Nifty Fifties looks for new success

Upon their return to Hopkins this year, students found not only a fresh set of gates around the AMRs and new turnstiles outside of Wolman and McCoy, but they also found red tape and rubble on the site formerly occupied by Nifty Fifties, a staple of Hopkins eateries, on the corner of St. Paul and 34th Street. Until last year, Nifty Fifties was a bustling restaurant in the heart of Charles Village.

Closed since last May, Nifties was gutted in order to expand the first floor. Possibilities for the upper floor include a conference room for large parties or a game room with pool tables and arcade games. Before it was closed, Nifties was best known by Hopkins students as a diner straight out of the decade of poodle skirts and saddle shoes. The restaurant was decked out in antique 1950s furniture and Elvis paraphernalia, with everything from an authentic soda fountain to an anachronistic jukebox (featuring the classic song "Money" by the psychedelic rockers of the seventies, Pink Floyd). But what made Nifty Fifties unique was not its legitimacy as a diner straight out of the movie Grease, but as a restaurant that served both authentic malt shakes and chicken curry.

A glance at a typical Nifty Fifties' menu would include, among the steak and egg breakfast platter and the meatloaf blue-plate special, item after item of fine Indian cuisine such as chicken sagwalla and lamb vindaloo. Nina Kumar, an employee at Nifty Fifties, explains how Indian dishes became a staple to the diner's menu."When me and my family started Nifty Fifties, we would cook dinner for ourselves in the kitchen. Some of the customers would smell our food and ask 'What kind of food is that?'" explains Kumar. "Everyone started asking for Indian food! We began putting one Indian dish on the menu as a special."

Currently, according to Kumar, approximately 70 percent of their orders are for the Indian items on the menu.

Nifty Fifties is a family-run business. In 1984, Kumar's brother-in-law Chris Kumar, a budding entrepreneur, left his home in India and came to Baltimore to try his hand in the American market. He took a low-wage job as a waiter and cook at Captain James Landing, a Baltimore seafood restaurant. After several years of manning the kitchens, Chris Kumar became the owner of the Landing upon his boss' retirement.

Nifty Fifties was officially opened in 1993. Chris Kumar purchased the diner, which was already decorated as the Eisenhower-era spot we know today, and kept many of the original props. Plans to expand the diner were brought up three years ago. "We had lots of business and not enough space," says Kumar. "When you're going out to eat, you want to sit down for a few minutes. But when we were full, we had to rush to get people in and out of the restaurant."

One of the biggest problems with Nifty Fifties was that it was simply not big enough. The booths could only fit six people at most, and parties of more than six had to fill up the seats along the soda fountain counter.

While the maximum capacity of Nifty Fifties was 50 seats, the new restaurant will be able to hold 150 people. Despite the grand scale of these renovations, Kumar says the diner will strive to retain everything that made it the Nifty Fifties we all know. "Everyone knows Nifty Fifties, all the customers say, 'Don't change the name,' and if the customers like it, we don't mind it," said Kumar.

Chris Kumar said the jukebox will be restored to its former position when the new Nifty Fifties opens again in three or four months.

"It's a great indicator that locals, both businessmen and residents, have confidence that this is a good community and that it is worthwhile to make an investment," said Salem Reiner, the director for community affairs at The Johns Hopkins University.

While Reiner works for the administration, students and staff, he also works with surrounding neighborhoods and residents.

He makes sure the University interests are all represented but also that the University understands issues in the community and acts with them in mind. "A lot of people in Charles Village are making investments, whether it be something minor like installing copper gutter replacements instead of aluminum, or something bigger, like the Charles Commons construction project. Nifty Fifties serves people in the community, and with that level of renovation, it's clear that they believe in this neighborhood."

Over the past few years, Nina has grown attached to the neighborhood surrounding his restaurant. "It's a good location, a very nice location," he said. "Students from Hopkins and people from the hospital all eat here. You will be a success in such a large community with all these different people." Nina Kumar currently runs Philly's Best Pizza and Subs in Hampden, which opened about a month and a half ago as the latest endeavor of the Kumar family.

However, no matter what his future plans, Nifty Fifties will always be a big part of Nina Kumar's life. As he straightens his apron in preparation to serve a family that just entered the Hampden restaurant, Nina states firmly, "Nifties was my first job, and it will be my last job." With that said, he greets his customers in impeccable English. Only a few know that he learned it from a Hopkins grad student who worked at Nifties, all the better to become the self-made man that Charles Village now knows as one of its best restaurateurs.