‘Love to cook’: Pair launches soul food stuff restaurant, catering business | Organization

Paula and her partner Jamie are the house owners of PJ’s Tabletop Southern Cuisine and Catering Service, a new soul foodstuff cafe in downtown Temple.

The few lately moved back again to the space in July from Ohio as aspect of their earlier careers, with Paula having grown up in Waco. Paula had been a manager at CEFCO and Jamie labored at Wilsonart in Temple.

Paula claimed she has labored in catering beforehand for 15 decades, even proudly owning her possess company when the couple lived in Ohio.

The decision to make that leap from a steady occupation to opening a restaurant was an act of religion, Paula explained.

“We just recently moved to Temple, so catering has normally been in my background, especially for the final 15 several years,” Paula mentioned. “I normally wished to have my very own cafe. So I begun dabbling back into the foods and reported, ‘Hey, how about if we do this?’”

The restaurant currently has a rotating menu that changes each day of the 7 days, giving marginally distinct objects each day.

Plates at the restaurant consist of between one particular and three meats that incorporate both two or 3 sides.

Meats have included fried pork chops, baked chicken, pigs ft, stuffed turkey legs and ribs. Sides at the cafe consist of broccoli cheese rice casserole, green beans, mashed potatoes and potato salad.

Paula reported she has options to at some point period out the rotating menu, changing it with a cafeteria-model line wherever buyers select out what they want just before spending.

“That is not nearly anything that I want to do, I really do not want the clients to have to wait like they have been waiting around,” Paula claimed. “I have a program in motion so that way they will be capable to just go by means of a line, like a steam line, and they can grab their food items and spend at the close and they go.”

Due to the fact opening, Paula reported the business has had its ups and downs, but coming from retail the few knows there is generally a downtime in company. She stated she is accustomed to creating the conclusions on how to lower charges and slash labor to make it by means of the harder instances.

Presently, Paula stated, the small business is generally relying on the restaurant facet as it requires time to build up the clientele for a catering company.

“It’s been neat, our first thirty day period here we did very well,” Paula claimed. “It has been type of rocky this last thirty day period and I get it, coming out of the holiday getaway and factors of that character. It is just hard suitable now, but it is all good.”

Jamie stated the couple was enthusiastic for the design coming to downtown, this kind of as the proposed parking garages and downtown flats, which will convey a lot more individuals into the region.

“I imagine most of the cities are starting up to get like that, the place you can wander all over downtown,” Jamie mentioned.

Both equally Paula and Jamie are previously hunting forward to the summer months which will signify a wide range of barbecued meats making their way on to the menu.

“Soul foods is fairly substantially what I do, and … I like to prepare dinner,” Paula mentioned.