Wes Williams knew that there were protests going on in downtown Dallas, where he lives and works. George Floyd had died a few days earlier after a Minneapolis police office knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, and people all over the country were taking to the streets to protest racism in America.
But it wasn't just protests. There were incidents of vandalism and looting happening, too.
"I knew that that evening that there was going to be a protest and historically there is always the good possibility that a protest can shift to a riot," Williams tells CNBC Make It.
So at about midnight on Saturday, May 30, Williams made the five-minute drive from his home to Dallas' Historic West End to check on his restaurant, a hamburger franchise called Burgerim Westend. Everything looked fine, as it did when he went back at 2 a.m.
Then 3 a.m. rolled around.
Williams got a message from a former employee that his restaurant's front windows had been smashed. So Williams, 38, drove back to his restaurant for a third time. He swept up the glass and boarded up the broken windows. He understood why his windows were broken: "A protest is a collective cry for help, but when that cry goes unheard, then it becomes a riot," he says.
So before he went to sleep, Williams posted pictures on his Instagram and Facebook accounts to let his followers know that, while the store had been vandalized, he would still be open for business.
"It's all good, I'm still rockin' ... Burgerim West End shall be open today/this Saturday...," Williams posted.
"I call this a luxury tax," Williams wrote of the smashed windows.
When he woke up three hours later, his post had gone viral.
'I call this a luxury tax'
"I was about to start my day and my phone was jumping off the dresser," Williams says.
People were commenting with "thank yous" and "words of encouragement in regards to my statement about the situation, in just the way that I handled it. And so once again, for that I was humbled and I'm thankful," Williams says about the response.
By the time Williams got to the restaurant at 11 a.m., it was flooded with customers looking to show their support. "There was already a line down the block," Williams says.
One of those customers was billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
Cuban tells CNBC Make It he waited in line for three hours for a veggie burger and onion rings because "I wanted to show my support" for one of the only black-owned business in that part of town.
Williams was "great with all his customers. His service was good. Most importantly he brilliantly turned it into a block party so that those waiting in the heat enjoyed their time," Cuban says.
Cuban also tweeted the the food was "incredible."
An especially tough few months
Williams grew up on the west side of Detroit where he worked as a firefighter. But in 2007, he moved to Dallas, where, on Halloween in 2019, he opened his Burgerim franchise as an investment.
As a firefighter and EMS technician, as well as a restaurant owner, his life and business were upended by they Covid-19 pandemic before the wave of protests began. Williams was on the front line handling patients, and he pivoted his burger joint to curbside pick-up and delivery only during the pandemic.
In March, he had to furlough his 10 part-time employees, so in between his fire and EMS shifts (he works 24 hours on, then 48 hours off) he delivered burgers himself.
Burgerim's manager did the cooking and Williams "got in my own personal vehicle and I delivered food. ... [It was] just my way of investing back in the customer and just saying, 'Hey, I appreciate you still patronizing my business,'" Williams says.
While his Burgerim team was furloughed, Williams ran what he called the "Burger and Bottles" campaign, where profits from the namesake order (two burgers, one french fry and a pint of Nue vodka for $20) went directly to the back of house and cook staff.
And with help from a Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program loan, Williams was finally able to start putting his team back on the schedule by May 2, he says.
It was just weeks later that Burgerim's windows were smashed. But despite having worked very hard to get the restaurant open, Williams isn't angry.
"Just as I could say that my windows have been busted out, there's a gentleman who lost his life," he says, referring to Floyd. "And I understand the bigger picture of what was going on, the climate that we were dealing with.
"Given the history of my culture and the things that we've dealt with in regards with police brutality and just the injustice towards African Americans — an individual from my culture is no longer here and the manner that he was killed and just how things played out. It would be disrespectful for me to have an attitude or be mad or feel some type of anger behind my window being busted."
A path forward with help from the community
On Wednesday, there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Burgerim Westend coordinated by the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce to recognize Williams as a pioneering black business owner in the neighborhood.
In partnership with First United Bank, the organization also donated $2,500 to Williams to help with clean-up efforts.
And several of Williams' fellow firefighters set up a GoFundMe page for Williams. So far, the crowdfunding effort has raised more than $11,000, far surpassing the initial goal of $5,000 and the expanded goal of $10,000.
"Myself and the owner, Wes Williams, became friends and brothers 13 years ago when we began our careers as firefighters with the Dallas Fire Department. I have witnessed his journey to entrepreneurship through hard work and perseverance first hand," the GoFundMe page organizer, AD Calderon, wrote.
As for the restaurant, Williams has ordered the replacement glass but he has decided to wait until next week to install the new window, because a muralist came by and, free of charge, painted images of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X on the wood over the windows.
The artist, Victoria Simmons, says the piece is "to pay homage" to the early leaders in the fight against racism. "Our next mural will include present civil rights advocates fighting for us everyday," she says, and will be a block away from Burgerim Westend.
"The artwork has actually taken on a life of its own," Williams says. "A lot of people have been coming up wanted to take pictures in front of the mural."
The past weeks have been good for business, as word of his story has spread and customers have come to support Williams.
"A lot of people appreciate just the way I handled the situation with my glass being broken," Williams says. "It was a kind of refreshing tone to hear somebody more concerned about humanity than finances."
And Williams, who says he always knew he wanted to work for himself, is proud to be one of the first black-owned businesses in the historic district of Dallas.
"Now that I'm in an area that you know is significant to the city, it feels good. I'm kind of a trailblazer," Williams says.
See also:
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Barack Obama: This is what you can do to reform the system that leads to police brutality
