By Amy Reisner
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Photos by BluDoor Studiosbrand Jamie Handy
It has to start some-brwhere. Noshing on a favorite dish at abrneighborhood dining hotspot or enjoying a coldbrbeer at a nearby brewery,bryou might wonder how itbrall began. We caught upbrwith three local families inbrthe food and drink industrybrand learned a thing or twobrabout the beginnings of a family-owned business.brWhether it’s the ambitionbrof one entrepreneur, thebrjoint effort of a husbandbrand wife, or the desire of abrchild to carry on her father’sbrlegacy, it takes support frombrfamily to pursue a dream.
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SCOTT WOOLEY - SoCal Tacos
“In 2010 I was diagnosed with a nervebrtumor in my left shoulder,” Wooley says. “Ibrwas told chemo, radiation and surgery werebrnot an option. I was dying. One day our pas-brtor prayed that God would heal me, and thebrnext day I woke up with no pain.”br
Wooley went to see the neurosurgeonbrSeptember 23 and the doctor was amazed atbrhow well he looked. When Wooley returnedbrOctober 30, the doctor said the tumor wasbrgone.br
“My wife and I didn’t know what thatbrmeant – if it was going to come back,” Wool-brey says. “But we did know that we had a tes-brtimony to share with others and give thembrhope.”br
Being the foodies that they are, Wooleybrand his wife decided the best way to “lovebron people”
would be through food. “Food is abruniversal language; it breaks down barriers,”brhe says.
SoCal Tacos was created in the Wooley’sbrkitchen, essentially out of a craving for au-brthentic Southern California fish tacos not tobrbe found anywhere they looked. Cashing inbrall their chips, as Scott puts it, they enteredbrthe restaurant business starting with a foodbrtruck in 2011. And in 2013 they opened upbrshop in Grapevine.br
“Our company culture is to ‘Give love, re-brceive love and repeat the process,’” Wooleybrsays. “If we can testify our story throughbrfood, then we can give hope to others.”
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GARY HUMBLE - Grapevine Craft Brewery
With the craft beer business boom-bring over the past few years, many homebrbrewers’ dreams have turned intobrrealities. But as Gary Humble, founderbrand owner of Grapevine Craft Brewery brknows – you don’t get far without anbrentrepreneurial spirit.br
Humble remembers the moment hebrknew he was ready to take his homebrbrewing hobby to the next level. “It wasbra Saturday morning epiphany in 2012,”brhe recalls. “At that moment, I knewbrI wanted to pursue my brewing beyond mybrgarage. I jumped in headfirst, as I tend tobrdo, and the right doors opened.”br
What Humble remembers most aboutbrthe year he would start his business is thebrsupport he had from his wife, Andrea. Notbrjust his go-to taste-tester, his wife was also abrsounding board for all Humble would needbrto hash out if Grapevine Craft Brewery wasbrto become a reality.br
“We were pregnant with our second sonbrwhile I was going about starting our brew-brery—officing
out of the home,” Humble re-brcalls. “At the time, I had a one-year-old son,brand he’d crawl around the room while Ibrworked. For the year that this business wasbrstarted, I was in the middle of my family,brand it really feels like we did it all together.”br
Now three years later, Humble stillbrfeels the support of his family throughoutbrthe busyness of daily life. “My wife is in-brcredibly supportive, and my boys love thebrbrewery. They are enamored with larger-brthan-life tanks and forklifts. They’ve beenbraround it their whole lives—it’s all they’vebrever known.”
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KATHLEEN TOLBERT RYAN - Tolbert’s Restaurant
But Frank X. Tolbert Sr., a notable historianbrand author who worked for The Dallas MorningbrNews for more than 30 years, decided to makebrorder out of culinary chaos in the late 1960s,braccording to his daughter Kathleen TolbertbrRyan. And he used the chili con carne recipebrhe created and documented in his book, AbrBowl of Red: The History of Chili.br
Tolbert Sr. founded the World Chili Cham-brpionship in Terlingua, Texas, with Wick Fowlerbrin 1967. Some say this would be the catalystbrfor all chili cook-offs to come. But it wouldn’tbrbe until 1976 that Tolbert Sr., along with hisbrson Frank X. Tolbert, would bring a Bowl ofbrRed to the Dallas masses.br
The original Tolbert’s was located in thebrheart of downtown Dallas on Main Streetbracross from El
Centro community college.brRyan, who at the time was working towardbra master’s degree in special education at thebrUniversity of Texas at Dallas, would laterbrfind herself attending culinary school at ElbrCentro in 1977—when she began working atbrthe restaurant.br
“It was a wonderful experience working atbrthat first Tolbert’s,” Ryan says. “That is whatbrmade me want to continue on with the restau-brrant, and eventually open the Grapevine loca-brtion with my husband in 2006.”br
The restaurant continues to keep its fam-brily-owned atmosphere. Ryan’s son, StevenbrFrank Ryan, has been working at Tolbert’s inbrGrapevine for many years. He started as a bus-brboy and has now become a manager.br
Of course, Tolbert’s features its famousbrBowl of Red (chili con carne), along with char-brgrilled steaks and burgers, signature salads,brtortilla soup and many other Southwesternbrand homegrown specialties.