POLSON — The Polson VFW building is the home to the community's newest restaurant and the thing that’s unique about this one is its owner is still in high school.
Polson High School senior William Debeeld spends six hours a day in school and another eight hours running his restaurant Nicala’s Asian Cuisine.
Even though he has minimal experience working and running a restaurant, Debeeld's interest in the industry feeds his motivation.
“I’ve always been really fascinated with opening my own business and whatnot,” Debeeld said.
“I’ve never really had an idea of what I wanted to open, I just knew I wanted to become an entrepreneur and open a business," he told MTN.
When the owner of the Polson VFW offered to let Debeeld use a vacant kitchen in the building to start his business, he jumped at the opportunity and got to work.
But he's not alone. Debeeld's father James has experience in the service industry and is helping his son find his footing, but he's confident he won't have to do that for long.
“Once he gets rolling he can kind of just take off from there,” James Debeeld said.
“He wants to expand and open other businesses and the sky’s the limit for him so… I support him one hundred percent and I’ll be here as long as I need to be," James Debeeld said.
Although William has only been in business for a week Debeeld says the Polson community has already jumped on to support his business.
“The community has been amazing and has really supported me and I definitely could not have done this without them they’re what’s been keeping this going and have pushed me to succeed and because of them we’re actually able to start adding additional items to our menu and we’re gonna be able to upgrade here soon.”
Debeeld plans on opening more businesses after he graduates in the summer.
