NOMZ founders pass torch at Akron restaurant to explore food, starting in Bali

NOMZ eatery founders Kass and Sam LaVictoire have hung up their Akron aprons and bought their eatery at Northside Market, with a system to travel, rediscover food stuff and attain new competencies in the kitchen.

Their initial end: Bali.

The newlyweds, who grew up down the road from every other in West Akron, left Sunday for the Indonesian island, wherever they are going to invest two months exploring vegan places to eat and hunting for culinary inspiration.

“We are getting a risk to prioritize increasing our capabilities and travel the world. The plan is to rediscover food items and ourselves, to be capable to establish the strategy of our dreams someday,” mentioned Kass LaVictoire, 26.

Having around NOMZ at Northside Marketplace, which the LaVictoires ran for extra than three several years, are Roy Wright and his fiancee, Jamie Krum, of Springfield Township and Wright’s brother, Monthly bill Simoes of Shaker Heights. The sale incorporates the big adjacent NOMZ espresso and bar, which the LaVictoires took in excess of in June.

They plan to continue to keep NOMZ’s team of 13 and continue to use the authentic recipes at the counter-design cafe recognized for its scratch cooking and seasonal menus. Practically all of the recipes were designed by Sam LaVictoire, with a several invented by Kass.

“Everything’s going to continue to be the same. If it’s not broke, really don’t fix it,” Wright mentioned at the restaurant March 23.

Key to the changeover will be enable from staffer Gabe LaVictoire, Sam’s 26-calendar year-old brother and former right-hand man.

All over March, the LaVictoires trained the new entrepreneurs, who formally took above March 28. The education bundled kitchen area function as well as carrying out the restaurant grocery record, ringing up prospects and meeting distributors.

Sam LaVictoire was doing work with Simoes March 23 on earning an avocado black bean sandwich as Kass and Krum traded off generating vegan bacon, brushing rice paper with a household-designed marinade before baking it in the oven. The final result generates the texture and “a very little bit of the bacony style” of common bacon, Kass reported.

Tale continues

NOMZ previous proprietors plan culinary journey before return to Akron

Kass, 26, and Sam, 29, stated they’re in no hurry on their culinary journey. Following Bali, they plan to return to the United States and expend about two months each individual in distinctive locales in the South and Southwest to get started, together with Charleston South Carolina, New Orleans, Atlanta and metropolitan areas in Texas.

At initial, Sam did not want to offer. The couple had expressed fascination in going NOMZ, which had expanded 2 times at Northside Marketplace, to the Bowery task on Principal Road.

But then they assumed about the expense essential to get a new brick-and-mortar company off the floor and recognized they failed to have the skills they desired with different cuisines and various variations of kitchens.

“We have been quite younger when we started out with NOMZ,” reported Sam. “There’s a ton of life activities we however kind of are hunting forward to.”

In the course of their honeymoon in Greece in September, the few understood they experienced to determine both to extend their business enterprise or enable it go when it was undertaking properly. NOMZ did its largest enterprise nonetheless in 2021 — $500,000 in sales.

“We truly appreciated touring and eating food in Greece, so we just desired to be equipped to present additional to Akron in the long run,” Kass reported.

Now, they’ll investigate extra journey and extra food items, claimed Sam, who previously worked as
a line cook dinner at Mustard Seed Industry and Cafe. He’s often worked in kitchens, owning aspired to be a chef considering the fact that he was a kid.

The couple’s journey will be open-ended, but their conclusion goal is to return to Akron and open a different restaurant.

“Perhaps in two to three yrs we are going to be again in Akron,” Sam said.

He is looking ahead to experimenting with Southern food stuff, which includes Creole cooking, just after returning from Bali.

“Functioning with seafood is some thing that I would take pleasure in making an attempt,” Sam mentioned.

“I have usually just been sort of like an entrepreneur way of thinking, so I have always just been the thrust for Sam,” Kass explained.

The LaVictoires also have the seasonal Treatery at Northside Market, which characteristics rolled ice product and dessert tacos, up for sale.

To maintain up with the couple’s food journey, see their blog junipertravelz on Instagram or TikTok.

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Timing, vibe suitable to invest in NOMZ eatery

The new NOMZ homeowners reported the vibe of the Akron eatery and bar as properly as the timing to invest in ended up right.

“Monthly bill and I had been seeking for enterprises to order in the Akron area for a whilst now. We didn’t really locate anything that caught our eye till we saw this, and when we arrived in, we understood it was a superior suit,” Wright said.

The brothers and Krum, who 1st visited NOMZ in February as clients to consider the foods, said they favored all the things about the eatery. They in particular loved the beer-marinated Citra Puppy sandwich for its tender meat and a wide variety of tacos.

“We thought the food stuff was actually great. The bar is awesome, this view below. The area is outstanding,” Krum claimed of the wall of home windows powering the bar overlooking the Cascade Valley underneath.

Krum mentioned the way Sam combines elements in his recipes is “nearly like a science. He balances out the sweet and savory, and he’s so very good at that.”

The 3 reported they are not heading to improve the NOMZ recipes or sauces established from scratch by Sam. They will also continue to keep switching out the restaurant’s menu just about every period.

The new entrepreneurs also appreciate that NOMZ has a faithful vegan following. Vegan merchandise make up 30% of the menu and 50% of whole sales.

Wright and Simoes run their Promoting Bros. Agency remotely, with Wright acquiring a history in marketing and Simoes in enterprise management. At NOMZ, Simoes, 25, will be kitchen area supervisor even though Wright, 31, will target on building partnerships, the web site and advertising and marketing.

Krum, 32, who has a background as an administrative assistant, will operate the administrative facet of NOMZ.

Hours will continue to be the very same, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. See nomzeatz.com for much more details.

Simoes and the other people reported they take pleasure in getting a meticulous highway map to observe to run the organization. All of the restaurant’s processes have been documented and laminated by Kass, like recipes, cook times, temperatures and how to slice factors.

“It was all essentially like a guide to abide by,” Simoes reported.

“That assists with us not possessing cafe practical experience to be able to occur in and choose up points where they still left off,” mentioned Wright, who acquired a comprehensive checklist from Kass for turning in excess of the small business the working day they satisfied.

Arts and cafe writer Kerry Clawson might be attained at 330-996-3527 or [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Entrepreneurs market Akron’s NOMZ eatery, choose off to take a look at vacation, cuisine