‘We Just Want to Celebrate’

Freeman’s Grub & Pub will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Sunday, May 18, with a special menu, vendors in the parking lot off Spring Garden Street, and gratitude for a decade of community support.

But the road to a decade wasn’t always clear or easy.

When Kevin and Emily Purcell got the call in November 2021 asking them to take over the restaurant, they were living 3,000 miles away on a houseboat in Seattle.

The two had been through a lot in their combined 22 years in the Greensboro food industry. Kevin moved here in 2005, and Emily in 2011. They became a couple a year after she arrived, and both worked for years at popular bar Jake’s Billiards, owned by Jessie and Josh Kirkman.

When the Kirkmans opened Freeman’s in 2015, the Purcells worked the front and back of house at both businesses. The grind was difficult, but they enjoyed the fast-paced and creative lifestyle.

Then the pandemic changed everything.

The couple worked hard to keep the restaurants afloat as other staffers were laid off to provide unemployment benefits.

“It kind of put a damper on our mental health,” Emily said. “There was a lot of alcohol usage during that time from everyone, I’m sure.”

By 2021, the laid-off staff were rehired. But things weren’t the same.

“It was a different vibe,” Emily said. “It didn’t feel as beautiful or as enjoyable. It felt like coming back to a 9-to-5 job.”

That’s when the two decided to call it quits. They packed their car with what they needed, put the rest in storage, and embarked on a cross-country road trip. When the money ran out, they settled into the Seattle houseboat.

“We weren’t planning on coming back necessarily,” Kevin said.

But then they got the call from the Kirkmans. They were looking to sell Freeman’s and couldn’t think of better hands in which to entrust it.

“So we were sitting in the parking lot of the marina, in our car, when we took the call,” Emily said. “We got off the phone, and we just sat in the car for like five minutes in silence. We didn’t really know necessarily what to think.”

They took a week to mull it over, then packed for the trip back to Greensboro.

When the Purcells left the restaurant industry, it was to find a better work/life balance. They didn’t want to give that up. But this time, as owners, they saw the opportunity to run things their way.

‘We Can Do It On Our Terms’

“The conversations we had were like, ‘We know what we want this to look like. We’re going to be in that position, working from the top down. We can do it on our terms,’” Kevin said. “And there was this sort of reconciling for both of us.”

They also knew it would make their mothers proud.

“We talked about how this would be something really beautiful for our moms,” Emily said. “To see their kids own a business in their early thirties. That was like the biggest thing that kind of brought us back, and our nephew Rustin, just wanting to be near him.”

In the three years since they took over, the menu at Freeman’s has largely remained the same, with some seasonal items moving in and out. They hired some new staff, refocused on details like plating and consistency.

The biggest change was how they ran the business, with an emphasis on mental health.

The two host staff meetings three times a month to discuss menu changes, share personal experiences, and how to keep the restaurant not just financially successful, but healthy for their employees. When they make a new hire, they make sure to tell them that their well-being comes above all.

“Kevin says this a lot, ‘It’s just food and alcohol,’” Emily said. 

When Emily started taking anxiety medication in the last six months, her staff were some of the first people she told. It was her way of leading by example.

“I really want them to see the open and honest part of us,” Emily said. “And that we’re willing to lay it out and let them know what’s going on with us. And then if they let us know what’s going on with their lives, maybe we can help fix the problem together.”

Similarly, Kevin has opened up to colleagues about his own anxiety and struggles with alcoholism as well.

“We do take all of this very seriously, but we’re all people, too,” Kevin said. “So there’s no stigma.”

‘We Just Want To Celebrate’

In the last decade, Freeman’s has steadily built a following with regulars coming in several days a week.

The restaurant embraces its history. The faded logo for the old D.S. Freeman General Store is still visible on the brick building’s facade at the corner of Spring Garden and Chapman Streets. A timeline of the various businesses it housed from 1911 to today hangs on the dining room wall. But the restaurant has carved out its own thoroughly modern identity.

On Freeman’s menu, banh mi, Cuban sandwiches, vegetarian, and vegan dishes live alongside classic Southern fare like pulled pork, smoked brisket, and hot honey chicken.

Its social media presence, with an emphasis on transparency and humor, is just as distinctive.

When a patron stole one of the restaurant’s mugs last year, Emily posted on Freeman’s Instagram, calling out the customer and asking them to return the cup. The post went viral and was picked up by a local morning radio show. The mug was eventually returned.

On April 1, the restaurant posted a joking mock-up of a 15-story parking deck to be built right behind their building—an April Fool’s Day poke at the proliferation of such decks being built in the city.

“Great news everyone!” the post’s caption read. “While we’re waiting for our new patio permits, the city was able to expedite our request for a fifteen story parking deck!”

While there are no real parking deck plans any time soon, the restaurant began demolishing its patio recently to build out a larger version complete with a couch and fire pit area. The construction may not be done in time for their anniversary party this Sunday, but they’re excited nonetheless.

Emily also regularly posts videos of the behind-the-scenes work of running a restaurant set to pop songs. That look behind the curtain is important.

“The service industry hasn’t always been as honest about things,” she said. “Like the customer is not always right, and we’re not always right either. So I wanted to teach people and be honest about the service industry. Like, if you’re not going to tip my employees, I will chase you into the parking lot and ask you to sign the tip. And if you don’t, then I’ll tell you to never come back here again… It’s one of those things that people just haven’t been as honest in a funny way.”

Looking back on the last few years, Emily and Kevin said they’re glad they returned. They attribute the restaurant’s success to the Kirkmans and their employees, who have taken on larger roles in the last few months.

This weekend, they’re doing what they do best—hosting people with good food and good vibes to celebrate the community they’ve built.

“It’s a huge deal for a restaurant to be open for 10 years,” Emily said. “They say that if your restaurant makes it to 10 years, then you’re doing well. And to see the community rally around Freeman’s and rally around us and our employees is a really cool thing.”

Freeman’s Grub and Pub will host its 10-year-anniversary party on Sunday, May 18, from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. at 1820 Spring Garden Street. The event is free and open to the public. 

Sayaka Matsuoka is a Greensboro-based reporter for The Assembly. She was formerly the managing editor for Triad City Beat.

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