The Swadley family has always been preoccupied with seriously good food, long before Swadley’s was a restaurant. As a young country boy, Brent Swadley grew up watching his grandmothers work in diners where hot coffee, friendly service, and decadent pie were the stock and trade. When he wasn’t in the diners (doing his darndest to earn a slice of that pie), Brent often hit the rural roads with his grandfather, Sig – a tenacious Texan feed salesman and hay hustler searching for the best BBQ in the South.
The Swadley’s story began in the late 1990s when a nearly penniless Brent Swadley was trying to support his young family. He made up his mind to do what he knew best: Serving up great food and friendly company with a side helping of humble faith – just like the diners and BBQ pits of his boyhood. But opening a restaurant when you don’t have two pennies to rub together is no small feat.
Brent’s first venture was a humble one. He asked management at a local Walmart to sell burgers and dogs in the parking lot and was granted permission as long as a portion of the sales benefited a charity. But there was still a major problem: Brent didn’t have enough money to buy the food he planned to grill and sell. That’s when his father, Ron Swadley, stepped in. The very first sale and the start of any Swadley’s happened because Ron Swadley was willing to foot the bill for that first round of groceries. When Brent returned to his father with the first day’s sales to reimburse him, Ron waved it off, saying, “Use it to buy tomorrow’s groceries.” Grateful for the help, Brent kept working, growing the Swadley’s name and seldom resting for the next quarter-century.
Throughout the years, as Swadley’s grew from a rickety charcoal grill in a hot parking lot to a bona fide BBQ restaurant to eight locations across Central Oklahoma where they hand-craft and slow-smoke their meats, Ron quietly helped and guided them along. He said he always wanted a ministry disguised as a restaurant, and in many ways, that’s just what Swadley’s is today while serving 2 1/2 million guests a year.
Though we all at Swadley’s felt a deep loss at Ron’s passing last year, we also know he was immensely proud of how Swadley’s has grown – while still remaining a fiercely faith- and family-first organization. More than 25 years ago, Ron blessed Brent with the means to start his dream. Today, Brent is blessing his sons, Koltan and Keaton, by sharing that dream with them, for the legacy to continue.
The Swadley’s dream began many decades ago, deep in Texas cattle country, with a young boy craving a slice of pie and scrapping over a few pieces of priceless burnt ends. We’re grateful that Ron made that dream possible and that Brent kept it alive, and now we’re hungry for whatever the third Swadley’s generation will do – and we hope you’ll be at the table with us.
