Miranda Pederson/Daily NewsPeter and Sandi Nilsson have opened 606 East Cafe in Russellville that features eclectic decor.

Published 12:00 am Monday, June 28, 2004

Everyday people

Logan couple opens unique restaurant

Monday, June 28, 2004

RUSSELLVILLE Its been years since Sandi Nilsson, a 54-year-old New Jersey native, was a hippie living in an old green school bus.

Its been decades since her Swedish-born husband, Peter Nilsson, 55, sailed himself to Miami from Sweden on a fishing boat.

Email newsletter signup

Why not? Peter said. He made the trip to this country with his then wife Lillian Byrne, who had family in Logan County.

Why not? is the reason for lots of what Peter does.

Its why he bought land in Logan County years before he met Sandi.

Its also partly why the couple opened their quirky restaurant, 606 East Cafe, in Russellville, in the old Felts Diner on March 23.

We laid low up here about a year and a half before opening the restaurant, Sandi said.

For years, Sandi ran a 606 East in Savannah, Ga., where Clint Eastwood made the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Mr. Eastwood was spotted feasting on a veggie wrap at 606…. reads a Savannah Morning News clipping that hangs on a wall in the new 606.

But Sandis road to success wasnt easy.

My family has always been in the restaurant business, she said. My father had a pizza business. I started doing catering when I was 13 for my uncle. After high school I went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. … I stayed a couple years and I got antsy and never did finish.

Later, she and the man who was then her husband decided to move into the school bus. They drove it to Montana, where her dad lived.

I was a hippie in the mountains, Sandi said.

She grew her own food. She lived off the earth.

It sucked, she said as she smoked a cigarette.

She talked about her life, as did Peter, in a blue booth at the Russellville 606.

A disco ball hung just a few feet away. A clothes line nearby displayed lingerie.

Its atmosphere, Sandi said while giving a tour a bit later.

But that was after she finished her story.

In 1976, she said, she had a daughter, Heather Sadler. Later, she got divorced and got a job as an activity director in a nursing home.

I loved the old people, she said. Id do all kinds of fun things with the old people paint their nails.

But her life changed in 1980, when a sister who was living in Savannah talked her into moving there.

Sandi likes to say, I arrived in Savannah with two suitcases, $25 and my daughter. Different versions of the saying have been quoted in other articles about her. To Sandi, it shows how far shes come. In the early years in Savannah, her transportation was a bicycle.

I worked at a restaurant and used to get up at 5:30 in the morning and put (Heather) on the handle bars and wed be at the baby sitter by 6, she said.

Then, Sandi worked in a bakery owned by a Welshman and a Frenchman. There, for nearly a decade, she got a lot of experience. So when the bakery was sold in the late 1980s, Sandi decided to open her own restaurant, the original 606 East Cafe, on 606 Abercorn St. in Savannah. The East in the name was derived Sandi native East Coast.

I opened a breakfast and lunch place and did very well, she said.

That was in 1989.

When her lease ran out a few years later, Sandi moved the restaurant to Savannahs market area, and hoped it would prosper there, too.

I was crying all the time because I was nervous, she said. But the doors opened and we were slammed.

The second 606 was bigger than the first, with a kids area and an outdoor spot, which Sandi named the Cow Patio. It also featured cow-themed decor, a lot of kitsch and Sandis original, unique murals, like the ones at the Russellville 606, where a cow on a wall wears sunglasses.

Soon, Peter caught Sandis eye. They had met through a friend in Beaufort, S.C., where Peter ran a restaurant and tapas bar, selling small appetizer-like dishes. He was divorced and likable.

I knew hed be a good man for me, Sandi said. So I asked him out. He said OK, and we fell in love…

Nine years ago they married. Its been a union thats seen lots of change, including Peters moving to Savannah and opening a place called Tapas; the couples building a home on Peters Logan County land; and the closing of the Savannah 606 East because the building it was in was put up for sale and Sandi could not afford to buy it.

Sadness aroused in Savannah as the days came closer to closing, says a written 606 history on the back of the Russellville 606 menu. The new idea was to leave the rat race of the city and retire in Russellville, Kentucky. Owning land for years with a partial house built, we said OK. The last day of business was hard. We had a closing party.

But something happy came of it all when Sandi was presented with a key to Savannah.

Wow…, the history says, We were special and are still missed.

In 2002, Peter sold Tapas, and soon he and Sandi moved to Logan County. Peter had vacationed here for years and remembered what it was like in the early days, when he would come and stay in a tent.

It was like summer camp, said Peter, who through his years in Sweden had run a heavy equipment business, a nightclub and a restaurant. In Beaufort he also ran a sign shop. When he and Sandi completed their new home here, they gardened and put in a swimming pool.

Then, last year it seemed it was time to give back to the community by opening a new 606, they said. But Sandi said it has not been easy.

She says they were treated very rudely last year when she approached the city council about the possibility of securing a license to sell liquor by the drink.

A clipping from the Logan County paper, the News-Democrat & Leader, shows a picture of Sandi at a council meeting and tells how she was heckled by people who did not think liquor should be sold by the drink. The issue riled up many in Russellville, and now Sandi has a framed collage of newspaper clippings about the issue in the 606 lobby.

While Sandi doesnt mind people opposing the issue, she said the heckling was something that got to her. After that, she said, she and Peter took off in an RV for three months. One destination was San Francisco, where she met up with her cousin, Scott Cosentino, who is now her chef. But hes not the only familiar face at the Nilssons restaurant. Brett McKie, who managed the Savannah 606 is now the Russellville 606 manager.

McKie said he likes Logan County living.

Im enjoying myself, he said. People are nice. Ive met some new friends.

But.

Its a bit of a culture shock from Savannah, he added.

Thats the same way the Nilssons feel. They say they dont understand why so many dont want them to sell liquor when doing so would help out their business, which in turn would help out Russellville.

Its no question that if we dont get a liquor license by November well be closing the place and there will be 25 people here out of work, Peter said.

But maybe he and Sandi could sell the place to Brett, who would like to own it if the Nilssons cant afford to pay themselves and all of their staff without selling liquor, he said.

Brett said he would like that a lot.

These two are the most caring people Ive ever met in my life, he said. By example theyve taught me.

Brett is 31 and lives, like Cosentino, in an apartment above 606. Sandi says Brett is like a son. She tends to mother employees. A wall in the Russellville 606 bar, which sells beer and wine, is dedicated to former employees. A memory spot honors those whove passed away. The Nilssons hope the new 606 wont die, too. But they never had big dreams for the place.

Theres no dream in the restaurant business, said Peter. We have seen some people inherit millions and go broke in one year.

Whatever the future brings for the couple, one thing can be sure, Sandi assured.

Everything we do is an adventure.

606 East Main Cafe is open Tuesday and Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

 Daily News ·813 College St. ·PO Box 90012 ·Bowling Green, KY ·42102 ·270-781-1700