Leslie J. Thompson 2023-09-15 08:13:14
After transforming downtown Denton with Oak Street Draft House, East Side and Miss Angeline’s, Williams is keeping the doors open at Dan’s Silverleaf.
Some people consider entrepreneurship risky. For John Williams, it’s a way of life.
The Denton native began mowing lawns for pocket money at age 11 and was washing dishes at Ruby’s Diner as a young teen. He started delivering pizzas as soon as he could drive and worked as a barback in college before becoming a manager at Lucky Lou’s, Denton’s original craft beer bar. By his early 20s, Williams was primed and ready to open his own venue.
“I fell in love with a place called the Lustre Pearl,” an old house converted into a bar in downtown Austin, recalled Williams, who earned a degree in entrepreneurship from the University of North Texas. He imitated the idea when he opened Oak Street Draft House in a one-time residence one block east of the Denton square in early 2012.
When a Dallas-based craft beer company set its sites on a building a few doors down, Williams secured the lease for the property and opened East Side bar the next year. “I figured it was better to compete with myself than with somebody else,” he said with a laugh.
Williams and his wife, Amanda, lived in a house next door to East Side for several years as they managed the two businesses. In 2019, they converted the residence into Miss Angeline’s cocktail bar, expanding their footprint downtown. Six months later, COVID hit.
Bar and restaurant owners struggled to survive during the mandatory closures, but Williams leveraged his entrepreneurial skills to find work for his employees. “I went to the pawn shop and bought lawn mowers and weed eaters and put a post on Facebook,” he said. Within three hours, he had lined up nearly 60 lawn care jobs. For the next several months, Williams was able to keep his staff busy until the mandates were lifted. “It wasn’t fun work, but it got people out of the house and got their mind off what was going on in the world,” he said.
Once businesses got back into full swing, so did the ambitious bar owner, taking over Dan’s Silverleaf in December 2021. (Previous owner Dan Mojica stayed on as a partner.)
On any given day, Williams stays busy researching the industry and meeting with the team members who manage his bars, each of whom have an ownership stake. The pandemic taught Williams the importance of community and treating employees well, and he continually looks for ways his businesses can give back by donating to local nonprofits.
His advice to other entrepreneurs? “Take care of the people who take care of you.”
Hometown
Denton
Where he lives now
Denton
Education
bachelor’s in entrepreneurship and strategic management from University of North Texas
Family
wife Amanda, 3-yearold daughter Bristol and 8-month-old son Waylon
Interesting fact
“I live, work and went to college within miles of where I was born at Flow Hospital.”
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John Williams
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