Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Angelilli.
Hi Brandon, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Way back in the year 2000, when I was 15, I got my first job working at a juice bar in Orlando, FL. I prepped fresh squeezed juices, blended smoothies, and quickly became a team leader with my own key. I did that for a year, had a brief stint at Universal Studios, and eventually worked the register, ran food, fried tortilla chips, and washed dishes at a California-style Mexican restaurant until it closed when I graduated high school. I enrolled in Valencia College as an English major and got what I thought would be a temporary job at Ruby Tuesday. I quickly became a dependable server and within four months, i was behind the bar at 18 years old. Florida is a different place. I still remember getting that phone call. I was on my college campus, waiting for my next class when one of the managers called and asked if I could cover a shift. They knew I was eager to learn, so I immediately skipped that class and sped down to work. I was permanently on the bar after that for the next 2 years. Also, I finished that semester at college but dropped out in the middle of the next one. Oops.
I was at that particular Ruby Tuesday from 2003-2005. Not only did I serve and bartend, I also learned a bit about cooking and was working toward a management role before leaving the company to work at Steak & Ale and take on an office job during the day for a title insurance company. 2006 was the only year I didn’t have an industry job between 2000 and now. Somewhere in there I gave Valencia College a second try, this time for Radiology, but that didn’t take either. In 2007, the mother of my two children and I decided we needed a change and left Orlando for Wilmington, NC. We broke up in 2010 and I became a single dad. I guess I forgot to mention the whole starting a family thing, but that’s a story for another day. In Wilmington, I made my most triumphant return to Ruby Tuesday (I promise no one has ever said that sentence before). From 2007 to 2012, I served, bartended, cooked, and managed. A real Swiss army knife. Eventually, I grew tired of the company’s direction and left to work at the now defunct Nick’s Diner. Within a few months, I was promoted to my first General Manager position. The first year and a half at the Diner were incredibly exciting and informative times in my career. I even tried school again, this time at Cape Fear Community College in their film program. That didn’t last long, but it was fun. The same can be said about the Diner. Major mistakes were made by the owner and we closed in the Fall of 2014. From there, I worked brunch at Jester’s Cafe and dinner at the Copper Penny for the next 6 months before quitting Jester’s to work full-time at CP. That place is a Wilmington institution. I was primarily a server, but I was content doing that while bartending part-time at a bottle shop called Bomber’s Bev Co and attending school for the 4th time. This time I graduated with a 4.0 in Business. Sometime in there, I was dating a woman whose family was looking to open a brewery in Greensboro. Any guesses what happened next?
We moved to Greensboro in the Fall of 2018 because we were told the brewery would open in the Spring of 2019. It didn’t. Things were stressful. Not to mention I had to drive back to Wilmington every other weekend to take my kids to their mom’s house per our custody agreement. So, I kept working at Copper Penny as a manager and bartender until July of 2019 while also working in Greensboro at Bites + Pints. BP offered me the GM position but I declined because I thought the brewery was opening soon. We opened Oden Brewing Company in November 2019. I designed the area behind the bar and implemented all taproom systems. It was a roaring success and even continued to be during the pandemic. I left in the Summer of 2022 and bounced around a handful of Greensboro staples and got to know a lot of the local community.
Flash forward to the Summer of 2025 and I saw that Yokai was hiring. I had a great interview with Tal, the owner, and I’ve been leading the team ever since. Yokai is a really unique and special place in Greensboro. It’s tough to find an Asian restaurant in town with a bar, let alone a good one making craft cocktails. This has been a whole new playground for me. I had never worked with sake or many of the ingredients behind the bar before. I love learning, so this has been a year-long growth experience and to get that this late in my career feels very rewarding.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Raising kids as a single father from a young age definitely didn’t make things any easier, but they also kept me focused and driven. They were always the motivation I needed to keep pushing and working hard.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m the beverage director at Yokai, an Asian-fusion izakaya in Greensboro, NC. I do most of the bartending for the restaurant as well as the creative and administrative work behind the scenes for our cocktail program. We’re the most extensive Asian bar in town with a large sake and Japanese beer & whisky program. I’m very proud of all of the hard work my team and I do on a nightly basis. We are one-of-a-kind in our bar scene.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I constantly feel lucky for everything I have in both my personal and professional life, but I know I wouldn’t be where I am without hard work, sacrifice, and striving to be a part of the community.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @brangelilli
