Burgaw’s restaurant renaissance

Entrepreneur Richard Johnson (left) sits with Kevin Kozak (right) at Burgaw Brewing, one of the businesses Johnson has helped launch in his quest to revive downtown Burgaw. (Photo by Daria Amato) 

In some ways, Burgaw’s story sounds like that of a lot of small towns across America. The railroad breathed life into the town square in the 19th century, and by the mid-20th, the construction of highways routed people away from downtown. But Burgaw, unlike other towns facing the same situation, now has a secret weapon spurring its revival: a wealthy advocate willing to think outside the box in a quest to revitalize the Pender County community. 

Entrepreneur Richard Johnson moved to Wilmington in 2005, newly retired after selling his job search website HotJobs for more than $400 million in 2002 and watched the Cape Fear region grow over the next decade. He saw good bones in Burgaw, a historic town located about 25 miles northwest of Wilmington and began buying storefronts in downtown Burgaw in 2018.

With skin in the game, Johnson wanted to spur the demographic and economic growth he felt was sure to spread to the town eventually. His focus, so far, has been to plant the seeds for Burgaw’s renaissance with a selection of vibrant eateries and drinkeries to draw people into the town.

“It was crystal clear to me that you have to build community. You have to build a gathering place, and restaurants do that,” Johnson said.

Not a restaurateur himself, Johnson got to work enlisting people with the right experience to operate successful restaurants in his historic storefronts. 

First, he tapped Jay Kranchalk to open Fat Daddy’s Pizza, a New York-style pizzeria serving pies crafted with handmade dough, in 2020. Next up was a brewpub, brought to life by owners Kevin and Emmaline Kozak in South Wright Street’s Burgaw Brewing. When the brewery opened on St. Patrick’s Day in 2023, a line of waiting patrons snaked around the block to try the business’s burgers and wings.

The next – and arguably most exciting – chapter in Johnson’s restaurant renaissance will unfold over the next year. Unsure about what concept would work best for a third restaurant, Johnson set off down an unconventional path to find inspiration: He launched a nationwide competition offering $1 million for a budding entrepreneur to open their dream business in two storefronts at 106 and 108 Courthouse Ave.

The winner in Johnson’s Own Your Own (OYO) competition will be named following a series of challenges judged by a panel of local chefs and restaurant owners: James Beard Award semifinalists Dean Neff, of Seabird, and Keith Rhodes, of Catch, along with Christi Ferretti, of Pine Valley Market, and Myra McDuffie, of MeMa’s Chick’n’ & Ribs. Since applications for the competition opened in December, more than 500 people from 26 states and Canada have thrown their names in the hat. 

By Oct. 21, the OYO team will winnow the pool down to 24 finalists, who will gather in tents along Courthouse Avenue for the first challenge: the OYO Town Square Cook Off Competition.

“They will prepare their signature dish, and we will let the townspeople of Burgaw and the people who come to Burgaw for the (Autumn) Fest, come down (Courthouse Avenue) and vote on their favorite concepts and the personality – the whole package,” Johnson said. 

The community’s 12 favorite contestants from the cook-off will progress to the next round, with additional challenges that Johnson hopes will reveal who is best equipped to meet the complex demands inherent in running a successful restaurant, from the granular logistical tasks to the big-picture creativity needed to chart the business’s course.

“I want to see how they are in budgeting, ordering food, managing time (and) staff – all the components that go in,” Johnson said. “It’s not just whether you can cook a good blueberry muffin.” 

If this premise sounds like the basis for a reality TV show, that’s because it could be. Johnson and his team have shopped the idea to TV and streaming networks to determine whether the competition will be picked up as a show. Barring that option, OYO will work with a local production company to create a documentary about the process.

Once the winner is named, they will get to work, using up to $1 million provided by Johnson to renovate the Courthouse Avenue buildings for their new restaurant. 

Some prospective contestants have shown up at Burgaw Brewing, according to Kevin Kozak, asking whether the terms of the competition are too good to be true. The Kozaks’ experience opening Burgaw Brewing with Johnson’s help is touted in many of the OYO promotional materials.

Describing a recent encounter, Kevin Kozak said he walked the contestants over to the OYO space to show them the buildings that could house their future restaurant.

“They said, ‘All right, what’s the catch?’ I said there is no catch, and they didn’t really believe me,” he recalled. “Then Emmaline, my wife, jumped in. She said, ‘Yeah, there’s no catch. There’s nothing nefarious about it. Richard has a vision, and it’s part of the vision.’”

The untraditional arrangement with Johnson has worked well for the Kozaks so far. Johnson’s financial support enabled a renovation of the brewery’s historic home at 103 S. Wright St., which included newly restored tin ceilings and freshly repaired exposed brick walls, in addition to investments in expensive equipment needed for Kevin Kozak to brew his signature German lagers.

Business at Burgaw Brewing remained robust a few months after the opening, and Kevin Kozak reported feeling pleased with the outcome.

“I couldn’t be happier. I’m excited to come to work every day. I’m excited to go home and code invoices, which blows my mind,” Kevin Kozak said. “I just see it working, and that’s one of the greatest things.”

While Johnson emphasized that the goal of his multimillion-dollar investment into Burgaw’s revitalization is not to make money, he does hope to break even at the end of the day – and to have fun doing it. To that tune, he intends to devise a leasing agreement for the OYO space that will allow him to recoup his investment over time. 

“Really, my investment strategy since selling my company and sort of retiring hasn’t been to make money. It’s been to break even and do feel-good projects, social good projects,” Johnson said.

Johnson now wonders if his efforts in Burgaw could be replicated for other communities in need of revival. The OYO team is currently exploring what that might look like.

“What we’ve done here could end up being a formula for doing other small towns,” Johnson said. “It could be the same formula where you go in, you assess it, you have these empty buildings. You run competitions, you find entrepreneurs. You invest in those entrepreneurs and those buildings, and you create sparks.”