For many the restaurant business is something scary to get into — it takes a lot of hard work and perseverance to successfully manage and maintain. But for BCS local Wade Beckman and his wife Mary, it was something they were made to do. Starting with his first restaurant, Shipwreck Grill in 2009, Wade has continued to share his passion for food through two more restaurants and a catering business. Not only do they own and operate businesses in the Brazos Valley, they also are fully immersed in the community, participating in a variety of community-driven organizations. Wade, most recently, served as Chairman of the Board of the BCS Chamber of Commerce in 2021 and is currently serving as the Immediate Past Chair. We sat down to talk with Wade about his journey, here’s what he shared with us.
IN: Thanks for being with us, Wade! Can you tell us about how you got started in the restaurant business?
WB: I started in restaurants at age 16, I just really fell in love with the business, really every aspect of it but especially the service side. I worked in restaurants through college and when I was going to graduate and interviewing for jobs, one of the places I interviewed was restaurants and that's exactly where I went. When I graduated from Texas A&M, I started with a restaurant company in San Antonio.
IN: So, after your move to San Antonio, what happened next?
WB: Ironically, after moving to San Antonio and working with Bennigan's Tavern, I got promoted back to Bryan/College Station. We came back, and my wife and I absolutely fell in love with the area again, so much so, that we bought our first home here and my first son, who is now a Bryan firefighter, was born here. We love the community, we made a lot of friends here and lived here for about three years. But when you're in corporate America, you can't move up the food chain unless they happen to be based in College Station, which most aren't. So I got promoted, and we kind of left kicking and screaming. We just always said if we could ever come back to Bryan College Station we would.
IN: After working in restaurants for most of your life, what inspired you to open your own?
WB: When I started in restaurants at 16 years old, I knew I was going to be in the business. It was just such a passion and I also knew that my ultimate goal would be to own my own restaurant, but I didn't know exactly where or what that restaurant would be.
IN: How did you end up starting with your first restaurant, Shipwreck Grill?
WB: I was in the area visiting friends in 2009 and I was driving past what is now Shipwreck Grill and saw a for lease sign. I stopped to look in the window and I called the broker who happened to be in the area to open it up. I looked and I called my wife on the way home and said pack up, we're gonna go back to BCS. So we moved back to open Shipwreck Grill. Not only did we want to open our first restaurant here, but we also wanted to immerse ourselves in the Bryan College Station community.
IN: What was the inspiration behind Shipwreck Grill?
WB: My dream restaurant necessarily wouldn't have been Shipwreck, but it is a great location and of course shaped like a boat. Our original idea was to make it more about seafood tacos and burgers however that was clearly not what the community wanted or expected. Although we had some seafood, we morphed quickly based on feedback to become what we are today.
IN: What happened after Shipwreck?
WB: In 2012, I was sitting at the bar area working at Shipwreck and before we opened for the day a friend of mine called me and said, ‘Hey, are you interested in buying the building across the street?’ I never pass up looking at an opportunity, so I met him just days later and decided it would be a great fit for us. So in 2013, we opened up Amico Nave Ristorante which translates loosely in Italian as “Friend of the Ship.”
IN: Why the shift from seafood to Italian food?
WB: My stepfather, Tony Salvaggio, and his family immigrated to Bryan from Sicily and when I was growing up, he taught me to cook Italian. I always was interested in opening an Italian restaurant and the building looked the part so we themed it as an Old Bryan Italian restaurant. There's actually a very large Italian heritage in Bryan College Station as well.
IN: How did you make the journey into Downtown Bryan to open 3rd on Main?
WB: I have always loved Downtown Bryan and wanted to be down there. When that little spot became available, we came up with the idea of 3rd on Main Kitchen. Our desire was to do something different and unique rather than competing directly with other restaurants as a similar concept.
IN: Compared to your other restaurants, 3rd on Main has such an interesting menu, how did you decide on breakfast and homestyle food?
WB: I knew I wanted breakfast and I wanted the menu and the restaurant to be unique. It's quaint and pretty small however it definitely feels like a one of a kind restaurant. We also decided to do counter service, which is completely different from our other two restaurants.
IN: You also do catering with Admiral Catering. Can you tell me a little bit about how you got involved in the catering business?
WB: Although some restaurants do outside catering many do not. We noticed that anytime we did catering folks would say, “I did not know your catered”, Or “We would have used you however we did not want Seafood or Italian.” Having a separately branded catering company really gives you legitimacy and lets clients know that you are capable of catering just about anything and all sizes of events. Admiral has really created a world of its own and often our clients do not know we own restaurants as well.
IN: What is the biggest difference between catering and operating a restaurant?
WB: Catering is very different from actual restaurant operations. It is more of a “silent service” as there is usually very little guest interaction outside of with the client. Generally we are there to serve rather than entertain. There are many more “moving pieces” and it is almost like taking a big part of your restaurant to every job. It requires crazy amounts of organization and coordination to make sure nothing is missed and there is very little margin for error. If anything is missed or not correct, you cannot just walk back to the kitchen or bar and get it corrected. Lastly, oftentimes catering occasions are very special moments for our clients and their guests and add an increased level of pressure on serving the event. Regardless if it is a wedding, a
birthday, a Christmas party or corporate awards banquet our clients are very dependent on us to help create an amazing event that represents them well. The food and service level make a huge difference in the perception of the overall occasion.
IN: With such a variety of menus at the various restaurants and catering, how do you come up with recipes to feature at each place?
WB: Although I do not consider myself a chef, I am very creative with food and have developed and created all our menu items with little outside help. Ironically many of our menu items come from either requests for our regular guests or directly from events we have catered in the past. We kind of started with basics and developed as we move along and grow.
IN: For those interested in getting started with the restaurant business, what advice do you offer?
WB: My advice to anyone that wants to open a restaurant is to get all the experience you can in the industry first and to truly “master your craft.” Many people are intrigued with the restaurant business and believe it to be more “glamorous” than it really tends to be overall. The true mechanics of restaurants are really about managing and leading people and understanding details and financial results. The unfortunate side is that restaurants operate on very small margins and small errors in consistently at any level lead to huge issues in the possibility of success. In addition it is an extremely competitive industry in maintaining guests and staff and you always have to manage both a positive work/staff environment as well as a high level service environment to succeed with both — and of course great food.
IN: Your journey has been ongoing and constantly changing with different things that come about such as the COVID-19 pandemic, what makes it all worth it to you?
WB: Bryan/College Station is truly one of the best communities in our the world. The amazing people in our community are very loyal and appreciative of local businesses and offer amazing support to the owners that take care of them and are involved. Everything that is given to the community is rewarded exponentially back to the businesses. Mary and I could not find a better place to live and love being in business in our town.
There's the cliche, you never work a day in your life, if you love what you do, and there's certainly some truth to that. But restaurants are not just loving what you do, it is literally your life. It's an absolute passion — we love lighting, we love the ambiance, we love the service level. We get to work with kids and young adults. It's really fairly close to teaching because you get to develop people and that come back years later and say, ‘Hey, you made a difference in my life’.
