While clamoring for an appropriate name for a new business, Steve Nicholson opted to honor what seemed to be everywhere.
Most obvious while flying over the vast expanses of western Kansas and Nebraska, perfect circles dotted the earth below.
“The idea originated when I lived in North Platte (Nebraska),” recalled the science teacher. At the time, he was associated with another circle—of friends—who shared interest in home brewing.
“North Platte is a railroad and river town, and I wanted a name outside of those boxes,” Nicholson said, “Agriculture was next as part of what people could relate to. We started spit-balling names and center pivot stuck.”
But it would be more than six years before the Center Pivot Restaurant and Brewery would be born, and nearly 163 miles away, almost straight south of North Platte.
The home brew circle amicably split and Nicholson moved to Quinter in 2012 where he met Ericka Gillespie. They married the next year, and co-founded the Center Pivot Restaurant in December 2018, nestled in downtown Quinter, with spacious seating for 75.
Irrigation is among the decorating themes as “one of the most successful innovations” and a necessary resource in the region.
Water is an essential ingredient in beer, and it commands focus in Steve Nicholson’s science classes at nearby Quinter Junior-Senior High School.
“Water is a limited resource and an important commodity for this area of the planet, but I don’t get a whole lot into conservation,” he said.
Nicholson does, however, walk his pupils through the process of using science to fetch the same crop production with less water, using genetic modifications.
“I do take a biological approach,” he said. “When we get into genetics, gene editing and utilizing genes from drought tolerant plants, that could be used in crops here, and would ultimately save water as well.”
Whether in the classroom or the restaurant, water is revered.
“I don’t think it’s taken for granted at all, as far as the consensus,” Steve Nicholson said. “I look at the Ogallala Aquifer in the same way I look at any other limited resource. It’s finite.”
While enjoying dinner at The Center Pivot in early March, Ericka Nicholson showed off a miniature namesake sculpture of a pivot system. An emergency medical technician, she is director of quality and risk management at Gove County Medical Center.
While Ericka digs the restaurant name, she said there aren’t as many center pivots near Quinter as there are up north around Hoxie in Sheridan County.
Tim Unruh can be reached at [email protected].
