The Alimond Show

Big Menu Energy: How Jerry J. Bobb Built a Culinary Empire

• Alimond Studio

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The entrepreneurial journey requires vision, resilience, and sometimes the courage to break every rule in the book. Jerry J Bobb embodies this spirit with his thriving Louisiana restaurant, Soup Potatoes More, where conventional wisdom goes out the window in favor of what he calls "Big Menu Energy."

What happens when a business-minded culinary artist decides to offer not just a few signature dishes, but hundreds of options spanning an entire restaurant wall? Magic, apparently. Jerry walks us through his eleven-year journey building a food empire based on customer connection rather than traditional restaurant formulas. "If I was a passionate chef first, I would probably be more inclined to feed people what I thought was good for them," Jerry explains. Instead, his business-first approach focuses on creating what customers actually want - resulting in a menu featuring over 100 stuffed potato variations alongside countless burgers, wraps, and salads.

Most remarkable is how Jerry navigated the pandemic, a period that devastated the restaurant industry. Rather than retreating, his business actually grew during this challenging time, eventually catching the attention of major publications like Forbes. The secret? An unwavering commitment to personal connection. Despite his success, Jerry still works the register, speaks directly with customers, and incorporates their ideas into new creations. "I still want to have a connection," he shares, explaining his conscious decision to reject corporate distance despite opportunities for rapid expansion.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, Jerry offers wisdom that transcends the culinary world: sometimes growth means evolving what you already have rather than just expanding outward. As an African American business owner, he understands the importance of visibility: "Just being visible lets people know that it's possible." His parting wisdom? "I'm not wrong, I'm just a visionary." Ready to break some rules in your own business journey? Jerry J Bobb shows exactly how rewarding that path can be.

Speaker 1:

My name is Jerry J Bob and I am a lot of things. My primary business I'm a culinary artist chef. My business is Soup Potatoes More. We're located in Lafayette, louisiana Well, by way of Scott.

Speaker 1:

Scott is our smaller area, but I've been open now probably for a little over 11 years now, independently owned and operated Do-it-all kind of individual. And, of course, if you guys talk to entrepreneurs, you know that part of we're kind of like magic people. We do everything, we make it, we sell it, we box it up, we ship it and we market it. So it's like it's allowed me an opportunity to learn a lot of things quickly, or even be forced to learn a lot of things, because things that I didn't know. What you start to find is that you have to wait on others, but sometimes, instead of waiting on others, you can actually kind of sort of do it yourself. And again, you're an entrepreneur, you can actually afford the space to mess up. So you may make a mistake here or there, but who's going to know? So you improve yourself as you go along by trying some different things. So that's the quick version of the story.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, awesome. Well, you kind of answered my first question. I mean, I was just going to ask for a quick version. But take me back. What really drew you to the world of culinary arts and business? Give me an overview of your journey.

Speaker 1:

That's my sister. She's here and she knows that we grew up in a house of five kids and cooking was kind of sort of like it wasn't just a mode of survival. I'd always like to consider myself to be like a third option parent, so when dad couldn't do it, mom couldn't do it, I kind of got nominated.

Speaker 2:

You're the oldest.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I relate but even so, though, I can't tell you a lie and tell you that cooking is my passion, what is my passion is business, and so I think that's why my business thrives. Because I don't look at, even though I'm a culinary artist, if I listed the amount of jobs that I've got and the amount of things that I dabble into, people are like, whoa, that's a lot. But again, I look at it almost like a science, right? So if you can identify who your customers are and you can identify how to give them what they asked you for, right? Because I think that if I was a passionate food person, if I was a passionate chef and I am, but if that was my very, very first passion, I would probably be more inclined to feed people what I thought was good for them.

Speaker 1:

But because I am a culinary artist, I look at it as, again, artistry. You know, if you want something and I've got the ingredients to make it, I can whip it up for you, and no one else in town or in the city may offer that. So the next time when you get hungry guess what you're more likely to do You're going to come and see me, and so that creates like a real bond between you and your customer base, because they know that you can do things that not a lot of people are willing to or even can do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. That's amazing. You built Supertators from a single creative concept. What was the very first spark that inspired it?

