Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal
Work was plentiful when Bill Boyer, a former auto mechanic, moved to Dayton 10 years ago.
"He could pretty much write his own ticket," said Margie Boyer, his wife.
But eventually, the jobs started getting harder to find. And in 2008, like so many other Nevadans, Boyer found himself without work and in search of a new direction.
That new direction turned out to be his passion: cooking.
Boyer dove headfirst into the restaurant business when he and his wife opened the Bank Shot Cafe on New Year's Eve, a small kitchen they sublet out of the Decades Bar in North Carson City.
Margie Boyer helped her husband secure the cafe where he now spends his weekdays. She comes in on the weekends to help clean dishes.
Portraits of various celebrity chefs adorn the cafe walls with one portrait of the fire-brand British cook, Gordon Ramsay, overlooking the kitchen.
The husband and wife sit in their cafe on a weekday afternoon, sharing a couple pear tarts he had whipped up in the kitchen.
"You wanted to do something, you were tired of working for other people," Margie Boyer said to her husband. "And cooking is always something you've been really good at."
The kitchen features the usual pub fare: cheeseburgers, Buffalo chicken, onion rings. But Boyer also includes a pulled pork sandwich, chili and larger entrees such as steak and shrimp dishes among other items.
Margie Boyer said her job is keeping the roof over their heads and gas in the car. The hope is their restaurant venture takes root.
"This is my first real venture into the restaurant, or any other food service," Bill Boyer said. "I may be way over my head, I have no idea. It's only six weeks in."
He adds: "Why not? What do I have to lose?"
Most of his business still comes from the bar crowd -pool tournaments are his bread and butter for now -but he's hoping to expand into the local lunch-time crowd. The bar is surrounded by state government offices.
So for now, Boyer will continue to work on his cooking skills. There are other lessons, too.
"Patience," he said. "You're not going to have a good day everyday. You have to wait it out."