The Nest Egg Cafe: Allendale breakfast spot touts from-scratch menu

ALLENDALE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — The owners of a new breakfast spot in Allendale say they’re overwhelmed by the response they have gotten.

The Nest Egg Café, located along Lake Michigan Drive near 60th Avenue in Allendale Township, opened on Jan. 22 with a soft opening. Co-owners Tony Palushaj and Antonio Mhilli are getting ready for the grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony in the coming weeks.

The two want things to be as perfect as possible before the grand opening, so they’re adjusting the menu based on customer feedback.

“We’re trying to take things very slow until everything (reaches) our level,” Mhilli said. “So that’s why we’re waiting a little bit more for the grand opening. We have to be 100% ready.”

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The breakfast spot serves up items like the popular crab cake benedict, a breakfast burrito and the Balkan, an avocado toast with egg, tomatoes, feta cheese, onion and drizzled balsamic.

Palushaj said the menu is limited because they want everything to come out perfect.

“You just can’t do that in a really busy environment when you have a really large, vast menu,” he said. “We want to be able to serve customers fast. We just want to give them good food, we want to be consistent and that’s our goal.”

They’re also focused on making things from scratch, like the handmade hash browns — the kitchen is already going through around 900 pounds of potatoes a week — and a marinated chicken that uses a recipe from Palushaj’s grandmother.

“(The) industry as a whole has become so processed. It’s become so instant, everything is just so instant. And so we take pride in making everything here from scratch,” he said. “Our chicken is marinated. We buy the best chicken and we marinate it ourselves with old recipes. I don’t know how old my grandmother’s recipe (is). It’s got to be 80, 90 years old or maybe even older.”

They say they also take pride in making sure the restaurant is clean, with no dust or stains.

“Fifty percent of the work in a restaurant, if you’re doing it right, goes into cleaning everything every day,” Palushaj said.

“You should go to the other restaurant he has in Zeeland (Vee’s Grill and Coney Island),” Mhilli added. “It looks like it was opened yesterday. That’s how clean the place is.”

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The co-owners grew up in the restaurant industry. Palushaj’s family, who he said taught him everything he knows, owned restaurants in the Detroit area.

“Ever since I was probably 11 years old, I was working in the kitchen, I was flipping eggs. I remember being as tall as the stove and I would reach up there and I would grab over-easy eggs and I would flip them,” he said. “I just grew up in it and that’s all I know. I don’t know anything else.”

Mhilli was born in Albania, where he watched his mom cook and helped with her restaurant. He moved to Italy at 13 and worked in the industry in Rome. He later moved to the United States, working in restaurants in D.C. and New York before moving to Holland.

The two met at a meeting for West Michigan restaurateurs.

“I saw Tony and … the way he was talking about the meeting, he was very serious,” Mhilli said, adding he was looking for a business partner. “When he was talking, I was like, ‘That dude is cool.'”

Palushaj became his mentor and brought him into his idea for a breakfast spot.

“I couldn’t have found a better business partner,” Palushaj said. “It’s like a match made in heaven and it’s just perfect, honest to God.”

The two have a lot in common, including the fact that they’re both Albanian. They both have a passion for the food industry, enjoying serving the community and seeing the smile on customer’s face when they try the food.

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Mhilli said growing up, food and gathering at the table with your family was one of the most important things, as “without food we cannot do anything.”

“It’s like a sentimental feeling, bring us back a lot of memories. How we were raised around a table and food and great food, that smell around the house when our mama was cooking, it makes … (a) big difference,” he said. “We’re trying to bring that to the people. And so far we’re very happy. Everybody’s very, very happy with that.”

The two said they have felt very welcome in the Allendale community, adding they feel like they already know everyone. They say they’ve been very blessed with good employees and invited people to come check their restaurant out.

“Just come see us, give us a chance,” he said. “I think that we’re going to make you happy. That’s our goal. We’re going to try real hard, we’re working really, really hard and you’ll be pleased.”

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