Daniel “Danny” Schlink, was a magnate of Springfield's food and beverage scene, but friends, family and patrons will remember him for so much more.
Danny, the owner of J.O.B Public House, Grad School and Primetime in downtown Springfield, died at the age of 41 on Dec. 22, 2022. He left behind a memorable impact on the many who knew him, and the Springfield community. Friends and family remember Danny as someone who shared a connection with everyone and tried to invest in people.
“He had to be everybody’s friend,” said Danny’s dad, David.
The puns of Danny’s business ventures
Danny, nicknamed the “Red Dragon” for his fierce character and red hair, was born February 25, 1981 in Overland Park, Kansas.
However, Danny was, for the most part, raised in Springfield. He graduated from Kickapoo High School and Missouri State University (Southwest Missouri State, at the time), with a degree in history.
But Danny wasn’t interested in academics, according to David. He had shown interest in architecture, gardening and, eventually, food and beverage.
While many college graduates go to grad school after obtaining their bachelor’s, Danny opened a restaurant in downtown Springfield called Grad School.
“It was a cash cow,” David said.
Their most famous dish? A burger known as the Full Ride.
“That’s like a lasting legacy,” Danny’s ex-girlfriend Cassidy Rollins said. “I mean, I haven’t had a better burger.”
With the success of Grad School, Danny sought to expand. He opened a second location in Kansas City, and the whiskey bar J.O.B Public House (in reference to a job, that thing you get after grad school).
Then the pandemic hit.
He was forced to shutter his KC location, and the landlord of the flagship Grad School sold the property, which was later demolished for the expansion of the apartment complex Vue on Walnut.
Danny, like many others amidst COVID, adapted. He still had J.O.B and had purchased the building it was in, as to avoid the same fate. Grad School merged with J.O.B and guests, many of whom were Danny's friends, could grab a Full Ride and peruse the largest whiskey selection in Springfield.
“He had better liquor than anybody in the four-state area,” David said. “…People brag about their whiskey selection and they look at his and they put their heads down.”
The building that housed J.O.B had a lot of additional space — upstairs lofts that Danny was converting into Airbnb rental units and retail space that he remodeled into a sister bar called Primetime. Like his other endeavors, it stuck to the theme of school.
Primetime was decked out to be a representation of what it was like to get out of school for K-12 students. It features decor that resembles a principal’s office, a teacher’s lounge and had a plethora of board games and ping-pong tables.
Danny thrived among people
His restaurants were an example of Danny’s character and sociability. Opposite from father and brother, they say, Danny worked to ingratiate himself with people and develop his social skills.
“As a junior (at Kickapoo), he got invited to the prom by a senior cheerleader,” David said, smiling. “That should never happen.”
Danny became well-known to a point where some people recognized David and Mark simply as “Danny’s dad” and “Danny’s brother.”
It was with those social skills that Danny gravitated toward the hospitality industry, where he simply sought to make people happy.
Rollins, who herself is a fellow restaurant business owner (of Progress restaurant in Springfield), has long seen his eagerness to help and give to others.
“He had a massive collection of dirty, vintage t-shirts that everyone wanted one,” Rollins said. “…He would give you the shirt off his back if you were like, ‘Man, I love that shirt.’…Literally, he would take it off, toss it to you and go find another shirt.”
Rollins met Danny in 2011, and they soon after began dating. She recalled the time spent with him as “extravagant” and “fun,” from all of the concerts they attended together at the Outland Ballroom to the trip to Las Vegas that Danny took her on, and her attempt to return the favor with a trip to Branson.
During her time with Danny, she made “lots of cool memories that really just could never be recreated.”
After their relationship ended, they remained friends, up until his death.
“He always walked me to my car, always opened doors for me, and I don’t think that was singular to me,” Rollins said. “I think he was just always polite and nice to everyone. Except when someone was an a**hole and he fully believed in justice, and would not stand for poor treatment of people in this community.”
The time and effort Danny spent on others left none for himself
Despite the kindness and love he showed toward others, Danny often struggled to provide any for himself.
Danny strived for perfection and often blamed himself for the struggles of others and things that were out of his control.
2021 was an especially difficult year for Danny. Shane “Chunk” Rice, a co-founder of the original Grad School, was shot and killed in a controversial altercation with a fellow restaurateur. Danny’s dog Mabel died from kidney disease. All the while, he was still coping with the burdens of the pandemic.
He often used alcohol to suppress that negativity and fear. As David put it, Danny got sucked “into that vortex of self-pity, blame and self-loathing,” and he struggled to forgive himself.
“He tried to escape his perceived inadequacies,” David said.
On Dec. 22, David and his wife and Mark and his family were on a holiday trip in Barcelona, one that Danny was unable to attend due to his passport not coming in time.
Danny, initially skeptical of traveling overseas during the holidays as a restaurant and bar owner, eventually showed enthusiasm for the trip, and applied for his passport. He was particularly looking forward to showing up his brother Mark at mountain skiing in front of Mark’s kids.
“He also bought his expensive pair of boots, Danner boots from Portland,” David said. “He was going to show Mark up with his fancy boots.”
If Danny had made it to Spain, his boots — and efforts — would’ve been in vain, according to David, because Mark’s wife Emily was significantly better than either of them at skiing.
“He said, ‘I’ll be there, I’ll meet you in Barcelona,’” David said.
Then they received a call at 4 a.m. on Dec. 23 (in Central European Standard Time).
When J.O.B manager Shon Tetlow had found Danny drinking alone at the bar, Danny agreed to go to the hospital and acknowledged that he needed help, according to David.
However, after recalling a previous trip to the hospital where he got placed on a 96-hour involuntary commitment, according to David, Danny changed his mind. While Tetlow initially argued it, he eventually drove Danny home.
In his final hours, Danny changed his mind again, and realized he needed to go to the hospital and apologized to Tetlow for his ignorance. Upon returning a few hours later to check on him, Tetlow found Danny dead in the shower. An autopsy report attributed his death to arrhythmia, which is caused by an irregular heartbeat.
“It was so horrible thinking that he left this world in a state of despair, but probably better worded is he left in a state of grace,” David said.
While he was alone at the time of his death, and expressed loneliness over the phone to his family, Danny had a moment of clarity near the end. One where he apologized to Tetlow for his initial ignorance and behavior towards going to the hospital, and eventually accepted that he needed help.
Danny’s enormous community mourns, remembers the ‘Red Dragon’
Upon hearing the news, David, Mark and the rest of the family flew back to Springfield as soon as possible. Reactions to his death began pouring in on social media, as friends, family and the community tried to cope with the loss and recall the many memories and friendships he made.
At his visitation on Jan. 3 at the Herman H. Lohmeyer Funeral Home, an audience of (give or take) 300 spilled out of the reception room, into the foyer and out onto the parking lot.
Various friends, family, former classmates, employees of J.O.B and Primetime and community members gathered and shared stories of how Danny touched their lives:
“Danny was the person that invested in people when they needed it most.”
“He gave us reasons, answers and opportunities to get back on our feet.”
“He did big things, he had a big character.”
Even as Danny had struggled to forgive himself, the audience did not hesitate to show forgiveness, and erupted into a long applause to show it.
They showed up again, in equally big numbers, at J.O.B on the evening of Jan. 3, as their two-hour time slot at the funeral home was not nearly long enough to tell the many stories people had about Danny.
The Red Dragon had no shortage of stories, but more importantly, no shortage of friends to tell them to.
