We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kimsha Rosensteel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kimsha, appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

The biggest risk taken for me was leaving my job of 15yrs to start my own business. This was the scariest thing that I’ve ever done,as I didn’t know if I would be a success story or the biggest flop, so far it has been wonderful with me being featured in several magazines and articles and my most recent accomplishment has been placing top 10 in the World Food Championships in the Rice and Noodle category.
Opening my own restaurant has empowered me to want to achieve more and show my children that you can do anything you set your mind to.

Kimsha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I think like several individuals who find themselves working in an environment that offers no room for advancement, you begin to feel like a failure. This feeling of failure made me rethink my life and the future I wanted to provide for my children, it also made me realize that in order to have something you have to step out on faith . When you get to a certain age in life we tend to look back and try to add up your accomplishments and I had some wonderful ones like my husband and 3 children whom I love dearly and accomplishing a Masters, but I wasn’t really fulfilled.

In 2015 I finally had prayed enough about opening my own restaurant, it made since to me because I was already cooking for the military. I obtained a location and commenced to renovate it, this was a difficult thing due to my husband still active duty in the military and stationed in another area, also children still in school and myself still employed, but I was determined. I had gathered restaurant equipment throughout the years and just needed to place it somewhere.

It took almost six months to finish the project and it was time for me to create a menu, this wasn’t going to just be the recipes passed down from my family, they had to have a modern twist on every dish and trust , I had some ideas. Finally the doors came open with everything fresh and made from scratch, alot of work but it’s how I was raised and I wanted to continue that with fresh greens, sweet potatoes and the best red beans and okra, seasoned with the finest cinnamon and nutmeg and spices that I’ve encountered with my military travel. We wanted to give everyone a taste of every overseas duty station right from my little kitchen.

I’m so proud of my husband Shawn Rosensteel and my children Kiera, Kaliese and Kaden for sticking with me in this adventure, times were hard at first because we all work so hard as a family to service our customers even though we get slammed,

I’m very thankful and appreciative of my customers for allowing us to bring a modern take on southern cuisine and not being hesitant to try.

I think what sets us apart in our business is that we treat every customer like family and try to make sure that thier dining experience is wonderful, we create interesting dishes that would ignite your entire palette and have you tapping your feet under the table..

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

We used our own money to fund the business as we knew exactly what we wanted to do and the main thing wasn’t to go in debt therefore needing no investors or bank loans. The success rate of restaurants in the first few years are disheartening to several individuals and can bring disaster on finances. We structured a time-frame of when we wanted to cement my idea and utilized several places that sold wonderful equipment, restaurant auctions and found that this was the most economical way to start this business, therefore we weren’t financially exhausted opening, we just wanted to pay the lease and utilities and product to serve

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The hardest part of my journey with the business was during covid and I’m pretty sure we weren’t alone. This took a toll on my family as we had just signed a lease for a larger location that required a complete build out, this process required architects and engineers and a great deal of money. We came to a stand still for several months and that didn’t stop the monthly rent. This is one time I felt that I had made a huge mistake and the time-frame of not being open cost our connection with customers and the mandates didn’t help .
We had to adapt to curbside and loose the ability to see our customers smiling faces.

I thank God and alot of prayer that we are back on track and look forward to the future.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Honey Chile Please
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/honeychileplease?mibextid=ZbWKwL
• Other: Honey Chile Please 658 Missouri Ave St 2 Saint Robert, MO 65584-3816