Everyone has a story.
Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person — someone who is well-known, influential, or successful — and asks, “What’s Your Story?”
By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
October 1981.
Shreveport-Bossier City, like the rest of the country, was caught up in Urban Cowboy mania. The beer drinkin’, mechanical bull ridin’ movie starring John Travolta and Debra Winger had been released 14 months earlier. You remember the songs: “Lookin’ for Love” (Johnny Lee), “Stand by Me” (Mickey Gilley), “Could I Have This Dance” (Anne Murray), among others that went Top 10.
America was in love with country music, pointed toe boots, and Daisy Dukes.
Testosterone and hormone levels were sky high.
And Randy James was about to open a gold mine.
“It wasn’t originally going to be called Cowboys, but during that time is when
“Urban Cowboy” came out. I was told I would be an absolute fool if I didn’t change the name of that building to Cowboys, which I did.”
Cowboys Club & Grille was what James passionately calls a “social club”.
“I used to get really upset when somebody called it a bar. I didn’t build it to see how much whiskey I could pour down somebody’s throat. It was a social club. We just happened to sell alcohol.”
And Cowboys just happened to quickly become a bona fide hit.
“When we unlocked the door, the faucet was turned on and it never turned off. I did as much business on a Wednesday night as I did on a Saturday night.”
The now 70 year old James told me the Cowboys story, and his story, over lunch at a restaurant of his choosing — Casa Jimador, in Shreveport. Randy had sizzling chicken fajitas. I had a grilled chicken quesadilla.
Cowboys, which for 19 years provided customers a “City Slickin’ High Kickin’ Time”, is just one piece of James’ career puzzle. He’s opened a long list of local and national restaurants, and with his partners, currently manages around 1.5 million square feet of commercial real estate.
Not bad for a self-described “redneck country boy.”
James grew up in Springdale, Arkansas, after spending his first five years in California. He went to the University of Arkansas for a semester, then enlisted in the Army.
But he did not serve.
“At 10 o’clock on the very day I was supposed to ship out at Noon to Little Rock for physicals, a recruiter gave me a call and said, ‘Mr. Randy, we’ve got a problem.’ I was kind of cocky back in those days, so I said, ‘Man, there ain’t no problem I can’t fix. What’s the problem?’ He said, ‘We see you have a felony charge on your record.'”
Uh-oh.
There was a felony charge for Randy James, all right, but not this Randy James.
It took 35 days to clear up the confusion. During that time, Randy went to work for one of the original Pizza Hut franchisors.
James opened one Hut, then another, then another. Before Randy knew it, “I put in 268 Pizza Huts. I got the honor, privilege, and fun of opening up Pizza Huts in the Virgin Islands — St. Thomas, and St. Croix.”
Who needs college? Actually, Randy sometimes regrets not going back to the classroom.
“But why do we go to a school or university? To get an education where you can learn how to take care of yourself. I had some buddies, some big fraternity boys, and there were times when they would give me a hard time. I would say, ‘I tell you what. Why don’t we compare paychecks?”
With nearly 300 “Huts” on his resume, Randy continued to open other restaurants. But in the back of his mind, he wanted to open a “social club”.
“I made a list. I picked 10 cities where I was going to move. Austin, Texas was number one. Shreveport was number 10. Well, I flipped them and did Shreveport-Bossier first.”
Randy rolled the dice. New concept. New town.
“I didn’t know a single person.”
But once Cowboys opened, everyone knew Randy.
“I was in Lowe’s two weeks ago and walked by a couple. I heard the lady tell the guy, ‘I think that’s Randy James . . . .’ They told me they met at Cowboys, and have been married 40-something years.”
Randy packed ’em in for the better part of two decades. But all good things must end.
“To be honest, I was afraid. I was in this thing by myself. When they opened up the (Louisiana) Boardwalk, all I heard is that they were going to have clubs and restaurants. Here I am out here all by myself . . . . It kind of scared me. It takes a lot of money to keep something like that going, and you’ve got to have the sales. The casinos kicked us in the teeth for a little while. They really did. Knocked my sales in half. They were the sexy place to see and be seen. You had to go to the casinos.”
Still, it seemed like everything Randy touched turned to gold. But even “The Undisputed King of the Nightlife” as he was known, wasn’t immune to failure.
Where Superior’s Steakhouse stands, used to stand Kingfish Seafood Grill, which was Randy’s baby.
“It was a gorgeous place. I was very proud of it. We opened up doing 75,000-80,000 dollars a week in sales.”
Helping those sales was the fact that 10-15 tour buses a week stopped at Kingfish, filled with hungry out-of-towners headed to the casinos.
“When the casinos opened up, then they started feeding the charter buses for free.”
Game over.
Kingfish lasted a year and a half.
“I lost about a half million dollars . . . . “It was a punch in the gut.”
But Randy dusted himself off and went back to work. He has since brought Lowe’s, Olive Garden, and Red Lobster to the old South Park Village in Shreveport. He also built the very popular Oyster Bar and Grille. In Bossier, Randy built and/or helped open Andy’s Frozen Custard, Flying Burger and Seafood, Chicken Salad Chick, Another Broken Egg Cafe, and Tropical Smoothie Cafe.
But Randy isn’t all work. For fun, he was chairman of the 2002 Independence Bowl. Randy was also one of the founders of the Krewe of Centaur.
“We put together a deal that’s one of the biggest draws in the state. Not just in Shreveport, but in this part of the state. I’m proud that I was a small part of that.”
The married father of two daughters and stepfather of two daughters, Randy doesn’t plan to slow down. He owns 444 acres of land between Shreveport and Greenwood, where he has sights set on building Barndominiums. And he’s not necessarily done with the restaurant business.
“I want to live by Clint Eastwood’s rule. I’m not going to let the old man in.”
Considering how many plates Randy juggles, I was appreciative he gave me almost two hours. So it was time to ask my final question. As always, what about his story might be an inspiration to others?
“If you can choose the road you want to travel in life sooner rather than later, you will get there a lot quicker . . . . Don’t expect handouts. Perform. There are so many people today that want a paycheck, but they don’t want to perform anything to get that paycheck. Back in the day, I used to pay people three times the minimum wage. Why? Because they were worth it, and they could do the job of what two or three other people could do. We’re all created equal, but we all don’t perform equally, do we?”
No, we don’t. Few people have performed as well as the local Urban Cowboy.
Do you know someone with a story to tell? Email SBJTonyT@gmail.com