Grill Open 7-Days-A-Week Until 1am
Open for Lunch at 11am Wed-Fri, Noon Sat/Sun
ENJOY THE BAR UNTIL 3AM EVERY NIGHT

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Nancy K. Novak, has lived in St. Louis for 50 years. She grew up in south St. Louis and graduated from Cleveland High School in 1974.

She went to work for 5 years as a classified ad taker for the Globe Democrat newspaper, then answered an ad for a sales person to sell liquor. She took the job and went to work selling for Major Brands for 10 years. She went to Europe three times, winning contests selling Italian wines. Then she went to work for Coca-Cola because they had company cars. She had this job for 10 years, having a variety of job functions. "I enjoyed Coca-Cola a lot. Great pay. Great family," says Nancy. Ultimately, she wanted to have a bar for her friends to hang out at, instead of at her north county house, the original "Nancy's Place."

She bought Novak's Bar & Grill, 1996, and has enjoyed much success making a splash in the St. Louis bar scene.  In 2008, she began construction on Nancy's Place, the upscale bar, venue, and lounge for Nancy and her friends. She has been in the bar business for more than a dozen years now. "I love my bars and all the people who work with me and the thousands of visitors and friends who come through our doors," says Nancy with enthusiasm.

She also enjoys living in close proximity to the bars, in the Tower Grove neighborhood, walking, playing volleyball, washers, reading and spending quiet days with her partner at a cabin somewhere, away from home. She works to vacation...often. And even work is not really w  o  r  k... as she often says, "I throw a party for a living."

She has three sisters, all whom she adores very much. Her mom lives in Edwardsville, IL. She has lots of family in heaven already and is anxious to see them again some day. "I believe there is a better life after this one. One in which I don't have to work so hard," observes Nancy.

"I love people, I love life, I love to make people smile and I love to be funny. And laugh at my own jokes. I feel very witty at times!! No conceit in my family, I have it all," chuckles Nancy.

She loves Oprah, Ellen, Melissa, and a big freak about Reality TV. She further states that "I love it so much, I just can't get enough of Survivor, Idol, the Amazing Race, Celebrity Apprentice, and The Biggest Loser. Love my TIVO so I can watch it whenever I can. I am super creative and love creative things, and to me, that's what reality TV is. It just feeds my mind."

Nancy loves to see people have a good time, and that makes her know that she has succeeded in making the best bars around. "I'm very proud of what I have done and I thank you all so much for liking what I have done," says Nancy. "Thank you, customer, friend, and bar patron so much for being in my life."

 
Kelly Washam has been in the food and service industries for more than a decade, with more than four-and-a-half of those years spent as a stellar bartender and manager on duty at Novak's Bar & Grill.  Kelly brings years of people and management skills to her new position as operations manager of NP.  With the tap of a finger and a wave through her hair, Kelly can draw upon her years of experience as a kitchen manager, her days as a server, and her nights as a bartender.  She brings all this and a keen sense of knowing what customers need and when they need it...NOW. Kelly cheerfully answers the perennial St. Louis question of where she went to high school, South St. Louis County's Affton High School.  Her days spent later at community college on a volleyball scholarship prepared her for ongoing passion for sports...volleyball, basketball, soccer and golf fill her free time.  "I golf any chance I get," says Kelly.

Yet her main passion is work. Having a good work ethic and living for the party are the number one and two attributes of being a true devotee to the Novak's and Nancy's Place ever-expanding leisure time venues.  Kelly thrives on working in the industry because, as she says, "no two days are the same."  "I work with great people and work for an amazing boss, whom I look up to for all her noteworthy accomplishments...I learn so much from her everyday, "enthuses Kelly. 

"I feel very lucky to have been given great opportunities to grow in the Novak's organization, and will do my best to show our customers all the dedicated service they can expect in an unparalleled entertainment paradise for LGBT women and their friends.  Thank you , Nancy Novak, for giving us all another place to be as amazing as we know we can be.

Marketing Director Grayling Holmes, brings his 25-plus years of marketing experience to the Novak’s team. His signature print and electronic ads pepper the walls and monitors of the bars as well as the internet.

Holmes’ creations embody the one thing he took away from his advertising professor during his years at Saint Louis University’s marketing communications program –“Make sure you marry the picture and the word, ” coached the late professor John Baracevic.

Holmes carved out his own marketing communications company after toiling in the big downtown St. Louis advertising and PR agencies. There he led marketing teams for the McDonald’s Restaurants and Monsanto Keepsafe Glass accounts, getting clients on the front pages of the New York Times and St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and blasted their reputations across TV news screens and radio speakers nationwide. 

Holmes brings this depth of experience to the three Novak’s-owned and operated entertainment-bar-restaurant venues.  He and his Grayling Co. Reputation Marketing stand ready with state-of-the-art marketing tools for Novak’s and others whose businesses hinge on their reputations. As any customer will tell you after a night on the town at a Novak’s venue, “what have you done RIGHT for me lately, and why shouldn’t I go elsewhere?”  A constant barrage of images married with words and backed up with stellar service answers the question resoundly.