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Thanin Viriyaki
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Thanin Viriyaki
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Thanin Viriyaki
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Thanin Viriyaki
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Thanin Viriyaki
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Thanin Viriyaki
Nearly 30 years ago, North Texas native Deborah Williamson moved to the East Coast, chasing a new life and a new career. After a few years of working in the marketing industry, she landed in Brooklyn, where in 2008 she and her chef husband opened James, a farm-to-table restaurant that became a local sensation, beloved for its thoughtfully sourced dishes that were Instagram-ready before Instagram even became that much of a thing.
Fifteen years into running James — the name of which she upgraded to James Provisions during the pandemic when she began selling packaged meals and baskets of food — she came back home to North Texas.
“Work brought me to New York City, but I moved to Brooklyn for love,” she says, adding that she and her husband eventually divorced. “I adored my time in New York. It definitely formed me personally and professionally. That said, I’m a Texan through and through and am thrilled to be home.”
Luckily, she brought her restaurant with her. James Provisions opened a year ago, nearly to the day, in the northeast Tarrant suburb of Hurst, not far from where Williamson was born and raised. There, she picks up where she left off in Brooklyn, serving artfully presented, highly personal takes on American classics from the land and sea. Local foodie types have taken notice, including the organizers of this month’s Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival; Williamson is one of the featured chefs at this year’s fest.
Bathed in natural light from floor-to-ceiling windows, the 2,500-square-foot space feels breezy and bright. Minimalist design, featuring natural textures like steel and stone, creates a serene ambiance. Outside, when the weather’s nice, the patio is flush with culinary herbs and plants, including yuzu, avocado trees, and rosemary, a nod to the original Brooklyn location’s unique, pick-your-own garden.
As was also the case at the Brooklyn original, the self-taught chef is practically a one-woman show, the first one there, the last one out. Prepping, cooking, cleaning, greeting and visiting with guests — that’s her, doing it all, quietly and subtly, making the chaos of running a restaurant look easy, not to mention elegant.
Credit that to her food — one plate after another of beautifully crafted and presented American classics: smoked carrot soup, butcher’s steak served with crushed potatoes, charred onions, and chimichurri; a creamy beet dip; and a fantastic burger.
The menu includes several gluten-free, keto-friendly and vegan and vegetarian options, too.
Williamson emphasizes natural, whole foods that are thoughtfully sourced. Black angus beef for her seasonal burgers, for instance, comes from a ranch in the tiny Texas town of Cameron. It checks all the eating-right boxes: pastured, grass-fed, grain-finished, hormone and antibiotic free.
“While we’re a scratch kitchen with healthy fare, I don’t think of us as health food restaurant per se,” she says. “Our brioche is made with butter. We make our mayo and ricotta in house, filter our cooking and drinking water, use cast iron and carbon steel instead of Teflon. But those are just adjuncts. We’re really about delicious, craveable food that’s fun and approachable.”
Service at James Provisions is unique in that diners order at the counter, then seat themselves in the spacious dining room or on the patio — a slightly unusual style of service for food of Williamson’s caliber; she calls it “fine-casual.” “It’s the best of both worlds,” she says. “Fine dining food in a more relaxed atmosphere.”
Born in Euless, raised in North Richland Hills, and schooled at UTA, Williamson first developed an interest in food through her mother, with whom she often cooked side-by-side. In 1996, she decided to pursue a life elsewhere, packing up her life and heading to New York, where she spent several years working in marketing departments for Vanity Fair and GQ.
In 2008, she and her then-husband opened their farm-to-table restaurant James, its name an homage to a family member. “It was one of the first farm-to-table restaurants in Brooklyn,” she says. “We were situated in a century-old Prospect Heights brownstone in the neighborhood we loved.”
In 2020, at the start of COVID, Williamson, now divorced, changed the name to James Provisions to reflect the fact that the store now sold groceries and take-home meals. But a year later, as her lease was coming to an end and after the death of a family member, she made the decision to come home.
“My father passed away in 2021,” she says. “I just felt the universe was calling me home, so I packed up and drove back to Texas. I spent the next six months thinking about what my next chapter would look like, and the only thing that interested me was feeding people.”
While Fort Worth and Dallas might have seemed like better options to open a cheffy restaurant, she landed on a space in Hurst, close to home. “It’s a bit of a ‘Field of Dreams’ spot,” she says. “We’re in the midst of an area that needs good food. There’s not much like it in the area, but we’re close enough to appeal to folks in Dallas and Fort Worth, and maybe most importantly, it’s 15 minutes from my house. I’m in the restaurant seven days a week so it has to be close to be feasible.”
Williamson is very much attached to the area: She has family in northeast Tarrant, and she has involved her restaurant with local schools and businesses; she also serves on the Hurst Economic Development Board.
Moving to New York to pursue a new life, coming home for a fresh start — it was all meant to be, she says.
“I love the beauty of food and the alchemy of restaurants, the way it can transform a day and a life, the fundamental goodness of it all,” she says. “That’s what I’m here for.”
James Provisions, 290 Grapevine Highway, Hurst, james-provisions.com
