We recently connected with Jolene And Jesse and have shared our conversation below.

Jolene, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

We were in a grocery store in downtown Brooklyn, and I noticed that they had hen of the woods (maitake) mushrooms. I turned to Jesse and excitedly exclaimed “ We HAVE to make fried chicken sandwiches with these tonight!” I think Jesse was more intrigued than skeptical, so we brought them home to try it out. – Jolene

I was pretty mind blown by how good those first sandwiches were. We immediately went back to that store and bought more and kept tweaking the process and recipe. At the time there were pop ups happening all over the city, so I thought, people will love this we should totally sell these! – Jesse

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

JJs Southern Vegan is a combination of our experiences both in and out of kitchens. Jolene has been vegan for almost 20 years, and with Jesses experiences working in various restaurant settings it all came together a little too perfectly. Jesse left the restaurant industry in 2013 to focus more on carpentry for TV and film in both Atlanta and New York, while Jolene had worked in and managed various retail stores in New York City. After our first sandwich that we just happened to make for dinner, we dove in head first.

We are both dedicated and disciplined in making delicious food, and utilizing vegetables as alternatives to meat and dairy rather than the meat substitutes that have existed for decades like soy and tempeh, and the newer products that are growing in popularity. Mushrooms are especially unique to our food, not only as the main protein but also all of the various ways they can be prepared. Using whole vegetables can be a challenge based solely on the care and knowledge that goes into their preparation and execution in the kitchen, and we take pride that we make amazing comforting food out of ingredients that are not overly processed.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

We are married! We met in 2018 at a friends house party, later went on a date and have been inseparable ever since. It would be a lie to say that working with your spouse isn’t challenging however, it has strengthened both our communication and trust in each other. We enjoy creating food together, and having people enjoy what we do. There’s definitely no one else either of us would rather do this with!

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

This all started during the pandemic as a way to make some extra money, and help bars who needed food to stay open and serve drinks. We are fortunate to know many amazing bar owners, bar tenders, and people in our community who invited us into their spaces, and in doing so met many wonderful people and made invaluable connections. The owners of The Drift came out to one of our pop-ups and loved our food. They were looking for a new kitchen program and reached out to us to join their place in Greenpoint, Brooklyn which is where we are now. Superiority Burger has hosted us twice, and for us that is a major achievement as Brooks Headley and the restaurant he’s created are immensely inspiring and dear to both of our hearts.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jjs-nyc.square.site/
• Instagram: jjs_southernvegan

Image Credits

Food; Luis Trejo
Portrait: Nick Washkin