Kim Nixon is the manager of the Impromptu Cafe, located on the third floor of the Kansas Union.

Kim Nixon tells the story about how she was introduced to former Kansas University basketball announcer Max Falkenstien once as he ate lunch at the Impromptu Cafe, where Nixon serves as the manager.

They knew each other from before. Nixon used to work at the Paradise Cafe, and Falkenstien remembered how she used to wait on him there.

Nixon remembered him, too. But — she admitted — not as Max, the former KU basketball announcer.

He was Max, the “biscuits and gravy guy.”

Those who know Nixon said this is nothing unusual. She’s been working in restaurants like the Paradise Cafe and the Free State Brewing Co. for 20 years now. When KU Dining Services decided it wanted to operate a restaurant on the third floor of the Kansas Union in 2007, Executive Chef Janna Traver knew how to make it succeed.

Hire Kim Nixon, she remembered telling her supervisor at KU Dining Services, to work the front of the restaurant, leaving Traver free to cook in the back.

“She is without a doubt the best front-of-the-restaurant person I have ever worked with,” Traver said.

Nixon has maintained relationships with people from 20 years ago.

For Nixon, that means not just knowing what people like to eat, though she’s blessed with a pretty good memory for that, too. She rattled off the particular details of a regular’s salad down to the “and one olive” at the end.

When someone mentions they really, really like a particular special, she offers to take their number and call them when it’s offered again. She’s able to maintain what she called “grace under pressure,” and she tries to deal with problems promptly and efficiently.

Nixon is recognized all over the place, including at the airport, she says.

“I’ve lived off tips for 20 years,” she said. “A lot of these people have paid my bills.”

Nixon was born at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, left town for a while, but came back, attended KU, and got work as a student as a dishwasher and later salad bar attendant in Templin Hall.

One thing led to another, and she’s never left the food industry after that.

Some say she’s quirky — after her vehicle “made a very expensive noise” about a year ago, she decided to hoof it for a while. She walked and familiarized herself with the bus system. She went without a car for more than a year until her uncle let her have an old one of his.

The Impromptu Cafe is doing well under her stewardship — revenue has increased about 35 percent since its inception in 2007. She works hard to let students know it’s a place for them, too. Prices are kept reasonable, Nixon said.

Cooper Overstreet, a senior from Wichita, comes into the restaurant a lot — his girlfriend, Kelly Heiman, works as a server there, and they’ll stop by.

That’s a good thing, Nixon said.

“When the staff want to come in and hang out on their day off, you know you’ve got a good restaurant,” she said.

All the graduating seniors wear tiaras during their last week. That, too, Nixon said, is geared toward the customer. It’s a conversation-starter, she explained.

When regular customers suddenly notice a server is missing, they wonder what happened, and it can be a negative experience.

With the tiaras, customers either know what’s going on, or they ask about it. That leads to a conversation.

“And it’s just fun,” Nixon said.

Nixon is back in class at KU, going for a bachelor’s degree in American studies. Armed with enough credit hours to classify her as a second-semester junior, she’s enrolled in one three-hour class this semester, taking it slow.

It’s a basic-level American studies class, and Nixon said she was reassured by the disco ball on the cover of the book. She’s doing well and hopes to graduate, though more for personal reasons than to find a new career.

She’d miss the people. She’s kept a box filled with notes people have written her over the years, some simple, like “you’re my favorite server,” and others more involved, telling her that she was a couple’s server for their first date and now, on their first wedding anniversary.

“They’re an important part of my world,” she said.