In the fourth round of his third career, Steuart Watson has landed back where he grew up – in Powdersville, where he owns and runs an Italian restaurant.
“It’s amazing. When I grew up in this area, it was nothing. There were no businesses. There were no restaurants. As I came back to visit my parents, I saw the growth,” says Watson, a 1980 graduate of Wren High School.
“I figured that the growth was just the beginning. Now, we’re part of that growth.”
In 2018, Watson opened Antonio’s Pizza and Pasta in his hometown – one of four restaurants he co-owned with Willie Beasley, who is the father of an employee from Watson’s second career in software technology.
“I grew up working in restaurants. My grandmother was a fantastic chef, and I always loved cooking. During college, I worked as a bartender, chef, server,” Watson says.
“Restaurants are a risky business. But I know about food. I know what people like. I felt confident that Willie and I could create the kind of place that we wanted, even though I had never owned a restaurant, and neither had Willie.”
Beasley, who worked for a pizza chain for 20 years, wanted to strike out on his own. Seven years ago, he and Watson opened their first restaurant in Wilmington, North Carolina; a year later they added a second location in Wilmington; the next year they opened a third Wilmington location (later destroyed by a hurricane) and the restaurant in Powdersville.
Beasley runs the operation in Wilmington.
But after the manager of the Powdersville restaurant bowed out unexpectedly, Watson moved home with his 15-year-old son, Preston, in January of 2020 – right before COVID-19 started spreading.
“I had a beautiful house on Lake Norman in North Carolina. Though I wasn’t retired, that was my dream house,” Watson says. “But I had to make the move. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I don’t regret doing it for one second.”
Moves and career changes are nothing new for Watson.
“I’ve been to a lot of places. I really have. I hadn’t been back to this area since I graduated from high school. I went to college, went to graduate schools, lived in different states,” he says.
Watson lived in Nebraska twice; he was a professor at Mississippi State University for nearly 12 years and a professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, for almost seven years.
During his last years as a professor, he and a friend started a technology company called PoliceReports.US.
“For the first five years, it was small – basically, a two-bedroom company,” Watson explains.
When the software company started to become successful, he moved to North Carolina in 2011 to help run it. He and his partner sold the business in 2014.
“I stayed retired for about a month. Then I knew I had to find something to do.”
Antonio’s filled the bill and ultimately created a homecoming.
“The support the people have given us in this community has been amazing, especially with COVID. Without the support of the community, we would have been under a long time ago,” Watson says.
“When we opened, we didn’t want to be just another restaurant. We wanted to be involved with the community. One of the ways we do that is by supporting local sports teams. Powdersville and Wren: We support everybody from the fishing team to the golf team to the band.”
Antonio’s has hosted fundraisers to benefit Service Dogs for Veterans and a young woman with cancer.
Mostly, though, the restaurant is about family, a friendly atmosphere, and authentic Italian food.
Watson’s 79-year-old mother is the host four nights a week. “She seats people, greets people, checks tables, makes sure everybody’s doing okay. She runs food, she cleans tables. She loves it. Everybody calls her Nana – our customers, our employees. Everybody loves her.”
Preston, who attends Wren High School, can be seen tossing pizza in the kitchen several times a week.
“I think our food is excellent,” Steuart Watson says. The restaurant serves pizzas, calzones, stromboli, sauteed and baked pastas, and has a full bar.
Everything is made in-house, including sauces, meatballs and dough.
Watson is proud of his executive chef, Dallas Moore. “I told him, ‘This is your kitchen.’ I give him the respect and the authority to run the kitchen. And he’s meticulous with the food.”
Together, Watson and Moore have turned their employees, some of whom are high school students, into professionals.
It hasn’t always been easy. When one employee was arrested on a drug charge, Watson says, the judge gave him the option of rehab instead of jail.
“He asked me, ‘Will I still have a job if I go to rehab?’” Watson recalls. “I said, ‘You go get clean, and you’ll have a job.’ Every year in June, we celebrate his sobriety. He’s been clean ever since he got out of rehab.
“As long as you do a good job, I’m giving you another chance. This is a safe environment. It’s a very positive work environment.”
Still, it is a challenge to get people through the doors the first time, he says.
“Once we get them in, we feel like we can grab them. We’re not fine dining. We’re casual, but casual with really, really high-quality food,” he explains.
Unfortunately, good employees and ingredients have become costly.
“I want people to understand that the restaurant industry is having to raise its prices. And it’s not because we’re putting more money in our pockets. We’re having to raise prices because the cost of goods has gone up so dramatically, and the cost of labor has gone up so dramatically in a short period,” Watson says.
For instance, the restaurant uses about 600 pounds of flour a week, 12 50-pound bags. One bag has gone from $17 to $25 in just a few months.
“When we raise prices, it’s not because the owner’s getting rich. We’re trying to make enough money to be a viable part of the community, hire employees – and stay open because we love this business.”
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