Some things are just sturdy and stand the test of time, while the world around them keeps moving. Think about the many mountain peaks surrounding Missoula, waypoints that haven’t changed all that much across millennia as countless lives have come and gone around them.
Missoula’s Paradise Falls is one such sturdy and time-tested locale. In its 30-plus years of existence Paradise Falls has been a solid rock on their stretch of Brooks Street, which wasn’t always the bustling hive of commercial activity that we see today.
As Tom McLaughlin and Staci Nugent—father and daughter and co-owners of Paradise Falls—report, the landscape around their restaurant has seen its share of hard times to contrast with the rather recent resurgence.
For a good portion of Paradise Falls’ tenure, Tom says, “there wasn’t too much out here, especially on the food end of it. It was kinda bleak, up and down. I think we’re done with all that.”
Staci, who started at Paradise Falls in 2009 as an intern helping out their then-bookkeeper, shares some of her memories of that era.
“When I started here, K-mart was across the street, then it became Big Lots, then it sat vacant for a few years,” Staci says, “so it was a rough time for us. We were kind of this little island of misfits; everybody else was kind of going down. It seems like this side of town is getting brighter in a lot of ways, so there’s a lot more traffic and people are inclined to stop, more than they were ten years ago.”
In many ways, talking to Tom and Staci is a local history lesson. Some of the names that come up are sure to ring the ears of any long-time Missoulian: Heidelhaus, Squire’s English Pub, Liberty Lanes. The latter is where Tom initially plunged his feet into what he calls “people businesses.”
“I started working back in the early ‘70s at Liberty Lanes,” Tom says. “That got me into the customer service business, being around a lot of people.”
“You’d see 150, 200 people a day coming through the doors,” he continues. “So you just got familiar with them, got to know what they did for work, and probably knew a little more about ‘em than you probably needed to [laughter]. I’ve got great, long relationships with those people; I still bowl with the same guys I bowled with for 30 years.”
Paradise Falls is, and has been, a “people business,” and Tom is the maestro at the front of the orchestra, weaving interpersonal connections and maintaining them across the years. And in the ever-shifting landscape of hospitality, every business needs an edge, a foundational ethos that holds it all together in the face of competition and uncertainty.
As Staci relates, Tom is “the face” of Paradise Falls, “and he has been the face the whole time.”
“There’s a handful of coffee clubs that come in every morning, you’ve got Bible study groups, or retirees that come in,” Staci says, “and a lot of times, some of the people that started coming here 25 years ago that are coming now, it’s kinda their only social event of the day. You can tell that this is where they come to meet people, and Tom is the one who will go and find the table and sit down with them, whether he knows them or not.”
“I think what has kept us successful is mostly Tom and being the people person he is,” she continues. “Person-to-person contact and having somebody that knows your name when you walk in is a big deal.”
“Hospitality is a tough business,” Tom says, “just because it’s demanding, a lot of moving parts. It’s not for everybody, that’s for sure; you still gotta believe in yourself, and it takes time.”
For Tom, the interpersonal connections go all the way back to the basics: to the wide family he’s been lucky to grow around him.
“I gotta hand it to my wife for 42 years of sticking with me on this,” Tom says. “There was a lot of long nights, getting home late, and trying to raise a family. It’s a gift, it really is, to be in this situation; very fortunate to have the health that we have.”
“We’re very fortunate that we’ve got a great family, and great employees,” he continues. “Without them, Staci and I wouldn’t even be close to being here. I think if you treat them like your own family, they’ll respect you a little more: try to always greet them, welcome them, help them when they need it, just like our own family. I guess we’re very blessed with what we’ve got.”
Tom has some hard-won advice for those who might want to start their own business, or their own family: “Don’t take it for granted, because it usually doesn’t come to you that easy.”
“Person-to-person contact and having somebody that knows your name when you walk in is a big deal.” - Tom McLaughlin