HOUSTON – It’s one thing for a restaurant or bar to earn a reputation, but there’s a special kind of talent to maintain one for 20 years.
For Wings-Pizza-N-Things (WPNT) a family-style restaurant and bar nestled in Houston’s northside on Hwy 249 and Tomball Parkway, the only way to describe it is like the show “Cheers,” where customers are treated like regulars, and regulars are like family. The restaurant and bar celebrated its anniversary this past Saturday, featuring a live band, crawfish, and hundreds of hungry and thirsty customers.
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The energy in and outside WPNT during its anniversary celebrations was palpable, but owner Sonny Nguyen admitted how surreal everything felt.
“It’s been very humbling,” he said. “So a lot of the customers that come here is very much like ”Cheers;“ we all know each other: the bar, the crowd. It’s a really good family atmosphere; nothing to worry about.So we’re just like one big family.”
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In a foodie city like Houston, the competition is real, but Nguyen notes the focus has always been on putting customers first.
“Actually, our first few years, I didn’t think we were going to make it,” he said. “But just having a really good customer relationship with the locals and having people support me personally.
“We grew by word of mouth,” Nguyen continued. “It was really something that people kind of latched onto, knowing that it’s a small business and they came in support and we just kind of continued to grow every year after that."
That dedication to customers carried through during unforeseen and uncontrollable events like Hurricane Harvey and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re not here just to make money, we’re here to just support the community and during the tough times with COVID, and hurricanes, we reopened to make sure that we’re still supporting everybody that’s around us that supported us,” Nguyen explained. “It was definitely a challenge, I mean no one’s ever been through a pandemic, so we became inventive in a sense; we did like pop-up parties, and outside we were still social distance because people still need to eat and have drinks to-go or whatever and I think that’s really what gave us some um some exposure and showing that we support the community even through our tough times, and they supported me.”
This all certainly wasn’t lost on longtime WPNT customers like Tee, who’d been coming since the very beginning. She recalled the first time at the restaurant and bar was primarily by chance, but since then, never stopped coming.
“I needed something close to the house, I needed some pizza, it was a random stop,” she recalled. “I came in, had some wings, had pizza, and it was great.”
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How does one maintain the reputation a place like WPNT has earned? Simple: don’t change the vibe.
“You’ve got everyday people. families, good cold beer of course, and great service; it’s exactly like Cheers!” Tee admitted. “And it’s just always been a place for you to come, chill out, have a good time, and a good mix of folks: blue-collar workers. I’ve seen executives. I’ve seen families. I’ve seen police, service workers, and teachers; It’s just something for everybody."
One could argue the restaurant is successful because in this world where we have to “stand out” WPNT maintains a genuine, but calm simplicity, where it doesn’t try to act like it’s anything other than what it is. In other words, if you’re looking for some tasty food or a cold drink on the North side, with a low-key atmosphere to get away from the hustle and bustle, you’ll find it at WPNT.
“We started with Wings, Pizza, and Things, just because I feel like that was like America’s greatest food, right? Wings, pizzas, burgers: one-stop, one-shop place,” Nguyen explained. “Before Domino’s or any other pizza chain, they never had wings, and then all of a sudden, I think they started to catch on; Buffalo Wild Wings didn’t even start with pizza until maybe years later when they started flatbread, but initially we started something that was, I really think was just intuitive to where people enjoyed it.”
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As successful as WPNT has become, Nguyen acknowledged this is his only business and sole location. So starting it, and seeing it grow the way it has, in his opinion, has been partly luck.
"Honestly, I’m a gambler. I like to take risks," he said with a smile. “If you don’t take the shot, you can’t miss it, right? So yes, I did roll the dice. I was kind of just enthused about being very optimistic about being providing a good quality product.
“This place literally was just dirt and grass when I first opened and I kind of rolled the dice on it thinking that there was a need for a restaurant that had something different,” Nguyen continued. “It wasn’t something I thought I’d latch on to for 20 years, but it’s kind of a child—my baby—we just kind of coddled it and just ran with it, consistently; I think that’s why we’re so successful—like the staff, the food, the service—it’s never really changed."
Nguyen passed that vigor to other aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those in the Asian American community to follow their goals and not be afraid of putting themselves out there.
“We work hard we play hard if you really have a belief in something good, don’t miss out on the opportunity,” he said. “Consistency is my key, because, for people that came here 20 years ago, and people that are here today, they’re like, ‘Man, your food hasn’t changed one bit, the sauce is the same, the atmosphere is the same,’ and that’s very important because I feel like a lot of places that are chains or corporate-run, you have so many differences, where one day it’s good, then it’s bad, or something different. But here, man I really take pride in making sure that our product is the same and our customers come back for that."
As for WPNT’s future, Nguyen hopes to expand so he can continue to feed more families, but either way, he’s just hoping people will “continue to support local businesses.”
Learn more about Wings-Pizza-N-Things and stay up to date with events, follow them on Instagram.