Photos by Michael Piazza

No one has ever said making it in the restaurant business was easy. But Jordan Mackey, who owns a number of innovative culinary ventures with his wife and partner Reanna (Nan), has discovered the secret to making it successful and replicable: people. He explains the ethos that inspires Nan’s Kitchen + Market in Stow and Southborough and Sobre Mesa and (now-closed pop-up) Sul Tavolo restaurants in Sudbury.

“We consider ourselves to be in the people business. Yes, we happen to serve food. But it’s the people that serve the food, people that create experiences for the customers, people that make recommendations, season the dishes and the salads and the sauces, so we try to keep that as a company mantra. We’re in the business of meeting amazing people and ensuring they have what they need to have amazing experiences, because if their needs are not getting met, nobody wins.”

Meeting the needs of the business, staff and customers starts at the top—and the Mackeys set a powerful example. Their working partnership relies on mutual respect and trust. “She has the greatest level of attention to detail of anyone I’ve known in the business,” Mackey says of his wife. “We have been able to be what the other is not. We both have our lanes.”

That, along with a tireless work ethic and a willingness to take risks, has allowed them to test different business models, sometimes from the same kitchen.

The Mackeys strive to deliver mindfully curated culinary experiences in places where they are often hard to find: the suburbs. Nan’s Kitchen + Market operates on a modern to-go model launched during the pandemic; I first profiled the business in Edible Boston’s Spring 2021 issue, a year after their opening. The all-day carryout shop, first opened in Stow and now with a second location in Southborough, offers scratch-made meals and sustainably sourced beverages to people who need something healthy, fast.

On the way to work or school, customers can score a brown butter hazelnut latte or an urfa pepper mocha, a smoothie blended with neighborhood kale and honey and a savory breakfast bowl or wrap. Açai bowls, chia pudding and chocolate croissants await those who prefer to start the day sweet. Nan’s lunch and dinner menus draw crowds from all over. On weekends they often send a team out to direct traffic and parking; lines snake out the door.

While renowned for their fried chicken—especially Nan’s original fried chicken sammie—the menu has something for everyone. Avoiding gluten? Try the pesto grilled broccoli, summer slaw or farmer’s caviar made with locally grown black beans, quinoa, sumac-cured lemon and tangerine honey dressing, or one of their creative grain bowls. Craving protein? Sides of flank steak, salmon, brined chicken breast, falafel and variations of their signature fried chicken can accompany any of their harvest salads.

They do big business with catering, especially around the holidays. “Thanksgiving is huge for Nan’s,” Mackey says. A natural wine CSA (Curated Sommelier Assortment) introduces customers to small vineyards and unusual varietals. Carignan from Cotes Catalanes, anyone?

Mackey didn’t grow up eating like this, what he describes as “food with intention, designed to delight and be delicious.” His parents were “raw food vegetarian hippies” who considered meals “fuel in the tank,” rather than experiences that could include romance or pleasure. “My influences were negative; that’s what made them so powerful,” he laughs. He fell in love with the restaurant industry working in kitchens, first as a dishwasher and eventually as a fine-dining chef. He found the world described in Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential irresistible. “I thought to myself, ‘They’re all so unprofessional, I love it!’”

Nan’s was in many ways a pandemic pivot, occasioned by the closing of Mackey’s 275 seat Mediterranean restaurant 29 Rustic in Sudbury. But the success of Nan’s takeout model didn’t diminish the couple’s passion for innovative table service businesses. In November 2021 they opened Sobre Mesa at 27 Hudson Road in Sudbury. Tucked into the town’s historic district, the restaurant celebrates the flavor, ingredients and spirit of Oaxaca and the coast of Mexico. Fans love its surprising taco options like street cart chicken, crispy barbacoa brisket, wood grilled shiitakes and fresh fish bathed in tangy tomato escabeche. Keeping with the Mackeys’ vegetable-forward brand, ceviche options include yellowfin tuna with aji amarillo golden tomato, avocado, jalapeño, garlic, cucumber and lime and poached octopus “en escabeche” with tomato mole, lemon, cilantro, pasilla, chili crema, crispy potato and fire-grilled hot peppers.

As with the best Mexican eateries, cocktails are as big a draw as food. Alcohol makes up 38% of sales. The tantalizing drinks menu includes six signature margaritas (don’t miss the Yellow Alligator: añejo tequila, Aperol, tangerine, strawberry, honey, citrus and aji amarillo Peruvian chili—vamos!); “cocteles” like the Pineapple Tepache with pineapple mezcal and Chartreuse; the frothy Piña Cantina with Oaxacan rum and ancho reyes verde poblano; and the Velvet Harbor with rum, Luxardo maraschino and allspice dram poured over a king cube. Always a finger on the cultural pulse, they also serve inspired nonalcoholic options. My favorite: March of the Dead with guava purée, lime, Seedlip Grove and a sweet/hot chili rim.

According to the National Restaurant Industry’s 2023 State of the Industry Report, 92% of operators cite higher food costs as a significant challenge and 62% report being understaffed. Flexibility and creative thinking are imperative to staying alive, let alone on top. A tongue-in-cheek challenge and their why-not attitude had a lot to do with the couple’s decision in September this year to open a second (pop-up) restaurant in the same location as Sobre Mesa. Mackey recalls the night he complained to Nan that they didn’t have any good pizza nearby. “Then go fire up that wood stove and make us some!” Nan teased him, referring to the pizza oven upstairs at 29 Hudson Road. He accepted the challenge, and soon they’d launched a plan to open Sul Tavolo on a temporary basis (which, like Sobre Mesa, means “on the table”), a laid-back Italian spot that offered pasta, pizza and natural wine until early November 2023. “Two scratch-made menus in the same building,” says Mackey. “More lines in the water.”

Additional locations also mean more demand for produce and more opportunities to support local farms. “There’s an obligation we have in the choices that we make feeding people. When it comes to farms, we have to do our part to make small farming viable. Chefs have always been at the forefront of these causes... Because we’ve convenience-foods’d ourselves into a health and wellness epidemic and an environmental disaster epidemic with things like palm oil. Instead of paying for missiles, we should be paying farmers to grow food so that more people know it’s a viable career and know that if they get washed out by rain one year, they won’t go bankrupt.”

Where the Mackeys open businesses has a lot to do with proximity to farms. They work closely with Boston Food Hub, a program of Boston Area Gleaners that provides restaurants and wholesale buyers access to a wider array of local farms and food purveyors. Boston Food Hub has an outpost on the Acton-Stow line, meaning almost all of the vegetables the Mackeys need are grown in state. “That means it’s cheaper, more delicious, fresher and more packed with nutrients,” explains Mackey. They also work closely with Applefield Farms on Great Road in Stow. “As we scale, we want to be able to make larger and larger commitments to Massachusetts farms.”

Whether it’s their takeout comfort food or sit-down Mexican and Italian, the Mackeys are devoted to helping people eat better more days a week. They believe in the power of community, trusting in local partners and in doing what’s right—even when it’s hard.

nansmarket.com
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This story appeared in the Winter 2024 issue.