Ghostwood Beer Company Debuts Family-Friendly Kitchen & Bar

“Deadwood City” no more; Redwood City has really secured a spot for itself in the Bay Area dining/nightlife scene. Downtown’s newest addition will be music to craft beer fans’ ears. Ghostwood Kitchen spun off from Ghostwood Beer Company, will pour an assortment of their award-winning IPAs, lagers and porters, paired with a curated list of bar-friendly menu items. Opened by long-time tech entrepreneur and Redwood City native Dan Williams, along with his wife, Amanda, the new kitchen and restaurant has been a three-year labor of love. 

After a highly successful, decades-long career with some of the biggest tech companies, Williams wanted to take a break and focus on his family, as well as other community-focused pursuits. In addition to serving as the President of the Redwood City Little League for many years, he is also an active coach for his sons’ traveling baseball team. Both Williams and his wife are well-known fixtures at their children’s Redwood City school and in their church community. 

As many local beer aficionados may remember, Ghostwood Beer Company’s Triple IPA (“Clearly Dangerous”) won bronze at the 20th annual Double IPA Festival, beating out Russian River’s “Pliny the Younger” – an impressive showing for a young brewery out of Redwood City. 

Forced to shutter weeks before opening in 2021 due to COVID-19, Williams and his wife didn’t know what the future held for their family restaurant. The Pulse sat down with the brewmasters-turned-restaurateurs to find out how Ghostwood Kitchen came to be and what they hope the new establishment will add to the Redwood City scene.

Pulse: Tell us a little bit about your career path and what led you here to Ghostwood.

Williams: So, I was born and raised in Redwood City and had no idea what I was going to do with my life. I was playing baseball at Cañada College in the mid-90s and needed a part-time job. I found a job at a tech company in shipping and receiving just to pay my gas money and met a mentor. We went to traffic school together, and we both liked rappers like Master P. I said I wanted to learn how to build a computer, and he said, “Yeah, let’s build a computer.” Prior to that, I built Volkswagens on the side. My dad was a mechanic, so I learned the trade very early and got into custom Volkswagen cars.

So, fast forward a bit: I build a computer, I build another, and it made sense to me from a mechanics standpoint – to build a computer. Then, I started being sent out as a consultant to other companies and ended up at a place called Exodus Communications, where we did stuff for folks like AltaVista, Google and PayPal at the time. A peer of mine from Exodus went to McAfee in the late 90s and asked me to come over, so I built out their internet infrastructure from about 2001 to 2011. It was a great opportunity for me to influence important decisions and really be enabled. Then my peer went over to this place called Facebook in 2006, which I had no idea about at the time since I didn’t have a MySpace or anything. So I spent about 4 ½ years in hyper-growth mode there, helping to take them from about 10 million active users a month to three-quarters of a billion active users a month. It was a great experience with a great group of people. 

We had our son in 2011, and I just thought it was time for a break [from tech]. Being a native of Redwood City and walking around downtown with our son in his stroller, we recognized the lack of places to go with good food, good drinks, good beer and a family-friendly bar atmosphere. We spent a lot of time at City Pub then but also wanted something else. In the early days of Facebook, we also spent a lot of time at the Old Pro [in Palo Alto] and wanted to create a place in Redwood City with that kind of vibe. We actually looked at a building across the street from The Square, but it wasn’t the right time. Redwood City wasn’t yet the tech hub it has become, and the worker environment [volume] wasn’t the same.

Pulse: It’s always a pleasant surprise to come across people who were born and raised in Redwood City, stayed here, raised families here, etc. What has the experience of opening a business been like in your hometown and with your family?

Williams: Growing up here, it was often called “Deadwood City,” and I always wondered why because we’re so centrally located between San Jose and San Francisco. But the city has obviously done a great job of creating growth here. So then fast forward to maybe four years ago, the opportunity to acquire Aly’s on Main presented itself, and it felt like the right time. 

