Nosh restaurant opened Wednesday at 1401 Park St. in Paso Robles.

New downtown eatery is now open for breakfast and lunch

– The old Artisan location is no longer sitting empty – Nosh restaurant opened for breakfast and lunch on Wednesday at 1401 Park St. Paso Robles. Nosh, which owner Fanny Alcantar said means food in English and Yiddish, serves traditional American cuisine with a focus on local, fresh and wholesome ingredients.

Nosh Executive Chef Esther Abobo holds her own creation, the stairway burger, which includes patties with bacon and cheese in the meat and then layered with more bacon and cheese.

Alcantar and Executive Chef Esther Abobo met 10 years ago when they both worked at Stardust Casino in Las Vegas. They continued to work together at different casinos and three years ago they opened their first restaurant together — Divine Eatery — in Las Vegas.

“We continued to work together, then we saved enough money to open our first restaurant,” Alcantar said. Their restaurant was located in a residential area of Sin City. “We were thinking about moving somewhere – it didn’t matter where – in the United States.”

One of their employees at Divine Eatery had lived in Paso Robles for five years suggested they look in California – in Paso Robles specifically. Alcantar said initially she said no, because she didn’t want to deal with the traffic. But then they actually saw Paso Robles. Alcantar said she told Abobo that they should consider Paso Robles. That was three months ago. Two weeks before they opened, Alcantar and Abobo arrived in Paso Robles and hit the ground running to get Nosh open.

The restaurant is open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will serve breakfast and lunch. Alcantar said that once the restaurant gets its liquor license, it will also be open from 5 to 8 p.m. for tapas and drinks.

“[The tapas on the menu] won’t be the same, it’ll change,” Alcantar said. She said she guesses it will be about another 30 days before the restaurant opens in the evening. Nosh’s official grand opening will be held on Saturday, Aug. 1.

Abobo started her culinary career in 1995 at Tillerman, a fine dining restaurant, as a dishwasher and quickly worked her way up to a cook. She eventually worked at casinos such as Paris, Monte Carlo and the Palm as a chef. She’s also worked for Emeril Lagasse and other celebrity chefs. Her ultimate goal was to become executive chef or owner of her own restaurant, so in 2006, she graduated from Cordon Bleu School of Culinary Arts in Las Vegas.

While Nosh is not a certified gluten-free kitchen, Alcantar said that Chef will have gluten-free pancake mix on hand, servers will assist on making necessary substitutes to accommodate any food allergies.

Nosh owners Fanny Alcantar and Executive Chef Esther Abobo stand together in the dining room of Paso Robles’ newest restaurant. Photo by Heather Young