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Marcy and Mike Nesbitt opened M&M’s Natural JAZ 25 years ago. (Johnson Publications photo)

M&M’s Natural JAZ celebrates 25 years

Mike and Marcy Nesbitt are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their downtown Imperial sandwich shop, M&M’s Natural JAZ.
M&M stands for “Mike & Marcy”, while JAZ stands for their children’s names, Jay, Alicia and Zach.
“It’s ‘JAZ-plus’ now,” Marcy laughed.
The “plus” includes her eight grandkids.
Twenty-five years ago
Marcy and her husband started Natural JAZ 25 years ago when Marcy started showing signs of food allergies and sensitivities. They realized there weren’t many options for her at that time.
In addition to sandwich and other lunch options, Marcy also has a supply of alternative-food products, herbs and supplements.
“My goal always was to give people information and opportunity to take care of themselves,” Marcy said.
Clean and gluten-free eating is “more mainstream,” she added.
Even her kitchen is “clean.”
Marcy says from the beginning she’s used those clean ingredients in her kitchen, “stone-ground flour, organic and non-enriched; aluminum-free baking powder; you know, all the ingredients that I’m so careful about for myself.”
An Imperial staple
“When I got to 20 (years) I thought ‘geez, I feel like an icon,’” Marcy said.
Whether it’s people coming in for lunch on a work day or school-age kids grabbing a smoothie, Natural JAZ is a staple of life in Imperial.
“I’ve watched kids come in and watched them grow up,” she said. “Now they’re back and I get to watch their kids grow up.
“It makes me feel good,” Marcy added, “to have accomplished something that has created its own culture.”
Changes
One of the biggest changes Marcy has seen over the past 25 years is growth.
“We’re way busier and have way more employees than I used to,” she said.
One addition she made 10-15 years ago was Tuesday night Mexican food.
“(Imperial) had a pancake night on Mondays, church was Wednesday night, the Eagles had hamburger night on Thursdays, while Friday and Saturday were steak nights, so I told Mike we needed to give the people an option of a place to go out for Tuesday,” Marcy said.
It started out just Marcy and her husband.
“Then he turned to me one night and said ‘you need to get someone to help us or I’m not doing this anymore,’” she said.
“And so now we have four people on Tuesday nights.”
Favorites
Marcy’s favorite dish at her shop is a gluten-free, almond-flour wrap with ham, tomato and lettuce. “It’s really good,” she said.
Mike’s favorite is the chicken salad sandwich with coleslaw. “He just made that up and he loves it.”
More years ahead
“I couldn’t have done this without the support of the community and my family,” Marcy said.
“We’re only here because of the support of the people and our customers. That’s the most important thing,” she added, “and my help. My girls are amazing. We’ve developed our own little family and I think that’s spread out to the community.”

 

The Imperial Republican

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622 Broadway St

PO Box 727

Imperial, NE 69033