We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jason Schrampfer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jason below.

Alright, Jason thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

JimPa’s is a family-owned restaurant and catering company in Kennesaw, GA. We had been operating as a small take-out place for 8 years with only a couple of dine-in tables. At the end of October 2019, we opened in our current location and went from 3 tables to 17 tables. Things were going great until three months later Covid shut everything down. At first we were panicking. How would we survive? How long would this last? What’s going to happen?

We were seeing restaurants everywhere closing down, at least temporarily, but we were able to stay open. Even though we had to close down our new, bigger dining room, since we had just come from a take-out only setup, we were able to seamlessly switch back. We didn’t have to figure anything out or change our menu. We just didn’t use dishes or the dining room.

The hardest part has been with the supply chain. The last couple years have been one disaster after another. Facilities cut production and laid off workers for everything. The big ice storm across the southwest in 2020 wiped out a large amount of the chicken supply sending prices soaring. The petroleum companies cutting back production, causing a mass shortage of cooking oil. Then the cargo ship got stuck and everything fell apart. 2 years in, and we still have a hard time getting the supplies we need each week to continue to operate. We have to go with the flow and work with what we can. For the most part, customers are understanding and are just happy we’re still able to serve them.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was never in the restaurant world, but my dad was from the the time he got out of the Air Force Reserves after high school. Through his life in the industry, he worked for many companies over the years, the last being Uncle Bud’s. After Uncle Bud’s shut down, my dad created his own version of the beloved restaurant called Catfish Jim’s. While running Catfish Jim’s, he began doing more and more catering. When the lease was up for the restaurant, he decided to shift to only doing catering, and JimPa’s was born. However, our fans were not happy and a few months later he opened a small take-out spot in a gas station strip. Only open on Friday and Saturday nights, this allowed our fans to get their fix and he could do the caterings during the week. Sadly, in August 2015, my dad passed away. Unsure of what to do with the business my mom just inherited, she asked if I would want to take over. So after 15 years in signage and graphic design, I became a restaurateur.

I had run businesses before, but never worked in a commercial kitchen, so there was a very steep learning curve I had to overcome very quickly. The first challenge I faced was reconnecting with all of our our catering customers and convincing them that I had not changed anything and the food was still the same. Once we were able to get back out there the customers realized I wasn’t changing anything and it was still the same food and service they had come to love, we were off to the races. Dad was very old school and didn’t really have an online presence. I went to work establishing our Facebook, Google, Yelp, etc. pages. Word began spreading. Many old customers found us again and we began getting more and more new customers.

What sets us apart from all the rest is we cook your food to order. Most of our menu is fried food, but we don’t precook our food and hold it under heat lamps all day. It takes a little longer to wait for your food, however, most of our customers agree it is so worth the wait. This applies to or catering as well. When we do a catering event, we cook the food on our catering truck right before it is served. So whether it’s first shift or third shift, everyone is getting a fresh cooked meal.

I am very proud of my crew and the work they have put in to keep us open and functioning throughout this pandemic. In the beginning, we were seeing restaurants closing almost daily. Some temporarily and many for good. We never had to close. We adjusted, adapted and pushed through. After a 95% drop in our catering business in 2020, we saw it come back about 70% in 2021. With a skeleton crew at times, we still made it work. And the proudest moment was when we were voted Best of Georgia 2021 Regional Winner by the Georgia Business Journal.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The biggest pivot I’ve made in my life so far is shifting from a 15 year career in signage and graphic design to taking over my father’s restaurant. After my dad’s sudden passing in 2015, I was in a very depressed time in my life. When I was given the opportunity to take over the restaurant it seemed like the type of change I needed at that time. Never having worked in a restaurant before, there was a lot I had to learn very quickly. Fortunately, the manager who worked for my dad for years was still there and taught me what I needed to know.

In the beginning it was tough for several reason. First not knowing about running a kitchen. That was learned. The harder part was every night we were open having to tell our customers that my dad had passed and and what happened. I know they were curious and upset, but it was hard to explain it night after night. Over time, it became easier and being able to sit with our customers and listen to their stories about their experiences with my dad had a healing effect.

The one thing I did learn about myself is that through my life I’ve made changes in my path that most people wouldn’t. Whether it was changing my career path or staring a new business, I’ve never been scared to try. I’ve always just seen it as the next challenge. After taking over the restaurant and talking with so many people that knew my dad I realized that I have his entrepreneurial spirit.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Our best source of clients has always been word of mouth. In the early days, it was pretty much all we had. My dad would run coupons in the local paper, but that was about it. When I took over, I spent a lot of time building up our online presence. Starting with Facebook, Google and Yelp, by claiming our pages and setting up the information. This allowed me to post images of our food, catering events, and announcements for our fans to see and share. One of the biggest tips I learned early on is responding to all comments and reviews, good or bad.

When we moved to our current location we suddenly had a whole new dynamic to deal with, a dining room. We were still getting just as many call in orders, but now we had a steady line out the door for people wanting to dine in. We received a lot of bad reviews mainly of people complaining about the wait. Many of the new customers did not understand or realize that we cook the food to order. While there may only be 17 tables in the dining room, with the call in orders we had 40-60 tickets hanging at any given time. By responding to every review, it allowed me to explain to people why there was a wait. The best part however, was when our regular customers would come to our defense and explain for us.

Like most businesses, we have been short staffed for a while now and I have not had as much time to devote to responding to reviews or putting up posts. Despite this, we are getting many first time customers daily who tell us their friends told them about us. Which tells me we’re doing something right.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jimpascatering.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/jimpascatering/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/JimPasCatering/
• Yelp: www.yelp.com/biz/jimpas-catering-kennesaw-2
• Other: www.doordash.com, www.ubereats.com