When Washington Johnson died unexpectedly and all of the sudden in 2004, the loss left a gap within the lives of his family members and the neighborhood he was part of.
The grief of his household, which included his spouse Gwen and three youngsters, was softened considerably by the legacy he left behind.
“He was mild-mannered, an unbelievable man of few phrases, however numerous motion,” says Talvin Hester, now a Texas Tech assistant basketball coach who grew up with the Johnson household. “When he spoke, you listened as a result of he didn’t converse a lot. He was an instance for youth throughout him.
“He was what a household man seemed like. He was all about his household, and I believe that prolonged to all of the neighborhood as a result of he thought-about us all household.”
Mr. Johnson additionally left behind a restaurant, at the moment owned by the Johnsons’ son, Travis Johnson, who rebranded the shop TJ’s Catfish and Wings on Inexperienced Oaks Boulevard in Arlington.
Travis Johnson has truly executed greater than rebrand it. He has additionally expanded it from a tiny hut for wings and catfish to a restaurant and kitchen thrice the scale with extra eating house, a much bigger menu — that now additionally options barbeque smoked in-house — and daquiris and beer.
The restaurant reopened for enterprise in December after a four-month shutdown for enlargement and renovation.
“When he handed, I wished to verify all of this wasn’t for naught. That each one his efforts weren’t wasted,” says Travis. “I figured it was a chance for me to achieve success and make a means. We’re a household of religion and that was one thing … the Lord closed that door for my father for a cause. We don’t perceive, and we nonetheless don’t perceive. However it wasn’t for me to shut this store.”
Washington Johnson had at all times wished to open a restaurant, says Gwen, his widow. He discovered no higher time than in retirement from Miller Brewery, the place he spent 30 years. His inspiration was truly Gwen, who grew up in Virginia cooking for an enormous household. Her mom died when she was 15, and Gwen took on the tasks of managing the home chores, together with cooking for a father and brood of brothers and sisters.
“That’s how I realized to prepare dinner,” she says, including that she realized to get pleasure from it a lot that she started taking classes in varied sorts of cooking.
She additionally by no means fairly realized how one can prepare dinner for a smaller household similar to her personal. Gwen would make a lot meals that there was a lot for any of the neighborhood youngsters who wished to hitch within the feast.
Her husband teased her that she merely liked cooking for the total neighborhood.
“And I did,” she says, smiling on the thought, “I actually did.”
“She would prepare dinner prefer it was Thanksgiving on a regular basis,” Hester says. “I may simply go knock on the door, are available and go to the fridge and eat.”
To not point out, after all, it was good. So, if Gwen was going to feed the neighborhood, why not feed the neighborhood at giant with a restaurant.
“My dad began the enterprise,” Travis says, “however he wouldn’t have had a enterprise to start out with out her recipes and her cooking. That was the we had folks for a lot of, a few years come to the home and need my mom’s cooking. She cooked for the neighborhood her total life. We used to say, ‘Mother, it’s worthwhile to open a restaurant.’”
The Johnsons — Washington and Gwen — opened Wings to Go in the identical house on Inexperienced Oaks in 2002. Along with wings, they provided catfish, rooster tenders, and fried shrimp. They used a financial institution mortgage to open the doorways, Travis says.
On the time, Travis was ending up a university soccer profession at Ouachita Baptist in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, the place he studied enterprise administration.
When he graduated, he got here again house undecided of destiny’s plans. Within the interim, he started working on the restaurant. He figured that he would work there and search for an workplace job on the identical.
Than tragedy struck. His father died inside the yr.
Travis’ plans all of the sudden modified. He has been in cost ever since, although he had actually no expertise managing a restaurant, a lot much less sensible expertise working a enterprise. The inevitable doubts would creep. The restaurant enterprise just isn’t for the meek and setbacks can crush confidence. Gwen advised him at one level that “for those who’re not joyful, it’s worthwhile to do what you wish to do, discover your glory, and what makes you cheerful. That is what your daddy wished, and he’s gone. I’m OK if you wish to transfer on.”
Each soul wants a stirring every so often.
Travis not solely determined to keep it up, however in his discernment reaffirmed that this was certainly what he wished to do. Athletes don’t give up, and this one had cheerleaders.
“What stored us going was somebody at all times had one thing good to say about what we had been doing. And I had older adults come and say, ‘You’re a younger entrepreneur. That is one thing I at all times wished to do.’ Behind my head, I assumed, ‘everyone needs to do that.’ Why would I flip my again on it and stroll away from one thing like this?”
To develop the enterprise finally required a much bigger house. “I’ve identified for a few years that our menu needed to develop and diversify to get a distinct crowd in right here.”
He had his eye on the house subsequent door. When it opened, he hopped, although he needed to wait till the pandemic’s results slowed. That was a request of property administration, which turned out to be a favor to the enterprise.
“In that house, I wouldn’t be capable to [expand the menu],” he says. “There wasn’t a lot else to do within the house we had. We had 5 fryers and a flat high grill. That’s all we may get in there.”
He additionally introduced in Marcus Campbell because the pitmaster for the restaurant’s new barbeque choices.
The enlargement has paid dividends, he says. The larger house and added menu objects have attracted wider attraction and larger crowds as hoped since opening in December. (York Builders was the contractor on the renovations to the added house and kitchen.)
Now, after all, they’re coping with the rising value of doing enterprise and staffing challenges, but when there wasn’t some problem to cope with, he would surprise if he was nonetheless in enterprise. He laughs when folks speak about his enterprise surviving the pandemic as a result of “once you’re in enterprise for your self, every single day is sort of a pandemic yr.”
“They’d a imaginative and prescient of opening a restaurant,” Hester says from Kansas Metropolis, readying his crew for the Huge 12 Event. “Gwen is unbelievable. Her stamp she places on issues is subsequent degree. I commend him on carrying his dad and mom’ imaginative and prescient and being a staple of the neighborhood.”