We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michael & Antoine Harris. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michael & Antoine below.

Michael & Antoine , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

Moody Mike’s started off as just a dream in 2018. While going to other places to eat we would always comment about “how awesome it would be to have our own place. In the summer of 2020 we were lucky enough to buy our own food truck. In the fall we found ourselves with an opportunity to be a part of the incubator kitchen at pasta garage. Our first time being able to serve the community came that October during the pandemic. During our time at the incubator kitchen we learned a lot from other small business owner’s that were also a part of the incubator kitchen. Working with different chefs allowed us to improve what we were making through constructive criticism. 3 years were spent learning and growing in the incubator kitchen. During our time there we were able to learn the basics of running a business, the different resources available to use, one on one time with owners who have multiple successful businesses and access to an industrial kitchen. During our journey there has been plenty of blood sweat and tears that have gone into the business. There have been times when we’ve had to compete with other places that just opened and when foot traffic was low, injuries while cooking, having equipment failure and closing for a day or more, running out of supplies, etc. Another great thing about working in the incubator kitchen was that it prepared us for what happened in December of 2023… We got our own building! Moody Mike’s cafe has been going strong adding coffee/breakfast and lunch to the menu as well.

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?

Moody Mike’s is a bit of a hidden gem here in Lexington but we’ve managed to get quite a “cult” following. Our loyal customers have found us throughout our time in the truck all over Lexington. We can be found online through Facebook, Instagram and even through Spothopper. We are unique, to say the least, regarding our set up. We fell in love with the Broomwagon building and her quiet charm. So we can be found there at 802 N. Limestone. There are only a small number of items that aren’t made in house. We make our own wing sauces, ranch, mayo, and meat products. All breakfast baked goods are made in house from scratch. We offer a variety of rotating specials including fan favorites like chicken and dumplings and Reuben sandwichs. We are very proud of our abilities to create “home” style food as well as our more fun menu items such as beer battered burgers and a variety of eggrolls (pizza and cheeseburger). We’ve been able to adapt our menu for different dietary needs of our customers such as gluten free diets and have had a lot of fun allowing customers to create combinations of ingredients that make them so happy. Moody Mike’s has been an exciting roller-coaster journey. We’ve learned and adapted over and over. We truly hope to keep this adventure going for many more years and hopefully be a tasty delight for all.

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

There have been a few occasions when we’ve experienced equipment failure and managed to overcome. We’ve been able to think outside the box and utilize alternative methods of preparation and service while maintaining the integrity and quality of service.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Our social media journey has been an interesting one. We started off not knowing anything about how to build a social media presence, we were just making posts. Our posts about locations were sometimes late or they just didn’t grab desired attention. It wasn’t until 3 years in the business that our social media game became better. That’s because our social media manager Faith Roberts came along and has helped us out tremendously. Faith basically changed our social media presence overnight. Looking at social media now, compared to what it was is night and day.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Moodymikes.org
• Instagram: Moody_mikes
• Facebook: Moody Mike’s