We had this vision of creating something that felt like a family kitchen, with all the members of my family involved. My wife was inspirational in many of our decor decisions and also handles marketing. Our eldest daughter is managing social media, and all of our kids have been a part of unboxing supplies and helping out at our mock service events. It really is a family affair, and we hope our guests feel that and have a good time coming in here with their own families.

Pulse: How did you get involved with Ghostwood Beer Company, and how did you transition from brewmasters to restaurateurs?

Williams: We were actually close to opening the restaurant with an entirely different concept, pre-COVID. To honor the history of Redwood City, it was going to be called “Mezes,” after Simon Mezes and the town of Mezesville, and serve shareable small plates [tapas]. We were about ready to start hiring staff when COVID hit and shut everything down.

Ghostwood approached us in 2021 and wanted to partner with us. When we acquired them in 2022, we were fortunate enough to retain their brewmaster, Tommy Domingo. Since then, we’ve doubled our capacity at the brewery. So, we revamped the concept of the restaurant to better align with what would pair well with our beers but still feel rooted in Redwood City [our beers are brewed at 1757 East Bayshore Rd.]. 

We initially thought we could open up the restaurant on our own, only to find that we couldn’t – we just didn’t know enough. Then we were fortunate enough to meet Chef Jarade Blackmon, who simplified our menu to fun items that tie into our beer and cocktail offerings, like the blueberry Memphis wings, Smashburger and fondue. And Tommy, our brewmaster, is instrumental in ensuring that we’re making great beer, so everything’s aligned.

Pulse: Redwood City has really started putting itself on the map as a “cool” place to hang out. What’s the vibe you want to see permeating here after you guys open?

Something this place might be adding to the Redwood City scene that’s been missing, or it doesn’t have enough of?

Williams: On the side, I do a bunch of stuff with the Redwood City Little League. I’d love to see a bunch of kids with their families coming in here after sporting events, people who live within walking distance, making this their “go-to” spot, folks on their lunch breaks – a real community space where people can all meet up. There’s a bunch of great spots we’re inspired by and frequent ourselves, like Milagros, Vesta, Timber & Salt and Johnston’s Saltbox – we just want to offer another option for people who really love food and beer. 

We’re trying to create an enjoyable experience that’s reasonably priced to keep people coming back. I can translate my tech experience into this with a phrase I coined, “reliability is greater than performance is greater than cost.” And what it means is: we shouldn’t do everything based on cost because, if we do, we’re probably not going to be reliable. And if we’re not reliable, we’re certainly not going to perform [well]. So we’re sort of applying those principles here where, if we don’t provide a quality experience and efficient delivery of things, they probably won’t keep coming back. And then, if we’re not cost-efficient, they probably won’t choose us because there’s other options.

Pulse: Ok, now onto the fun stuff. What are the must-haves on your menu, drinks-wise & food-wise?

Williams: Amanda – The Ghostwood G & T, which is made with Empress Gin. I love purple, so that is totally my jam. And the fried pickles and blueberry Memphis wings as appetizers. Then the Thai Chicken Salad. 

Dan – It’s so easy: the fried chicken sandwich. On the beer front, I’ve really evolved from the IPAs to, more recently, the lagers. Our “Extra Crispy” is just amazing. It’s a 4.7% ABV beer that you can drink all day and not get too inebriated. I like to go to places like this and order a bunch of appetizers vs. a big meal, so I’d say the Pizzanadas, cheese curds and the blueberry Memphis wings.

We’re so grateful and proud that everything is made in-house by our chef. There’s also a whole story around our fondue, but we’ll save that for another time… 😉

Ghostwood Kitchen at 911 Main Street is open on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m.-11 p.m., and Sundays from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. [closed Mondays and Tuesdays]. Ghostwood Beer Company at 1757 East Bayshore Road is open for brewery pickups Wednesdays through Fridays from 12-6 p.m.