‘I know they will respect our baby;’ Golden Nugget owners sell restaurant to Dayton-based company

KETTERING — Dayton-based Winsupply is getting into the breakfast and lunch restaurant business.

The company told News Center 7′s James Brown Friday it bought the Golden Nugget Pancake House in Kettering. Winsupply’s Vice President of Real Estate Services, Bill Tolliver told Brown, “we are super excited about it... we are strongly committed to the neighborhood.”

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Brown asked Winsupply why it was so interested in buying the Nugget property. Tolliver said when the company first started, it did not even have a conference room.

“Our company’s founder would hold court at the restaurant. He had meetings there all the time at the Nugget.”

Tolliver said Winsupply will be the property owner and the business will be run by a local restaurant operator. However, he was not ready to say who that would be or when the doors would be back open to the public.

“We really wanted to do something to preserve the history that that location has both for the city of Dayton and the company. We’re really excited to keep an Icon,” Tolliver said.

In 1962, Steve and Bessie Thomas opened the Golden Nugget in Kettering. Their three daughters ran the Nugget up until it closed when COVID hit.

Co-owner, Stacey Frangomichalos talked with Brown Friday morning about selling her family’s restaurant to Winsupply. “I know they will respect our baby. They will represent this well. I’m thankful they are the buyers.”

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At times, Frangomichalos got emotional talking about the decades-long family-owned business.

“The Nugget came first in every part of our life.” When asked what they will miss the most about the restaurant, Frangomichalos said the people. “When we suddenly closed with COVID, we never got to say goodbye. Thank you for loving us and supporting us. Who were we without our customers? They were the most loyal customers of anybody.”

Winsupply would not say how much it paid for the property. However, when the Golden Nugget first listed the property for sale in 2018, the price was almost $3 million.

Frangomichalos told Brown she looked forward to sitting down and enjoying lunch when the new operator is up and running. And she cannot wait to see some of her old customers she calls friends.

Winsupply’s roots to the Dayton-area date back over 65 years after the company was founded under the name Primus Inc. in 1956. Today the company operates as a supplier of residential and commercial construction products like plumbing and heating and owns majority stakes in over 660 local companies, according to a company website.

There’s no definitive date of when things will open back up and nothing is solidified just yet on whether the restaurant will keep the Golden Nugget name.

We’ll continue to update this story as new details become available.

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