{"id":1967,"date":"2022-10-20T19:43:10","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T23:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zerwicp.sites.wfu.edu\/CommunityJournalism\/?p=1967"},"modified":"2022-10-20T19:43:10","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T23:43:10","slug":"a-one-man-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zerwicp.sites.wfu.edu\/CommunityJournalism\/a-one-man-show\/","title":{"rendered":"A One-Man Show"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Whoosh, clatter, jingle. The minute hand of the wall clock ticked past 11:30 a.m. Diners filed in and out non-stop, shuffling around the room and filling cups from the drink machine. A man in a bottle-green T-shirt and black apron stood behind the grill station, busy using the spatula to flip the burgers while the hot oil sizzled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

John A. Nikas, the chef and owner of Murphy\u2019s Lunch on Third Street in downtown Winston-Salem, greeted each customer without missing a beat at the grill. In no more than 10 minutes, all the customers whether white-collar workers with waist-pinned name tags, elderly couples taking time savoring pork chops or off-duty Winston-Salem Fire Department workers, received their dine-in plates or to-go containers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To ensure this quick service, Nikas arrives at Murphy\u2019s Lunch every Monday to Friday between 7-7:30 a.m. He tries to have everything ready by 11:00 a.m. when the restaurant opens.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis week was a pretty good week,\u201d Nikas said. According to him, every day after 2 p.m. until the restaurant closes at 5 p.m. is the only time he feels it slows down. That\u2019s when Nikas settles down at a table to treat himself to a cup of coffee and a bowl of coffee-and-candy-chips ice cream.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except for the few times one of his daughters assists him at the restaurant, Nikas has been running Murphy\u2019s Lunch alone since he reopened it in May 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow John was trying this very new idea for us \u2014  a one-man show. One man running everything,\u201d said Jerry Greco, whom Nikas considered a family customer at Murphy\u2019s Lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Murphy\u2019s Lunch, a 72-year-old downtown institution that Nikas took over in 2010, closed temporarily in April 2020, when the COVID\u201319 pandemic hit. According to Nikas, he did not initially plan to shut down the business but wanted to change its dining-in mode to takeaway orders. However,\u00a0when people switched to working from home, fewer customers came to support the business, and he closed.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greco was impressed by Nikas’s preparation to reopen Murphy\u2019s Lunch, by repainting all the walls, replacing the original ceiling with new tiles and adding a new awning in front of the restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brian Gravely, a frequent visitor of Murphy\u2019s Lunch, stopped by one recent afternoon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Nikas] has items on his hot bar for lunch that you normally can’t get anywhere else unless you cook them at home,\u201d said Gravely, who usually comes in and gets whatever the hot bar serves. On his plate that day were pan-fried boneless pork chops, creamed potatoes with gravy, lima beans and a dinner roll with butter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The hot bar at Murphy\u2019s Lunch is what distinguishes it from many other restaurants downtown. Laid out in a cafeteria style, the hot table consists of dishes that change frequently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can come here almost every day and still get something different all the time,\u201d Steve Mcdowall said. He pointed at the two meatloaf slices on his plate that Murphy\u2019s Lunch is famous for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pam Mcadoo, who visited Murphy\u2019s Lunch three times a week before the pandemic, missed the breakfast Nikas used to offer before the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe made the best omelet in the whole wide world,\u201d Mcadoo said. \u201cHe takes time with his food and cares about how it tastes to the customer. And I will give him credit for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Nikas, people want convenience more for breakfast than other meals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBreakfast is very difficult to do as a solo,\u201d Nikas said. He plans to start serving breakfast again when the roads closed for construction on Third Street reopen. Recently, he added an ice cream bar to attract young, school-aged children, knowing the construction was for a new location of Kaleideum, a children\u2019s museum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the future, Nikas would like Murphy\u2019s Lunch to be fully staffed for better customer service and its long-term survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause I’m serving other people, and I’m by myself, I don’t have the time to show that same excitement to see them,\u201d Nikas said. He wants to spend more time taking care of his customers, especially the regular ones who came to congratulate him on its reopening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to keep adding to [Murphy\u2019s Lunch\u2019s] future,\u201d Nikas said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whoosh, clatter, jingle. The minute hand of the wall clock ticked past 11:30 a.m. Diners…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":1968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2022","wpcat-25-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zerwicp.sites.wfu.edu\/CommunityJournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zerwicp.sites.wfu.edu\/CommunityJournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zerwicp.sites.wfu.edu\/CommunityJournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zerwicp.sites.wfu.edu\/CommunityJournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zerwicp.sites.wfu.edu\/CommunityJournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zerwicp.sites.wfu.edu\/CommunityJournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1973,"href":"https:\/\/zerwicp.sites.wfu.edu\/CommunityJournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967\/revisions\/1973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zerwicp.sites.wfu.edu\/CommunityJournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zerwicp.sites.wfu.edu\/CommunityJournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zerwicp.sites.wfu.edu\/CommunityJournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zerwicp.sites.wfu.edu\/CommunityJournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}