Some chefs plan the opening of their own restaurant for years—working with the right mentors to get the requisite experience and planning the decor, menu and dishware in their minds ahead of the moment they set out on their own. That was never true for Callie Speer, owner of Holy Roller. “I had zero intentions ever of opening a restaurant,” Speer said. “And in fact, if you had asked me 48 hours before I signed the deal to open the place, I would have told you you were crazy.” But two years ago, the right circumstances aligned for Speer. She had recently left her position at Geraldine’s in the Hotel Van Zandt. The owner of the previous tenant at 509 Rio Grande St.—Wahoo’s Fish Tacos—was ready to move on, and Rick Singleton, founding principal at Scenic Capital, wanted to back a neighborhood spot that would prop up the private equity firm’s investment in the forthcoming Canopy by Hilton hotel across the street. “I don’t really think I fully believed it until we shut the place down, started tearing things out of here and really started working on it. That was in September [2016], and then in July [2017] we opened,” Speer said. In the two years since, Holy Roller has been serving up a menu featuring all-day brunch and comfort food to diners, a menu Speer said focuses on “deeply nostalgic things that make people happy.” The spot’s decor features a pair of roller skates on the wall—a nod to the pun in the restaurant’s name—a portrait of punk rocker Iggy Pop and a confessional where guests leave notes that can serve as inspiration for Holy Roller’s cocktail menu. The goal, Speer said, when she envisioned Holy Roller two years ago, was to create an irreverent, fun place where she and her staff would want to hang out. “It’s kind of an embodiment of all the things I really like,” she said.