The dried bouquet of flowers preserved from Nettie Escamilla-Vela’s funeral service burned in the fire.
As did the pictures of Nettie’s brothers and sisters hanging on the wall and photo albums of family, friends and customers – filled with pictures of wedding receptions, graduation ceremonies, confirmation celebrations, birthday parties and more. So much more.
Only memories of the moments shared at Nettie’s Fine Mexican Food remain.
Michelle Lyons, Nettie’s granddaughter, remembers how Nettie would scoop up crying babies from their mothers to comfort.
“My grandma was notorious for saying, ‘Give me that baby. You eat your food hot,’” Lyons said.
Those tables where Nettie stood, worked and laughed melted. The fire that swept through the treasured family owned Bellevue restaurant at 7110 Railroad Ave. on Friday, Dec. 23, destroyed more than bricks and mortar.
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“Even if we are able to rebuild, that feeling of her being there won’t be,” Lyons said. “That was what I had left of her. That was her legacy, and it’s gone.”
Lyons has become the unofficial family spokesperson since the blaze, answering every email and Facebook posting.
“It’s keeping me busy. I need to be busy,” she said.
The condolences, and questions, keep coming. So much so, Lyons is running interference for her mother, Nettie’s daughter and restaurant co-owner Kathy Boyles.
“As much as she appreciates it, she is having to tell the story over and over,” Lyons said.
The fire happened around 4 p.m., while Lyons was at home preparing to come to the restaurant. Inside Nettie’s were about 25 customers eating or at the bar, the kitchen staff of five, her mother and nine other family members and employees.
Fire investigators told the family they believe it was a freak accident, she said. The winter storm had created a barrier of ice and snow over the chimney cap, trapping the rising heat from the gas-burning fireplace. The ceiling began to smolder, creating a haze in the restaurant.
Staff searched for the cause, checking if something was smoking in the kitchen or maybe the furnace. Then the tiles on the ceiling began to bow and flames could be seen.
Lyons was only 15 minutes away when her daughter called to alert her. She said she wasn’t expecting it to be so bad. But, as she drove, she saw a plume of black smoke rising in the distance. Bellevue police had already blocked traffic, but let Lyons car through the barrier. The evacuees were huddled together.
Seemingly, within moments, everyone -- all the family, all the staff -- arrived in disbelief and desperation.
“So we just sat there with the family and watched it burn,” she said. “There is so much we lost. It was like losing my Grandmother again.”
Railroad Avenue was shut down as crews from multiple agencies fought the blaze. The fire rekindled around 11:30 p.m., according to Sarpy County 911's Twitter account. The road remained closed after freezing over from the water used to extinguish the fire.
Lyons said in the middle of the night, looters went through the still-smoldering remains of the building, stealing liquor from the bar and whatever money they could from the register and desk drawers.
“I didn’t know that people did that,” she said.
Particularly outrageous was the theft of a server’s purse, containing the saved Christmas money she had intended to shop with after her shift. Lyons said no one had thought about grabbing their personal belongings or the till.
“Most people thought we were coming back in. None of us expected it (to be a total loss),” she said.
The night before the fire, Nettie’s hosted their annual visit from Santa Claus. Nettie’s Facebook page is flooded with the photos of children, customers, and staff celebrating.
”We are very thankful it didn’t happen the night before, because we were so packed,” Lyons said.
Since 1987, Nettie’s has been a mainstay for foodies and families alike. Lyons said it was her grandmother’s dream, realized from cooking meals for the local Head Start program, potluck dinners and selling specialties from her home kitchen.
Nettie started the restaurant with her husband, Abe Vela, daughter Kathy and her husband, Mike Boyles. After Abe’s death in 2005, Kathy’s sisters Sandi Ziccardi and Susie Sader became co-owners as well.
Using traditional family recipes, Nettie’s has been constantly chosen as an Omaha favorite. In 2022, the Omaha World-Herald lauded their chili as some of the best and hottest in town (described as “exquisite pain”).
Whether or not Nettie’s rebuilds or reopens is uncertain, Lyons said. The process of calculating the physical losses of equipment takes time, as does settling with an insurance company. Nettie’s owns the land the restaurant sat on.
“We have all the logistics of tearing the building down and removing it, and then starting from scratch,” she said.
In the short term, the family is concerned about their staff. Their “newest” employee has been with them for 12 years, and their oldest for 35. Lyons said they are family.
“We are really just making it so our employees can survive,” she said. “We wish we had more answers. But we don’t have the answers ourselves.”
Several fundraising efforts, including a portion of sales from Stella’s Bar & Grill on Jan. 2, are helping to ease the burden for the staff.
“That was so heartwarming to see a family business take care of another family business,” Lyons said. “So few of us anymore.”
On Sunday, Jan. 22, Stocks and Bonds dance club at 84th Street and Park Drive will host a benefit spaghetti feed, along with raffles, auctions and live bands. Doors open at noon.
Wells Fargo bank branches are also accepting donations to a fund under Nettie's, and a GoFundMe page has raised over $30,000 in the last two weeks.
“We are used to being on the other side, we have hosted so many fundraisers,” Lyons said. “It has been on amazing experience.”