TIFTON —After spending nine years serving the community on Tift Avenue, Dave Nehring is retiring and closing his restaurant, Dave’s Bread and Coffee Shop.

Nehring started working in the restaurant industry at age 16 and spent over 40 years working in various restaurants. He managed several fast food businesses until eventually opening his very own Dave’s Bread and Coffee Shop.

“It’s been a wonderful experience,” said Nehring. “Tifton is just a great little community.”

Nehring hired mostly Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) and Tift County High School students to work in his restaurant. He has been a member of several city and county boards and an active member in the Tift area community.

 “I just want to thank all of the folks in Tifton,” said Nehring. “This is a wonderful community and they supported us since the beginning.”

According to Nehring, he is going to spend his retirement playing golf and utilizing his real estate license. The restaurant officially closed on July 26.

 In a 2017 Tifton Scene interview, Nehring told the story of how he and his wife came to open Dave’s Bread and Coffee Shop.

Nehring used to manage restaurants for other people, but when the recession hit and he was out of a job, he decided to jump in and open his own.

“Back in the Great Recession, seven or eight years ago, I was laid off from my job and nobody was hiring,” said Dave. “My wife and I had talked about opening a restaurant and we thought, ‘What’s different in Tifton? What could we do in Tifton?’ So we came up with a quality sandwich, brought Boar’s Head to Tifton, and we brought a little coffee house to this side of town.”

Before they could open for the first day, Dave and Sharron had to drink coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.

“The coffee was an adventure,” he laughed.

He was a Maxwell House coffee drinker at home, so he was “in for a real education” about coffee when he decided to open up a coffee shop.

He went to Atlanta, where he met with a group called Counter Culture.

He spent the entire day learning about coffee, from roasting the beans to proper brewing.

“I’ve become passionate about it,” he said.

And it wasn’t just coffee Dave had to taste.

He and his wife tried many different recipes in their quest to perfect their chicken salad. Sharon would take different concoctions to work and have everyone try them.

“We tried sour cream, whipped cream, mayonnaise,” he said. “I mean we tried everything, every different recipe that was out there, and the one that everybody liked the best was the simple one.”

They started out poaching the chicken, but when they opened the restaurant they began using precooked chicken.

“There wasn’t enough mayonnaise in the world to get the dry out,” he laughed. They finally got the recipe just right, and still serve it today.

He learned two lessons from the chicken salad: it’s about the ingredients, and to keep it simple.

Dave’s has been involved with sponsoring students and has worked with ABAC, the arts foundation, the hospital and other organizations and events. Dave has read to the kids at different schools and helped several schools out with events.

“It’s just a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s fun to be involved in the community and be able to give back since the community has been so supportive.“