Monday, October 23 is a day that Tatia Nelson and her team will likely never forget. Nelson is the owner of the Busted Nut located at 118 Second Street East, and they were nominated to be on the …
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Monday, October 23 is a day that Tatia Nelson and her team will likely never forget. Nelson is the owner of the Busted Nut located at 118 Second Street East, and they were nominated to be on the internet show “America’s Best Restaurants” (ABR).
“It was fun, but I am glad they picked a Monday, so we were scheduled to be closed. I can’t imagine doing this while we were open,” laughed Nelson during a chat as things were winding down.
The Busted Nut crew all seemed to enjoy the visit from the show hosted by Luis Rivera. With Nelson being busy with the crew, server Ashley Bettis-Carl filled us in on the details of how this all came together.
“America’s Best Restaurants is here looking at our feature/top selling menu items, our drinks and the atmosphere, that kind of stuff,” explained Bettis-Carl. “Tatia kept it a secret for a little while, so, we knew about it for a few months.”
The Busted Nut crew does a phenomenal job of keeping things clean and tidy for their day-to-day duties, but every restaurant owner and employee on the planet always loves to take advantage of a solid deep clean every so often, especially before an inspection or an internet show features your restaurant. Nelson closed the doors on Sunday to do just that, a nice deep clean and organize to polish up that last one percent, Bettis-Carl said that she knew Nelson was nervous, but in a good way.
The two-man crew from ABR, Rivera and a camera operator, arrived at the restaurant around 8:00 a.m. to start filming and they were finishing up around 11:30 a.m.
“When the restaurant is closed, typically what they do is they invite their better customers or their ‘VIP’ customers, so to speak, or their family to be here for this,” explained Rivera. “So, you know, they invite regulars that come here on a weekly basis or whatnot. If the restaurant is open, then it doesn't matter. As long as there's people in the restaurant, that's totally fine. We've done shoots when the restaurants closed when the restaurants opened. We've done them all.”
The show does a great job showcasing all aspects of the restaurant, including the back of the house. The challenge there is many of these locally owned restaurants do not have the massive kitchens of dedicated chain restaurants. Especially here in Hastings where they have been retrofitted into historic and cool buildings, such as the Busted Nut.
“We try to do the kitchen segments not very long, because of course, we don't want to stop the line or hold the line back. So, we'll wait for a break and when there's a break, five to ten minutes max, and we're done. We don't try to do 24 takes or anything like that. So, it's very, very quick, and every shot is very deliberate,” added Rivera.
Intentionally, the restaurant was roughly half full all morning, this gave the crew options to do staged shots and the candid stuff that you would expect for b-roll footage. The guests were a mix of family members, regular customers and the local business community, including other restaurant owners. The business community in Hastings is truly supportive of each other and it is awesome to see it in action like this.
The odd part was having someone eat a burger around eight in the morning. Bettis-Carl laughed about the thought process and clarified that most of the lunch / dinner type food was consumed after 10:00 a.m., but the beverages on the other hand, well, let’s just say the invited guests were having a great time all morning. Of course, many of them still needed to go to work themselves, so they had a great time, but all were responsible.
Who nominated them? That is a well-guarded secret, probably as well guarded as Area 51 or the Presidents Book of Secrets. Rivera did not even know when Nelson asked. They also did not have an exact date of when the episode would air other than they knew it would be in January 2024 sometime.
So, what did Rivera think of his time in Hastings?
“It's absolutely awesome. I do like the small town feel when you roll into the downtown. And of course, this restaurant is great. It's like your local cheers. And the food is amazing. And of course, the owner is the best, Tatia is awesome, so shout out to Tatia for almost 20 years of ownership, and shout out to Ashley, Jess and the rest of the staff,” he said.
To find the episodes of ABR, head on over to YouTube and search for ‘America’s Best Restaurants’, subscribe to their channel if that is your thing so you can get the notification when the Busted Nut episode is ready otherwise, check them out in January.
