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Triple Nickel Diner co-owner had no plans to run a restaurant. Now, it’s not easy to say goodbye
By: David Forster
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CHESTERHILL, Ohio (WOUB) — The lunch crowd is trickling into the Triple Nickel Diner in Chesterhill on a crisp fall afternoon.
Rosie Berardi sits at a small corner table. She’s explaining why, after running the popular diner with her mother for nearly a decade, they now plan to sell it or close for good in the spring.
Berardi had no plans to run a restaurant. She just sort of fell into it. And then, she fell in love with what it became.
“I feel proud of what we’ve done here,” she said. “We’re not just serving food.”
It all started when Berardi’s mother, Kathy Strode, bought the place as an investment.
“Her original intention was to remodel it and rent the space out to somebody to open a restaurant,” Berardi said. “We are not restaurateurs. We are nurses.”
Strode gutted the interior, relocating the kitchen to a large back room to increase the size of the cramped dining area.
When she couldn’t find anyone interested in running the place, she realized she was going to do it herself. Berardi offered to help her mom out.
The two were working as home health nurses, but they enjoyed spending time cooking together. So why not?
“I mean, we thought it would be small. We thought it would be slow,” Berardi said. “You know, a few lunches, few breakfasts here and there, something two or three people could run.”
They were wrong.
“It really blew up,” Berardi said, much bigger than they ever imagined.
From the beginning, the Triple Nickel Diner has been a family affair
Berardi was soon working seven days a week. She and her mom kept their jobs as home health nurses and spent the rest of their time at the diner.
It was open four days a week then, but even on the days it was closed there was work to be done.
“We were in here at 5 a.m. until 10 p.m. and then back at it the next day for those first couple of years,” Berardi said.
The restaurant business has a notorious failure rate. Berardi said the diner might not have beat the odds without the support of their extended family.
They buy their beef, sausage and lamb from farms run by family members, at better prices than they can get on the market. Berardi’s aunt was an accountant and handled payroll in the early years.
“When I say there was a lot of family support,” Berardi said, “like, I can’t really explain how much family support.”
Buying local not only helped keep costs down, but it also became part of the diner’s identity.
“Everything here is made from scratch,” Berardi said. “All of our gravies, our biscuits. Our bread is sourced locally. We grow vegetables behind the restaurant. The pies are made up the road.”
The diner’s name also played a role in its success. It’s one block off State Route 555, known as the Triple Nickel, which runs through the center of town.
The route is widely considered one of the best motorcycle rides in the country. Berardi’s mom wanted to draw those bikers in. She wanted the diner to show up near the top in their searches for places to stop on the Triple Nickel.
It worked. And once bikers discovered the diner, they spread the word through their own networks. Bikers from around the country and beyond made the diner a regular stop on their travels.
A biker from Ontario, Canada, made an annual pilgrimage to the diner.
“My mom doesn’t know his name because, you know, he comes in once a year,” Berardi said. “But when he comes in he picks her up, he’s about six-four, and he picks her up and he swings her around. And, you know, there’s just these really cool connections with people that love this space from near and far.”
Time for a change of pace
Berardi and her mom eventually gave up their nursing jobs to focus all their efforts on the diner. Things were going so well, they even considered expanding into Amesville, another small village not far from Chesterhill.
This would have put even more demands on their time just as Berardi was adjusting to another big change in her life.
“I have a 2-year-old son. I want to grow my family. My mom is 74. She really needs to retire,” she said.
“I think I was in total denial for a long time because of how much I love doing this. And then I just … really came to terms with the fact that the things that weren’t working for my personal life weren’t really going to change in the restaurant business. And because I love this so much, it was just really hard for me to accept that and really hard for my mom to accept that for herself, too.”
Berardi and her mom are hoping to sell the diner to someone who will keep up the traditions they have built. Several people have expressed interest. If they cannot find a buyer in time, they will close the diner near the end of March.
Berardi says she plans to keep working in some capacity. Her life has been so wrapped in the diner, she hasn’t had much time to consider other options.
She might even get back into the restaurant business someday — down the road, when the kids are grown.
“Like I said, I love this place,” she said. “So maybe, maybe that’s something that happens down the line.”