Goldie’s general manager and partner Brittni Clayton knew exactly what hospitality should look like at an early age.
Brittni Clayton. Photo by Ethan Good.
Photography by Ethan Good
Growing up in Plano, she frequented restaurants with her gourmand grandparents. They both had demanding careers, so cooking wasn’t exactly a welcome labor at the end of the day.
Eventually, Clayton became aware of the attention to detail and emphasis placed on quality service at the restaurants they would visit.
“I went to dinner with them one night, and we walked into the bar area where they typically sat. When we sat down, before saying anything to anyone, they brought over my grandparents’ drinks,” Clayton says. “And I just remember thinking to myself, ‘Whoa. What is happening here?’ They’re getting the VIP drink. And the more time I spent with them, the more I realized that every place they went to was like that. And I was just kind of enamored by the experience and how well they were taken care of.”
The connection was instant — she knew then owning her own restaurant would be a guiding ambition of her life. Getting there, however, took some time.
After working teenage jobs at Plano pizza parlors, Clayton headed off to Colin College’s hospitality school to further her long-determined career path. She tended bar and waited tables at various concepts while at school, including Nick Badovinus’s Neighborhood Services, where she met Lake Highlands neighbor Jeff Bekavac and general manager Jason Morgan. The latter lit a spark in her, she says.
“It really wasn’t until I met him that I started realizing, ‘OK, I need to start transitioning into the next step, which would be managing.’ And then from there, started GMing all over the city and quickly realized that owning your own restaurant is a really big deal, and it takes more than just managing to be able to do that,” she says. “And so I just made relationships with people, anyone that I could meet to talk to about my vision and my dream and what I wanted to do.”
She’s built her career on those relationships. Her relationship with Julian Barsotti took her to work at Nonna and Fuchini after leaving Flavor Hook. There, she says she was given the freedom and latitude to “manage how I wanted to manage.”
Her management style? Positive, even when tickets start piling up at the expo station.
“Even if I’m pissed, like, happy. Negativity spreads like cancer. So I try to be as positive and silver lining as possible,” Clayton says. “Obviously, everybody has their moments where we’re in the shit and trenches.”
Her last stop before Goldie’s was Duro Hospitality, where she opened acclaimed restaurants like Sister on Greenville Avenue. That’s where she met her now-business partner, Brandon Hayes. While still in the early stages of opening the neighborhood restaurant, Hayes asked if she was looking for a job. Clayton thought she was interviewing for a general manager position but was pleasantly surprised to learn the offer also involved a partnership. The dream had been realized.
She’s now opened 15 restaurants, including Goldie’s. No. 15 held a little more significance than the others, she says.
“It kind of felt like The Twilight Zone when things start to fall in place that you’ve been wanting for so long, it’s just surreal,” she says.
At Goldie’s, Clayton manages the bar and front-of-house operations, with Matthew Perry, another Neighborhood Services alumnus, overseeing the kitchen.
Service at Goldie’s measures itself against Clayton’s high standards. Small details are emphasized. Names are remembered. Drink orders are memorized. And when a mistake happens, accountability is crucial, she says.
“The biggest thing is, what happens when you drop the ball? How do you pick it back up? How do you make something right that went wrong? And I think that humility is a really big thing,” she says. “Just saying you’re sorry when shit happens, I think a lot of places you go don’t take responsibility for things.”
Her vigilance seems to be paying off, with more than 30 Yelp reviews, all positive, mentioning service.
Clayton says she would eventually like to open another restaurant in the Lake Highlands area and that a sandwich shop could very likely be her next project. That won’t be for a while, however, as opening No. 15 required some recovery, she says.
In the meantime, she will continue to strive to recreate those dinners with her grandparents for Goldie’s guests.
“My childhood was so great. And I just want people to feel that when they’re at Goldies. The whole menu consists of things that me and my partners love, whether it’s a restaurant in Hawaii or a dish that we’ve had here a million times, but just putting our flair on it. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We’re not trying to be this Michelin star rated restaurant. We just want to provide tasty food, delicious cocktails, and a good experience and a fun environment.”
