Paul Sanchez With an American flag that flew on the USS Forestall over one shoulder and a Canadian flag over the other, Paul Sanchez planned to lead his first old-time, fun, family-oriented auction on Oct. 6. It will be a welcome change of pace from his usual job as a U.S. Customs inspector. A native of Albuquerque, N.M., Sanchez was based on Whidbey Island and was a jet mechanic on the Forestall, part of the Seventh Fleet, in the 1980s. He served in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, patrolling Libya’s “Line of Death.” The flag that he’s kept for all these years flew on the aft mast of the Forestall, and was almost thrown in the water at the end of their voyage, a Navy tradition. The sailor who had lowered the flag asked Sanchez if he wanted to keep it and he didn’t have to think twice. But Shelley is the veteran collector of the family. She’s a graduate of Ferndale High School and met Paul when he was stationed at Whidbey Island. They’ve been married for 14 years. Shelley works fulltime at The Auction House, collecting and classifying consignments and other auction items, in addition to making sure their three children, Dominic (age 11), Sarah (7) and Dayton (4) get to sports practices and other places they have to be. In her spare time, Shelley’s the inspiration behind the enterprise and she’s the company president. Some of her personal collectibles include a number of Tiffany lamps that used to belong to a church and a working, hand-cranked telephone. After living in Albuquerque, where Paul was a deputy sheriff’s officer, Paul heard that U.S. Customs was hiring inspectors in Sumas and he applied for the job over the Internet. After passing the required exams and investigations, he began his new career with Customs in Sumas and now clears trucks at the commercial crossing in Blaine. The Sanchezes visited dozens of antique stores and the few auction sites in the area while they were planning their business, but their atmosphere is going to be a little different. Their aim is to have fun and to offer a town fair-like event, where children are welcome and light snacks will be available, including deep-dish pie and ice cream. Paul also invested in custom software to handle the consignors as well as bidder transactions, and his setup is quite sophisticated. It will be interesting to see a player piano and a networked laptop computer running their respective technologies side-by-side. Their first auction on Oct. 6 included a player piano, circa 1920, which was played throughout the afternoon preview by its owner before being auctioned in the evening. There also was a wide range of glassware, chinaware, cabinets and furniture, works of art, a sterling silver champagne bucket, and a used car. The Auction House will accept antique cars for their next auction. The Auction House conducted a broad radio and print ad campaign in advance of its first auction, including places as far south as Seattle and Portland, Ore., and as far north as lower British Columbia. They couple plans to have one auction per month, tentatively on the first Saturday, and they will accept most major credit cards, debit cards, local checks and U.S. currency. — Warren Levine |
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