From the Streets to an 11-Restaurant Empire
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Who is Andre Williams and what is his S2 restaurant empire?
Before I was a a businessman, you know, I was like so many other guys, I was in the streets and S2 was my original nickname on uh eleven restaurants, nine under the S2 brand, a vegan restaurant called the Green Ape, and uh a new concept called Soul in Stone, which is modern American Kitchen, among other things.
Andre Williams is a purpose-driven entrepreneur, hospitality leader, and the co-owner of AWS Hospitality Group. Drawing from his journey on Chicago's South Side, he creates opportunities through business, mentorship, and service to empower underserved communities. We strategically place our
locations in underserved areas. We we drive at neighborhoods that some people reluctant to or scared to go in, but it's the exact opposite. The people respect it, they want it and they and they love it.
What are some of the keys the to your success you think?
You know, you hear about those restaurants, they all arrage when they come and they doing well and they and they forget about uh what it took to get there, that personal touch man, like any any little thing, man, how how you got there is how you gonna stay there.
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Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. I'm your host again, Jay Slangan, and thanks for joining us back in the Miami Beach Studios in the podcast room where we get the chance to speak to some of the best entrepreneurs from around the country, the disruptors, the experts from all different kinds of fields. And today we're gonna make your belly rumble and make them taste buds go because we got a special guest from the town of Chicago. Chicago and uh yeah, why don't you introduce yourself? What's your name and what do you do?
My name is Andre Williams from the Windy City, Chicago, Illinois. Uh I'm in the hospitality business, own uh eleven restaurants, nine under the S two brand, a vegan restaurant called the Green Ape, and uh a new concept called Soul in Stone, which is modern American Kitchen, among other things.
Wow, wow. Chicago, Chicago, all right Chicago
represents So
uh yeah, how how how is uh growing up you grew up in Chicago then the eighties and nineties, right? I did. So, you know, us non shy shy town people we we're like, oh my god, it was kinda known for a lot of a lot of gun violence, right?
Yeah. So tell us
uh what was it like growing up in Chicago in the nineties?
Um, the nineties, I mean, it was always I mean there's gun violence everywhere, but Chicago is a bigger city, so by the numbers, there will be more violence and the difference, uh, you know, I grew up in the eighties and nineties, uh, if you didn't guess my age, uh, I grew up in the eighties eighties and nineties and times were different now. The the different things just to touch on the violence and I'm I'm big on the violence in the Benjamin and, you know, trying to find different ways to resolve conflict. But I would say the difference in the 80s and 90s was the gangs, the gang structure. Back in the 80s and 90s, the gang structure, the gangs ran everything. And uh, you know, I would say in the 90s, the the authorities uh incarcerated most of the leaders.
So they just caused, you know, all these young guys just to make make splendid sales and, you know, just move around unchecked. Uh back when I was coming up, you had to answer to somebody. You know, you shot the wrong person or disrespecting Miss Gladys at the end of the block, you're gonna get hit in your mouth.
Mm, yeah. I yeah. These days they don't talk about gangs like they used to, right? Uh but before you gangs used to be in the news, gang violence here, gang violence there, and like the police, the main thing was, you know, patrol the streets for for gang violence, right?
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