Speaker 1:

Again, wanting to be a business owner, you just have to kind of sort of find where your space is and also, as an entrepreneur or should I say as a person who wants to be an entrepreneur you've got to find where you fit. How many places exist, like how many burger places, how many taco places, how many? You know? There's a lot of these places, so I've got to figure out, okay, so what's going to be my area that I fit in. So, instead of fitting just in a burger place or a burger space or just in a taco space, I decided to do all of them so on my menu and let me backtrack a bit. I decided to do all of them so on my menu and let me backtrack a bit. My menu is very unconventional. It takes up an entire wall of my restaurant. I've got quite a few HD screens that showcase the things that I'm able to make. Now, those things may not actually make it to the print menu, but again, it's that connection that you make and people inspire your menu and inspire the thing that you actually create for them.

Speaker 1:

So, instead of actually saying I'm going to just make burgers, I'm going to just make stuff, make potatoes, I decided to make a hundred plus different options. Some of them are local favorites, some of them was, like you know, southern delicacies, or some of them maybe the things that we grew up eating, or things that might've been, I would say, foreign, but things that might've been unconventional. Some people might call them struggle food. I don't know if you could get a different, different ways of defining it. But you take that and you make a fancy version, or should I say an upscale version that can be duplicated. So you've got a hundred different stuffed baked potato options. You've got about 10, 15 burger options. You've got 10, 15 wraps. You've got so many salads. So my menu is actually again it defines all you know conventional restaurant logic, but again it goes right back to my original vision of trying to create something that appeals to the customer, and it doesn't matter where you come from. You can find something that you like on my menu. I like to call it big menu energy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. That's really a part of your brand identity, it seems, and you explained it perfectly. I love that, and when I'm a musician, so when I think about big menu, energy and having kind of something that strikes a chord with everyone, that's something that I try to integrate into my music too, kind of a little bit of like each little genre, a little bit of something that everyone can either find nostalgic or relate to, or even like peppering in different lyrics.

Speaker 1:

So, it's very cool Well it allows you to reach so many different people and, quite frankly, the journey is has been really awesome. It's been unique, because if I go back a couple of minutes and I say, well, trying to find where you fit, and sometimes when you're trying to find where you fit, there's nowhere for you to actually fit. You have to actually create it, and so that's kind of where I'm coming from here. So it was hard getting started, and even at times it's still hard selling the concept to people. What do you do and how do you do it? Why do you do it? And here we are and we're still creating.

Speaker 1:

You know, 11 years later, covid-19, the entire pandemic, few years that we had kind of sort of threw us a challenge. Like, okay, so how do you still provide this when ingredients are scarce? You know when people are changing, when people are mean, people are, you know they're scared. So how do you still be the steady and force or the steady hand? And so, instead of actually losing business, we gained a lot of business. So it was a lot of pressure. I'm not going to say it perfectly, you know, but you figured it out. In the same way, we figured out how to set up the business. As we kind of sort of went along, we figured out how to get through COVID-19.

Speaker 1:

Now some of it permanently changes, but we're still around, which is to me a huge blessing and pivoting basically that's what it is and for my efforts, we were able to be featured in these big magazines like Forbes, I see, and you know it.

Speaker 1:

Even so, like I think to myself, I'm like, I'm from a small town, it's like whoa, this is pretty cool. But, and as challenging as that period was, it allowed us to be able to again find, carve out some new ground, do new things that no one else was doing. And again, some pushback, because you know, when things are different, people are like I don't know about that, but I see the vision, and so if your job is to, if you have the vision, if you've been given the vision, you have to make sure that you execute it. So that's kind of where I was, and so I'm still in shock sometimes that these big publications and these big things are recognizing what I'm doing. But I think it caused such a stir because again you're doing something totally different, totally new, something totally that's not necessarily in existence, or even if it is in existence, it's not as common, so people are like you're wrong. I'm not wrong, I'm just a visionary.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and that's exactly the mindset that we hear a lot among the people that come in here. I'm not wrong, I'm just a visionary. I love that.

