Put aside the cruel irony of a chef being attacked by the stove of his dreams, and it was still bad. Like, really bad.
Scott Howell, owner of Nana’s, is lucky to be alive, let alone walking with a cane, after a 1,200-pound Montague he’d ordered from eBay fell off the delivery truck and “went right through my leg” last November. It was broken in 12 places, and there was serious flesh damage. “They had to take a flap on the back of my leg and put it on the front of my leg,” Howell says.
It’s a new technique. “Five years ago, I would have lost my leg.”
That’s what the doctors told Scott’s wife, Aubrey, when he came out of the first of what would be four surgeries. In that moment, the severity of the injury hit her. “It was really hard to watch, him going from being one of the most active people I’ve ever known to all of a sudden he can’t even get out of bed,” Aubrey says. He was out of commission for a good three months.
The good news: Nana’s, the restaurant Scott opened some 22 years ago, hasn’t missed a beat. He and Aubrey, who serves as general manager, give full credit to the staff – including sous chef Tyler Vanderzee as well as Taylor Manning, Justin Nahow and many others. “I’m just really fortunate to have people there who care about the restaurant as much as I do,” Scott says. “It’s been a pretty emotional time for sure, but it’s been a very gratifying time because the people who work for me just really stepped up and took care of business.”
Scott’s slowly getting back into the swing of things and should regain full mobility in time. He has two new ventures in the works: Bar Virgile opened near the corner of Main and Mangum a couple months ago and NanaSteak will open in 2016 as part of the new Aloft Hotel next to DPAC.
The culprit stove – sitting in storage – is for NanaSteak. We can think of no sweeter revenge than for Scott, when the time is right, to fire that sucker up and get cooking.
Ed. Note: This article first appeared in our “Best of Durham” feature in the August 2014 issue.
