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By Stacey Powells
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 There are plenty of jobs that are strictly 9-5. We go to work, we do what is expected of us, we go home. Most of us do this Monday through Friday, 52 weeks a year. Then there are those people who choose, for whatever reason, to own a restaurant. Todd and Melanie Nagy, for example, are coming up on their four-year anniversary date of owning Angel's Restaurant in Mammoth Lakes.
They weren't looking to buy Angel's in 2003 but Greg Alexander was looking to sell. He had mentioned the possibility of selling Angel's to Joanne Beveridge, Melanie's mom, who had been doing the books for Angel's since the Sam Walker days. “I was sick of working for everyone else and Mel was looking for a change of pace,” said Todd. “I asked Joanne if the numbers worked and we started the process in March of 2003...a month before we were supposed to be married.” The process ended in October 2003 and Mel and Todd Nagy took over the business.
“Working at Angel's was my first job in town,” said Mel. “I bussed tables here at 14, and learned to hostess, prep cook and wash the dishes.” So taking over the restaurant as owner wasn't much of a shock for the Nagys. Todd is a trained culinary chef and was spending his nights creating recipes for the Hennessey crowd when they started to buy Angel's. Now the hungry public gets to sample his culinary specials on a daily basis at his own restaurant.
The first thing they did when escrow closed was shut down for four days. “We cleaned the place from top to bottom,” said Mel. “We didn't really change anything except for a few adjustments on the inside to make it look cleaner.” Still, some of the long-standing customers had a few ideas of their own. “At the request of several people, we brought back the deep dish pies and the Jalapeño corn fritters,” said Mel, but the biggest food change didn't happen until May of 2004.
For years Angel's baked their famous ribs in the oven, but in May of 2004 the Nagys bought the smoker, and, if I may say firsthand, there's nothing like the meat of a smoked baby back rib when it falls off the bone.
When the Nag's bought Angel's in 2004, they always knew they were going to remodel; the only question was when. In July of last year they worked with an architect to draw up the plans for the remodel. Those plans were finished in September and thought they were going to be able to start remodeling in October, but that wasn't to be. It took them almost five months to find an engineer, and the Nagys had to go out of the area, as all the local engineers were too busy to take on a project like the Angel's remodel.
“My dad knew plenty of engineers, but they were either retired or had too much going on,” said Mel. They found one based in Los Angeles to do the deed, who picked up the job in March of 2007. The plans were supposed to be finished by mid-April, but they didn't get them back until the beginning of August.
“We got the plans back and then had to present them to the town,” said Todd. “All the necessary town elements like the planning commission and the health department have to approve the plans. We've gone through almost two months of revisions and part of the problem is that once the town suggests their changes, we have to send them back down to the engineer who is in Los Angeles.”
Now the Nagy's are waiting for their most recent set of plans to be approved. Once that happens, “We can take them to the bank,” said Todd. Until then, because the loan takes between 30-45 days to be approved, “We aren't going to start the remodel in the middle of December,” he added.
Todd and Mel have missed several vacation opportunities while waiting for the plans to be approved, so now that the pressure is off a bit they won't start the remodel until the spring. Maybe they can relax for a little while. “We are going to close on Oct. 11 and reopen Oct. 24,” affirmed Todd. “My wife and I need a vacation.”
The new and improved Angel's will have the bar upstairs with eight flat screened televisions, and there will be more dining space downstairs. There will be a small 9' x 40' deck off the front, which will run the length of the building, and the kitchen will be more efficient and look a lot different than it does now.
Those who treasure the look of the Angel's of years past have until spring to get their fill. One thing's for sure, past or future, the already yummy cooking isn't going to get a remodel, so eat hearty!
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