When We Started, Things Were Different
Backyard on Broadway opened in September 2018. By November 2020, when I came on board, the venue had a bad reputation. Money was bleeding out daily. Staff were drunk and unprofessional. The place was dirty and ugly. Greasy, nasty, unhealthy food. It was basically a bar with a playground attached. Not a restaurant. Not family friendly. Not what San Antonio needed. Something had to change.
Turning A Bar Into A Restaurant
My vision was clear. Transform this into a clean, professional but casual, safe, family friendly RESTAURANT. Not a bar that happens to serve food. A real restaurant serving high quality, chef driven food and drinks. A place where large families and groups could come for good, healthy meals at affordable prices. High quality food for the masses. That was the mission. Now came the hard part: making it happen.
Three Years Of Rebuilding
The biggest change was staffing. I had to retrain, coach, and terminate most of the existing staff to build strong habits from the ground up. The biggest challenge? Deciding what to tackle first. Staffing, food quality, drinks, policies, training. I wanted to fix everything at once. Service flows, atmosphere, vibe, the whole business identity. From nasty bar to clean successful restaurant. It took until 2023 to get it where I was proud of it.
This Isn't The Same Place
We had guests who remembered the early days. People who had come in during 2018, 2019, before COVID. They remembered the mess, the poor service, the bad food. Winning them back wasn't easy. But when they walked in and saw the transformation, they couldn't believe it was the same place. Clean space, professional staff, quality food. "This isn't the same restaurant" they'd say. Exactly. Because it's not.
Where Great Food Meets Great People
My proudest moment? When a guest asks "Where are your other locations?" That means our food, service, and quality are so consistent they think we're corporately owned. Amazing for a small independent restaurant. Today we achieve 52% annual staff retention, double the industry average. Winner of the 2025 San Antonio Margarita Festival. High quality affordable meals for the masses. A place where everyone feels welcome.