Photo by Yuvie Styles
They say you should never do business with family, but it’s a warning Doug and Grant Klembara are well past.
You may have seen the curly-haired duo decked out in lederhosen at Go Oak Cliff ’s Oktoberfest. Or celebrating the end of the workweek at the Oak Cliff Brewing Co. tap room. Perhaps they were strolling through Downtown Elmwood or welcoming patrons to a Texas Talk at the Wax Space.
The point is, it’s harder to not know the brothers than it is to know them.
“Our fatal flaw is always saying yes,” Grant says.
Growing up in East Dallas and attending Dallas Lutheran High School, the brothers were close enough. Doug, who is older by five years, went to Texas A&M for school while Grant ventured to Crawfordsville, Indiana, to play football at Wabash, “a little Division III college in the middle of a cornfield.”
Before leaving Dallas for school, Oak Cliff was not on either brother’s radar. After returning to the city as a freelance photographer, Doug joined a coworking space in the Design District, where he was surrounded by other artists, photographers and creatives who all seemed to call Oak Cliff home.
His curiosity piqued, he started spending time at Davis Street Espresso and getting to know other Cliff Dwellers. Shortly after, it “made sense” to move into the neighborhood.
“Elmwood seemed like it was primed for people to care,” Doug says. “It was figuring itself out, and it felt like ‘Oh, this could be a really, really special place.’”
By the time Doug settled into Oak Cliff, Grant moved back to town. Landing a job at an ad agency whose office was next door to The Kessler Theater, Grant remembers his first Bishop Arts meal at Lockhart’s and the annual Bastille Day celebration as early evidence of the neighborhood’s charm.
Doug and his wife, Kelsi, were starting out on their first enterprise: a photography studio in Tyler Station called The TX Studio.
While Grant jumped around several different jobs, the brothers reunited when asked to run the Wax Space, a coworking space in Tyler Station.
Getting involved in Tyler Station’s early days set the stage for the brothers’ career trajectory. They have since purchased the Wax Space and hold monthly seminars open to the neighborhood called Texas Talks.
Hosted by prominent Oak Cliff leaders, the Texas Talks reflect the Klembara’s dedication to being neighborhood, and neighbor, focused in each one of their ventures.
“I think it’s an opportunity for us to put our roots deeper and deeper into a place. Because it takes a lot of courage to build something and to invest into something,” Doug says.
Doug is a founder of Elmwood Farms, and both brothers help run the nonprofit Go Oak Cliff. They’ve become partial owners of the Oak Cliff Brewing Co. and Tyler Station.
As if that wasn’t enough, they both work full-time for a theology research nonprofit, 1517.
“It’s like a dream, honestly. I think it’s one of those things we’ll look back on and be like, ‘Wow,’” Doug says.
The brothers share an office in The Wax Space, own homes in the same area (their sister, Amy, also lives in Elmwood) and are usually in each other’s proximity during the events they have programmed.
It can be “intense” to go into a business or five with a brother, they say. Inevitably, every aspect of their lives are brought up in every conversation. Business planning creeps into dinner table conversations, and with just the swivel of an office chair they can ask, “Have you texted mom today?”
It helps that they share similar passions, but different strengths. Grant looks up to his older brother’s ability to connect with anyone, while Doug says Grant is able to think through every hypothetical situation.
“I feel like not many people get the opportunity to do this kind of stuff,” Grant says. “I think it has strengthened our relationship big-time. We were always close, but I think we’ve been forced to understand each other better and communicate better.”
What’s next for the overachieving brothers?
The question is: What isn’t?