Speaker 1:

I've challenged everything that you think you know about whatever it is that you know. But then again and I guess maybe in your case you know you're a songwriter, so you've got to write songs that's never been heard before. But how do you write a song that's never been heard before, when words are? You listen to the radio all day, you watch a music video. So how do I bring my unique sound, my unique vision to life?

Speaker 2:

And you bring your experience Right right, and that's one way to do it.

Speaker 1:

And you find I call it finding your tribe, and I'm sure you've heard that before but it's really important to find the people who rock with you honestly. And I think that when you find those people, those people will support you. And sometimes, when your cup is empty, those people will say, you know, even though there's a thousand people that hate you or that seems to hate you, they'll say, hey, keep doing it because I like it. And then what you'll find is that when you find that one person, you'll find two people, three people, and then you'll find 2,000 people and all of a sudden now you've got more people that like you, that don't seem to like you, and then you find out that those 1,000 people that you thought didn't like you it's not that they really don't like you, they just didn't understand you. But you found the people you kept pressing and you found the people who actually understood what you were doing.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely yeah. If you could sum up super taters in three words, what would they be?

Speaker 1:

And why Could I use big menu energy again? Yeah, I love that. Well, that is it. And it's again unconventional. It's different. Again, it challenges everything like logic. Normally, with restaurants especially, they say, well, have a few items that you do. Well, how dare you have an entire wall? We can't even make up our mind. But then again, if having to narrow down choices is the biggest problem that you have, I think that's a good problem to have.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love. That's a good problem to have. Yeah, I love big menu energy. It's very unapologetic and it's bold and it's.

Speaker 1:

It's lonely sometimes because, again, you're challenging all logic. You're creating something like truly new, and although we know that there's a lot of things in the world that are still being created, new ground is being broken. Sometimes it's evolving things that are already in existence. That makes it unique.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. Let's see how do you approach creating dishes that are both deeply rooted in Louisiana flavors as well as totally unique to your brand.

Speaker 1:

I go back a few minutes. When creating, I use my own experience as inspiration. But again, again, unconventional, I actually like to talk to the people that I service. People say, well, so wait, so you're the guy on Forbes, you're the guy on TV, you're the guy on these podcasts, you're the guy doing this, you're the guy advertising, but you're also the guy that serves me at the register. Wait a minute. And so it almost cuts out the middleman because you can talk directly to the creative person. Again, it's challenging.

Speaker 1:

I don't want to pretend as if it's not, but I think people can appreciate the fact that you actually want to hear what they have to say and they can have actual influence on what you create. So, something that I may feature, or even maybe not feature, just have as an option. A person can say, yeah, I remember back in 2015. I helped him create that, you know, and then they're proud of that, but it's the truth. So when I get on you know podcasts and I say this, they're like, yeah, he's right, because you know now some people you know.

Speaker 1:

Once you get to be a certain size, you're like, ok, I'm in this corner office wearing three piece suits and on TV, now I'm in Forbes, I don't have to talk to these people because, hey, they're already buying stuff from me. So one of the biggest shocks is like, yeah, you're actually still involved. So I could have gone corporate a long time ago. I made the decision, and I make the conscious decision not to be corporate. I still want to have a connection and that helps a lot. So, if I answered your question, I think that was the motivation behind creating this is the people, and you can't even though you might want to, even though the opportunity presents itself to become corporate, you have to intentionally choose not to be.

Speaker 2:

That's great advice and I feel like I really some of the brands and businesses that I've stood behind the longest I've made that personal connection with the owner.

Speaker 1:

So it really builds that loyalty and trust too, which is huge. And listen, there's a lot of money, a lot of status, a lot of progress that can't be made because people are like let me chase this dollar, I chase connections still, and sometimes, depending on who you talk to, they'll say well, that's stupid, you're giving up a lot of money. You could have a bazillion locations, you could have one here if you like, but I feel like I'm doing it the right way, like the actual right way.

