Pontotoc restaurant thriving under ownership of single mom with full-time job
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Oct. 6—PONTOTOC — When Nikki Williams was growing up in the Mississippi Delta, her family had a restaurant in Greenville.
"All my family worked there — aunts, cousins, everyone," said Williams, 40. "It's a tough business, but I learned my work ethic there. That place raised us."
Williams used her experience to put herself through Delta State University in Cleveland, where she waited tables at restaurants. She graduated with a degree in marketing and business administration.
After college, she went to work for US Foods, a foodservice distributor, where she is a sales and territory manager.
And one of her customers was Spuds, a restaurant in Pontotoc specializing in potatoes, chicken and burgers.
"Living here, we ate at Spuds a whole lot," Williams said. "We're super big on local restaurants. I hated to feed my kids fast food, but I never felt bad about coming to Spuds because of the choices and the high quality of food."
When Williams' husband, Jon Brandon, was killed in a car accident in 2018, she thought about packing up her girls, Piper and Molly, and moving back to the Delta.
"But after he was killed, this community surrounded me and my girls," Williams said. "We decided not to go back home. This was home."
Williams, now a single mom, continued her job at US Foods, where she's been for 16 years. One Monday in the fall of 2019, she went by Spuds to pick up a check for an order placed by the owners, sisters Dawn and Debbie Williams.
"Dawn said, 'I'm done. I'm ready to sell,'" Williams said. "They'd had this restaurant for years, and I think they were just ready to do other things. They had someone who was interested in buying it, but I ran out to my car and wrote her a check for earnest money on the spot. Later, it hit me what I'd done."
Williams hasn't regretted her split-second decision one bit. Spuds is thriving under her ownership, even through the pandemic.
"Thankfully, we really didn't suffer here that bad during COVID," she said. "The drive-thru saved us, and we converted our menu to a lot of carry-out family meals."
Williams tweaked Spuds' menu a bit after she bought the business, adding a sweet potato option, more sandwiches, some soups and wraps.
"The grilled chicken spud continues to be a favorite of customers," she said. "It's our top seller."
But there are other popular items on the menu, said Melissa Dunlap, the restaurant's manager.
"People love our eight-piece family chicken dinner," she said. "The most popular sides are Gouda mac and cheese and green beans. We also sell a lot of hand-battered onion rings, and our Phillies do real well."
Spuds has a Philly burger, steak or chicken Philly sandwich, and a Philly spud.
The restaurant also offers regular burgers, chicken sandwiches, stuffed potatoes, catfish dinners, salads, chicken strips, and milkshakes.
Daily specials, which the kitchen staff comes up with, might be a chicken, bacon and ranch spud; a loaded chicken, bacon and ranch wrap; or Buffalo fries.
"We're trying to keep all the customers' favorites," Williams said. "What we've really done is change the looks of the place. We've added two covered patios with outdoor seating. And we'll be rolling out more changes the first of the year. The vibe may change, but it will still be a family restaurant."
Williams spends her days on the road, traveling for her job with US Foods. In the evenings, she checks in on the restaurant.
"The people here are like family," she said, "just like the restaurant I grew up in. If I'm on the road and can't pick up the girls, someone from the restaurant will go grab them."
Not many people could juggle a full-time job and a restaurant, but Williams seems to handle it with ease.
"It takes just the right person to do both, but she's definitely got it," said David McDaniel, a longtime friend and co-worker.
"As crazy as it is, I thrive on this," Williams said, "This restaurant's been a blessing. It's something I enjoy. Some days are bad, when it's good, it's very good."
