Nan's Kitchen — Restaurant in Stow

I recently submitted an online order for Nan's in Stow. It wasn't quite ready when I got there. I waited in the retail section looking at books. Other customers were there waiting for their orders. It was almost closing time. When I still hadn't gotten my order and they were about to close, I went over to the counter and asked about the order. Three staffers huddled and spoke among themselves in almost a whisper. They looked at their computer screen. But they wouldn't tell me what was going on. When I finally asked them what was happening, they said my order had been picked up by someone else. While I was waiting in the retail area, my order was quietly put on the counter. One of the other people identified themself as me, and walked out with my order. I was only a few feet away when it happened. They were closing in two minutes. There was no way they could remake the order. The staffers continued to huddle and avoided eye contact or explanation. There was no apology. When I said that I was surprised this had happened, one staffer turned to me and said: "It...happens...all...the...time". No mention of them sensing the urgency of the problem or looking for ways to solve it. Just a soft virtual shoulder shrug. Some people may be taking advantage of how Nan's operates and are walking out with free food on a regular basis. They refunded my online payment and gave me a couple of cookies as a consolation prize. They do a great job with the food. Perhaps they can become competent and professional in other areas. If their motto is going to be "Let them eat cookies", they should probably change their name to Marie...

Tried it this weekend. Nice place, I believe it was an Inn in the past. They'll probably do super well in Apple season! Hopefully some recipes will reflect the season too.

I think the specialty is fried chicken which I got which was good, juicy, flavorful and with a bot of a kick. They also do really good sides - liked the hush puppies! Though it brought me to wondering id they'll do more seafood in the future.

I think the big takeaway is that the food is organic and it does capture the feel of home cooked meals which isn't easy. Cost is fair, maybe slightly high for some items but I'll visit again in the future.

UPDATE: Here's the future! The only issue I had in my first visit in the Spring was a delay with the takeout order. But they made it right by providing extra gravy, which was quite good. That was takeout, ordered ahead. I recently went in again for breakfast and wasn't able to order - a walk in. It wasn't super busy but it felt a bit unorganized for where to make the order and pay & nobody really noticed me so after about 7 minutes I left. Only one person on register with everyone else kind of just there. The food was good as mentioned above - and I will definitely give it another shot as a walk-in, but had to dock a half star from the original review for service (still rounds up to 4)

Update 2! More future! In September 2022 made a fairly large takeout order and wanted to mention they got it all correct and it was ready at the time promised! Oh - and the food was pretty great too. :) Still some small confusion on my end perhaps for the counter but it was otherwise...

Nan’s is one of my favorite places of all time. The sandwiches are sublime.

I’m going to talk about the barn burner sandwich. I’m a chili head and I’ve had the hottest chilis in the world including the mutant ones. I can eat normal 5 out of 5 spicy things without noticing. I noticed the barn burner. Normally people say ghost chili and they think about putting it in and that’s all they do. I’m looking at you Wendy’s and Trader Joe’s. Ghost pepper is one of the grossest peppers I’ve had the privilege of tasting and Nan’s expertise has made it taste lovely.

On to the heat. I’m going to give it a 3/5 on my heat scale. One on the heat scale for me is 5 vindaloo at an Indian restaurant that knows me. 5 is super hots like ghost pepper/Carolina reaper. I cried and ended up in the heat plateau. It took about 5-10 minutes to get to full force as is common with these types of peppers. It was delicious and full of flavor. As I meditated on the mesa of schoville mountain I looked at the summit and decided this was a nice place to be. I really like this sandwich and I really hope that enough people join me here in the vortex of pain to keep it on the menu. There are very few places where I can get actually hot food. This is actually hot. Please Nan’s keep this on the menu or have some way of special ordering this if not. I’m going to send out the chili signal to the other crazy people so wet can come and feast upon this sandwich.

I sneezed and my face is still burning delightfully....