Faces Of Nantucket: Gita Nakarmi Mali

For the past 26 years on “The Strip” along Broad Street, a constant presence greeting locals, workers coming over on the ferries, and summer visitors has been the smiling face of Gita Nakarmi Mali, one of three owners of the iconic restaurant Stubbys.

"I love Nantucket. This is my home," Nakarmi said. "Let's say the dream home, right? It is paradise. It's a place where everybody greets everyone. We have a couple people who come early in the morning. We have a little chat here and there, like five o'clock. We usually open at 5:30 a.m., but for the people there at five, we do a little community service here and there. And then everybody appreciates our food. We try our best. Every year we learn, but we are still learning. It's not an easy job.”

Nakarmi moved to Nantucket in 1999 from Nepal on an H-2B work visa and received her green card in the mid-2000s. She got her start at Stubbys about 12 to 18 months after her arrival, and worked her way up before ultimately becoming a partner in the business. Nakarmi says she has built a great life on Nantucket with what she described as many blessings, but nothing is more important to her than her two boys.

"I'm blessed to have my two boys," Nakarmi said.

One of her sons – Saugat, 30 – was born in Nepal while her other son, Sujal, 20, was born and raised on the island. Saugat manages the Stubbys Boston location, where he is also a part owner, and both of Nakarmi’s sons have spent years working for Stubbys on the island.

Nakarmi was a regular employee for years before recently buying out the stake of Skip Cabot, one of Stubbys' original founders, as he prepared to move off-island. She does a lot of work behind the scenes, from making schedules and handling paperwork to running the back kitchen during busier hours. Her favorite part of the job is engaging with customers.

"I think the customer service is my favorite thing," Nakarmi said. "I am always happy to work. It is great knowing people, greeting them, and trying to serve them good food. I believe good customer service is a community service, right?"

She says being alongside her coworkers at Stubbys every day is a blessing, and makes it so the job doesn't feel like work. 

"We are blessed to have the people we have here working hard," Nakarmi said. “Most of them are from Nepal, everybody from Nepal. People who work at Scooters, people who work at Island Coffee. We own all of those places (Island Coffee, Stubbys, Scooters, Walters).”

When she isn’t busy working along the Strip, Nakarmi loves to go for walks with her dog, Snoop, who is also from Nepal. She said it gives her a chance to embrace the beauty of the island and socialize with friends.

"I like to walk. I like to walk in the forest with the dog, without the leash," she said. "I have a group of people. We all see each other, and then just have fun. I like to just walk and see people, wave, talk.”

While the island continues to change, Nakarmi feels like her life hasn’t changed much. She continues to follow similar routines and engage with some of the island’s hardest-working, earliest-rising workers and longtime residents.

"I think for me it's the same but if you go outside the town, it definitely has changed a lot," she said. “But here, even when I walk to the bank, whoever we see we say hi, maybe because of Stubbys. Thanks to Stubbys, everybody knows me now.”