Ended up about a year and a half later, uh, by the food truck. That food truck, uh, happened to be a Greek food truck, and next thing I know I’m going through, putting my menu together, and I don’t have, uh, enough money to change the sign. So I said, “Might as well figure out how to make some Greek food.” And that sign was Aegean, right?
What’s up, everyone? Welcome to Campus Eats. We’re here at University at Albany, and we’re here gonna have some from Nico’s. This is Nick, the owner. Awesome story. Can’t wait to get this. And this is Todd, a junior, and he’s super stoked. He’s one of… He’s like, “Here guys, Campus Eats, we have to come to Nico’s.”
Why? No matter what it is, breakfast, lunch, dinner, their Hercules wrap, Nico’s, it’s got everything. It’s got hash browns, cheese, bacon, everything you want. And as you can see, they’re really small, so they don’t, like, fill you up. That’s a joke. All right. But before we go any further, the story here is so powerful.
And Nick, if you don’t mind, like, tell your story of your journey- Yeah, absolutely … to all the way to here. It’s awesome. [00:01:00] Yeah. So I went to school here. Uh, I graduated 2008. Uh, played football. You know, spent a lot of time in the dining halls, the campus center, as most football players do. Um, after school, you know, I wanted to be a teacher, uh, maybe a college coach.
Uh, that didn’t work out. I was actually hit by a car at a wedding, uh, leave… in Buffalo, New York, uh, 2010. And, um, kind of spent my, sent my life spinning in a spiral, and ended up about a year and a half later, uh, by the food truck. That food truck, uh, happened to be a Greek food truck, and next thing I know, I’m going through, putting my menu together, and I don’t have, uh, enough money to change the sign.
So I said, “Might as well figure out how to make some Greek food.” And that sign was Aegean, right? The sign was the Aegean. So you kinda had to make Greek food. So there was no way around, no way around it. Just fast-forward three years, uh, had a brick and mortar restaurant in Albany, and, uh, school came and approached me about opening a Nico’s Cafe.
And with my passion for food and obviously the love of UAlbany and the students here, just seemed to make sense. Here we are. And I think, uh, we’re, we’re [00:02:00] talking, I think it’s a powerful story for everyone because you will get, like, you will get derailed in life and, and setbacks will happen. It’s what you do with those setbacks.
So the, the fact it’s like, had to re-change my career. I didn’t have a choice, couldn’t change the sign. Let’s make some Greek food, and now you got restaurants, now you got actual students being like, “It’s the best thing on campus.” So, shall we eat? When life, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Make lemonade.
All right, let’s enjoy. Oh my gosh, I can’t even fit my mouth around it.
Oh yeah, that’s good. I can see why it’s so popular. Now, you say you do two of these a day. I don’t know how you do it. We’ll see you next time, everyone. Take care.