Sports fans can be fanatics. They´ll follow their teams and even seek out sports bars with their memorabilia lining the walls. Today we´ll visit a sports bar and grill with such memorabilia, but we notice two differences from the sports bars in major NFL cities: First of all, this sports bar is not exactly in a major city - in fact, just the opposite - and secondly, in this grill you just might be served by one of the athletes or their family members themselves. Special thanks to the K-State Collegian and writer Joel Aschbrenner whose article told this remarkable story.
Meet Alan and Kim Nelson of Nelson´s Landing in Leonardville, Kansas. Alan and Kim are parents of Green Bay Packer football player Jordy Nelson and current K-State basketball player Kelsey Nelson.
Alan said they had considered opening a restaurant for several years because Leonardville and neighboring towns lack places to eat. They also wanted to create a restaurant that was smoke-free and family
friendly. Nelson´s Landing is completely smoke-free with the exception of an outdoor patio.
The Nelsons purchased the buildings for their restaurant in January 2007. They remodeled the buildings and opened Nelson´s Landing on December 1, 2007.
The Nelsons are farmers by trade. Alan farms until dark and comes in for dinner every night, while Kim works at the restaurant every day.
Nelson´s Landing had no grand opening. The Nelsons simply made a pot roast for some friends and family one night and just like that the Landing was open. The buzz around the community was already starting, though. Before they even opened, the Nelsons were taking reservations.
Since then, business has been booming.
Kim said they regularly pack in 100 to 150 people on Friday or Saturday night when the Landing features live music. She says, "I didn´t think we pull so many people from outside the community. We get people from Clay Center, Manhattan, clear up to Waterville and Marysville."
Of course, one reason that the restaurant is popular is the Nelson athletes themselves. All three of the Nelson´s children have worked at the restaurant at times since it opened, and in the process have attracted new business to the restaurant. It´s common to see K-State fans to come in trying to catch a glimpse of Jordy or Kelsey, Alan said.
"You´ll see someone come in and they´ll see someone that they think is him and they´ll ask `are you Jordy´ or `are you Kelsey,´" he said. "Any blonde-haired waitress they think is Kelsey." Kelsey does indeed wait tables from time to time at the Landing, and Jordy helped at the restaurant before being drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the second round of the NFL Draft.
If the fame of her children has drawn people into the restaurant, then the food has convinced them to stay, according to Kim.
"The nice thing about it is, all those people who came in at first looking for one of the kids, they´ve been back, which is a credit to our cooks," she said. "They´ve been putting out good food." The Landing´s menu features burgers, steaks, and brisket, and even offers fried chicken gizzards and livers.
Alan says the hand battered chicken fried steak is very popular, as well as the homemade pies which Kim´s mother makes. The hamburger meat comes from his own beef.
"People ask, `What is that? I´ve never had a hamburger like that´," he said. "Well, that´s what hamburger tastes like if you have a hamburger from a family farm."
All this has led the town of Leonardville to name Alan and Kim Nelson as its Citizens of the Year. It´s nice to find this success in a rural town like Leonardville, population 375 people.Now, that´s rural.
Sports fans can be fanatics. They make sports bars popular in major cities, and now we can find a homegrown version of one right here in rural Kansas. We commend Alan and Kim Nelson and their family for making a difference by creating a restaurant in a community which had none. And by the way - would you mind autographing my menu?
Source: Ron Wilson, director, Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.