After losin' their cruisin', Nick's regulars return
Vintage-car aficionados follow ice-cream stand to new locale
(Globe Staff / Evan Richman)
Ricky Zanco and his Harley-Davidson made the scene at Nick's in Ashland.
It was 2004 and Natick was changing fast. For the first time, median home values were soaring close to the $400,000 mark, and yoga studios and gourmet shops were colonizing the old town center.
Nick's Ice Cream was one of the few remaining blue-collar pleasures in what was quickly becoming a white-collar town. But that changed too, when the Stournaras family decided to reinvent their Route 135 fried-clam stand, a gathering spot for generations of high schoolers and vintage-car owners, leaving an upscale Greek restaurant, Nicholas, in its place.
This was progress. Change is good. Right?
Yes. And no.
Although Nicholas - a sit-down establishment with a full liquor license - has thrived over the past four years, Nick Stournaras, 66, and his son John, 40, felt an ongoing sense of loss, an emotional wound that wouldn't heal.
They missed the old Nick's, and they weren't alone. Customer after customer came to them reminiscing about the sense of community and nostalgia at the old Nick's, especially during its famous Saturday cruise nights, when hundreds of old cars would pack the parking lot, owners chatting and showing off their car engines.
"More people had trouble with the change than we expected," said John Stournaras. "We missed it, too."
Quietly, the family scouted for a new location where the old Nick's might live again, a convenient place where vintage cars could park for hours at a time.
"It's so hard to find the right location; we didn't know if we would," said the family patriarch, who immigrated to the United States from Greece in 1967, speaking no English. He founded Nick's in 1979 after buying the former Wallace's Ice Cream Stand, a place already known for attracting vintage cars on weekend nights.
Natick real estate proved to be too expensive for the reincarnated Nick's. But the Stournaras hit pay dirt a few miles away on Route 126 in Ashland, on the site of the Higgins Family Christmas Tree farm, owned by old family friends. The site even included an outbuilding that looked eerily like the old Nick's, said John Stournaras. The Higgins family agreed to lease space for the new Nick's, and they will still sell Christmas trees there during December.
But the big question loomed: After being closed for a number of summers, could Nick's lure back vintage-car owners, as if nothing ever happened?
A few car buffs were permanently offended when the original Nick's closed its doors, recalled Ricky Zanco, who drives a yellow 1970 Oldsmobile.
Some defected to Riley's Roast Beef in Framingham, which also hosts weekend old-car nights. Some just stopped attending cruise nights.
But Zanco, 66, said he was willing to give the new Nick's a try, and has been visiting regularly since it opened in May.
"I'm glad they are back, and trying to do it again," said the former Newton resident, who now lives in Framingham. Zanco said he loves the see-and-be-seen aspect of cruise night - especially, the ability to show off his vintage muscle car to kids raised in a Subaru Outback world.
"I love it when people take photos of the car and want to get in," said Zanco. "A lot of people out there never had the opportunity to see these cars. And the sound of starting up the engine brings back these great memories."
The past month has been unseasonably rainy, and Nick's new parking lot is much smaller, making it a tight squeeze for more than a dozen cars. Still, it's an opportunity to recapture the nostalgia enjoyed by so many for nearly 25 years, said another returning Nick's regular.
"It's like a rebirth," said 65-year-old Anthony Charest, a Natick resident who drives a 1992
Nick Stournaras said he is thrilled to be back at an ice cream stand. On a recent Saturday night - the first of the season without the thunderstorms that scare away most car buffs - he was exuberant, greeting customers with hugs and handshakes.
"I feel so good," he said. "People are excited and things are happening."
John Stournaras will continue to run Nicholas in Natick, although he, his wife, Sharon, and their two older sons - the third generation of Stournaras restaurateurs - will help out at the Ashland location this summer, too.
The family has taken special care to make things feel as much like the old Nick's as possible, right down to the seafood distributor, batter, and oil, said the younger Stournaras. They have even invited a local Elvis impersonator, Dennis Porter, to revive the golden oldies show he used to perform at the old Natick location.
WCVB-TV news anchor Susan Wornick, a former Natick resident, said the Nick's revival reflects how close-knit the Natick community still is.
"Natick has always been an incredibly welcoming community for everyone," she said. "Nick's is very reminiscent of that feeling. It was a place where you could stop in and instantly connect with people. You would always see someone you knew."
Wornick, a 1967 graduate of Natick High School, said she spent most teenage weekend nights at Wallace's with friends, in her 1966 white Mustang convertible.
There may not be enough space left to rebuild Nick's within the Natick town limits, but Ashland is a great spot to build new memories, said Wornick.
The Stournaras family is hoping lightning will strike twice, and the new Nick's will be as successful as the original.
"It's funny," said John Stournaras. "If the old Nick's had not done so well, we couldn't have had Nicholas. And if that hadn't done so well, the Ashland Nick's would not have been possible.
"It's a big cycle. You just have to shake your head."
Erica Noonan can be reached at enoonan@globe. com.
