A Phoenix businessman and Tucson mortgage broker have taken the reins of Nimbus American Bistro.
Brandon Williams, who owns a carpet cleaning business that operates in Phoenix and Tucson, and Don Norris, a fixture in the Tucson real estate and nursing home industries, largely bought out founder James Counts earlier this month, said Joe Adragna, Nimbus' marketing director.
Counts, who maintains a minor ownership of the bistro, said he now will focus on brewing beer with his Nimbus Brewing Co., which supplies the restaurant's craft brews.
"The potential is very great all the way around when I have partners that are focusing strictly on the restaurant and I can focus strictly on building the brand," he said. "We're working … to extend the Nimbus brand to some of the markets that have been ringing my phone off the hook."
He said he has gotten calls from Chicago, New York and states closer to home in the past couple years.
"I'm going to go back to focusing on beer, which was beginning to be tough to do with the bistro and the brewery. It was getting to be too big a job for one individual," Counts said.
Adragna said Williams and Norris have brought in longtime Fox Restaurant Concepts chef Josh Tomczyk to run the kitchen. Tomczyk is tweaking the menu to build on the bistro's fan favorites like fish and chips and grilled ahi tuna, and will expand it to include other offerings. Pizzas, also popular among diners, will get a makeover when they bring back the wood-fired ovens, Adragna said.
Entrees run from $5 to $15; the most expensive item being the $16 steak special.
"The new direction of Nimbus Bistro will be immediate," Williams said in a written release. "We have plans to revamp and re-energize every facet of the business."
"Already with the new ownership group we're showing some fun growth," Adragna said, adding that the owners have reintroduced live music to the mix.
Nimbus Bistro opened in late September 2009 and quickly earned rave reviews from diners. But over the past six to eight months, diners have complained on Yelp, Urbanspoon and other public dining websites that service and food quality had gone downhill.
Counts initially partnered with Bob McMahon's The Metro Group to open the Bistro as an offshoot of Nimbus Brewery, which has been brewing craft beer locally since 1996. The bistro took up residence in a building at 6464 E. Tanque Verde Road that had housed Metro's City Grill and later the short-lived Italia Ristorante. The Counts-McMahon partnership ended within the first year, and McMahon became strictly a landlord to the bistro.
Adragna said under the new ownership, "we're all working toward the common goal of improving and growing Nimbus American Bistro."
The bistro opens at 11 a.m. daily and is open until 10 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays, until 11 p.m. Thursdays, until 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays and until 9 p.m. Sundays.
