EVANSVILLE − The greatly anticipated Nellie’s North, the second location of Newburgh-based Nellie’s Restaurant, has opened on Evansville's North First Avenue in the former Wolf’s Bar-B-Q location. Here is what you need to know.
What is Nellie's?
Nellie’s Restaurant in Newburgh was opened in 2017 by Renee and Jose Jimenez. The couple are originally from Chicago, and opened Nellie’s with a menu of local favorites with some Chicago flair and a few Mexican-inspired dishes to freshen it up.
The breakfast and lunch restaurant was an instant hit, especially for the large and varied breakfast menu, which is served all day. In 2019, Nellie’s opened for dinner.
Why the new spot?
Well, if you have a great concept that stays busy, why not expand? Renee said she and Jose had recently started looking around for a possible second location, and when they visited the Wolf’s building she realized how many possibilities the large size and multiple kitchen areas would bring.
“I saw the vision of the bakery part in one kitchen, and now we have a separate kitchen for catering," she said. "This building is a little over 16,000 square feet, and the separate to-go area will really help with people coming in to pick up their carry-out orders."
Have they changed the building?
Yes, the renovations were extensive. The buffet in the dining room is gone and has been replaced with a breakfast/coffee bar with seating. The floors are new, and the interior has been painted a pretty gold color with natural brown wood accents.
A second upstairs dining room overlooks the first with large windows.
Will there be a new menu?
Right now, Nellie’s North is serving the original Nellie’s menu. It has been so busy that the Jimenezes decided to close at 3 p.m. until more staff is trained for evening service.
When dinner hours start in a couple weeks, there will be an expanded menu with more dinner offerings, and breakfast items will not be served after 3 p.m.
“The kitchen in Newburgh is so small we can’t focus on that many dinner items with breakfast items being served all day,” Renee said, “so the dinner menu is small. Here we have so much more space, and we’ll stop serving breakfast at 3 p.m. and do a larger dinner menu.
"We’ll have whole fried catfish – in Chicago we just call them whole catfish but down here you say fiddlers. We’ll have some steaks on the menu, salmon and salmon patties… a lot of the specials that I do in Newburgh is what’s going to be on the dinner menu here. I did chicken and dumplings the other day and it sold out in a couple hours. We’re seeing what people ask for and what they want, and we’ll adjust as we go.”
What’s on the menu now?
Nellie’s is known for bountiful breakfasts, including a large variety of meats from bacon, sausage and ham to pork chops, ribeye steak, grilled and breaded tenderloins, country fried steak, chorizo, corned beef, and gyro meat. Have an omelet, skillet, platter, benedict and much more, as well as griddle favorites such as waffles, pancakes and French toast.
At lunch, add a large selection of entrée salads to the mix, as well as burgers and a huge variety of sandwiches from a chicken parmesan sandwich to authentic Chicago style Italian beef to a Reuben and gyros.
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