Speaker 2:

The fulfilling way too, because you could have all the money in the world and not feel fulfilled by what you're doing, but I can tell that you're.

Speaker 1:

Or you can do that and the money comes on the back end. That and the money comes on the back end because the connections, because people won't spend anywhere else, they'll come and buy it from you.

Speaker 2:

That is a great point. All right, I was going to ask you about the pandemic, but you already kind of covered that, so congratulations again.

Speaker 1:

Look at me hopping ahead, really growing through that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, what advice would you give to other small businesses whose owners kind of face some challenges during the pandemic and are still kind of trying to come back up from that?

Speaker 1:

What I would like to say that that's actually the next stage of what I want to be able to do is to be a mentor and to be able to kind of sort of inspire others, because a lot of times people won't listen unless you've got history or you've got.

Speaker 1:

You know, you've done it already. So I feel like I've taken all the lumps, I've taken all the licks, taken all the beatings, so I can go to someone else and say, hey look, you can do that if you want. But then, hey look, maybe you try this option here and they may not have the same path to walk as I do, but I think with any entrepreneurs, you got to have resilience and you got to have the vision and you've got to be able to say, hey look, you may not believe it, but I do. So sometimes you have to block out the white noise and just kind of believe in the vision that you have and just keep on doing it. And, as I said earlier, finding your tribe, finding the people that actually rock with you. If you can do that, you can be successful.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. Do you have like one moment that sticks out to you, maybe with a customer or something like that kind of within your journey that you think about often?

Speaker 1:

Let's see.

Speaker 2:

I'm just curious.

Speaker 1:

I've got so many.

Speaker 2:

You can share one or two if you want to.

Speaker 1:

Again as the boss guy. People just don't expect for you to be as connected. They're surprised, they're like you're actually here and now. Now, listen, I don't feel like that guy. I feel like I'm just me. You know, I feel like I'm just a guy doing stuff, creating stuff, going places. My sister can tell you we've hopped out of airplanes and all kinds of different things, but I but again, I don't see myself as that guy they do, and sometimes just the fact that you're available says a lot, and even, I guess even as an African-American man, sometimes we don't always come from the best circumstances. So I think that just being visible lets people know that it's possible. That's awesome advice, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Just being visible lets people know that it's possible. That's awesome advice, yeah, just being visible lets people know that it's possible, beautifully put. Well, is there anything that I didn't touch on that you want to share with our audience today?

Speaker 1:

Oh, let's see Probably a lot. We only know what we know, so you have to be open to learning, to growth. The thing about growth is, though sometimes we think of external growth, we think that we need bigger locations, and I'm not telling anybody that that's a bad thing. Sometimes growth can be internal. Sometimes growth can be your internal, sometimes growth can be internally growing in the building that you're in. Growth can be learning more. Growth can be expanding what exists already on the roof. It can be evolving. It could be having better trained employees. It could be a lot of different things, and I'm an example of that.

Speaker 1:

You know, being a I call myself a small business that thinks bigger, but to say that we've been able to have, like, this national footprint and these worldwide features, you know, I still have to pitch myself, sometimes the kind of thing that that's me yeah, that's me on that picture, you know. But again, that's why the visibility is important, because that's like right now, I guarantee you, as an entrepreneur that's trying to figure it out, and maybe he or she is about this close to quitting, just trying to figure it out, and maybe he or she is about this close to quitting, this close to giving up and say well, you know what that guy did it. Now you might not be able to be exactly like me, you know your path won't be exactly like mine is, but it'll let you know that there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Speaker 2:

Very inspiring. Well, thank you so much, Jerry Bob, for coming in and making the time to talk to us today.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for the invite.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you're, just, as I said, so inspiring in your journey and kind of what your business has been through, growing through COVID, really everything and your big menu energy are all things that I know our audience is just going to love hearing about. So thank you again for coming on.

Speaker 1:

Thank you very much for the invite. I appreciate it.