Why Chef JJ Believes Community-Based Dining Will Save The Restaurant Industry | Forbes

Yeah, so I just let everybody know I'm Chef JJ, chef and founder of Field Trip, New York City. Have a location in Harlem between 115th and 116th street, another location Rockefeller Center. We're a rice bowl shop, everything is under $14. And the first time, I credit Forbes for making my career because I made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list when I was a chef at The Cecil, cooking food called Afro-Asian American. So I wanted the first big publications to write about me, and it pushed me on my trajectory. Yeah, when you open a business, you never know, right? You're just trying to get to open the doors. Everybody's starting a business, just opening doors. And who knew there would be a pandemic? That's not something you write in the business plan, that's not something you put in the investor deck. And my goal was just to try to figure out how to get quality food to people in a community of Harlem that don't get an option to choose consciously better for you food, right, at an affordable rate. And I put it in a corridor between 115th and 116th street, Malcolm X Boulevard, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in New York City, one of the lowest income mediums, and I think of New York State, one of the lowest. And most people thought I was crazy because they were like, well, if this is the income medium, why would they be eating Perry Party salmon and pineapple black fried rice? I was like, people want this, they consciously want to eat better. And that was the first step. And then the hardest thing in the beginning for me in the first six months before the pandemic hit was building trust. And I think when you go into communities, right, any community you go into, it could be high, low, or medium, you have to figure out how to build trust. Why are they going to spend money with you? Why do they believe in your mission? And so that was the first step of just having real conversation with real people.

Yeah, I mean in the first six months I was super hands-on, went to community board meetings, talked to my neighbors, talked to the people that hang out on the corner and just walking by, really introducing myself to a Harlem community that maybe didn't know who I was. And I also think in the cycle of gentrification in certain neighborhoods, communities kind of show up, they build brick walls and say, 'Oh, we've seen this before, we know this is not for us.' And I had to let Harlem know that this restaurant is built for you. The restaurant isn't built for others, this is built for the people of Harlem, new, old, continuous, young, old, whoever it might be, this is who it's built for. And we just had to lead with that and kind of like, show me, like people say show me, had to really show up. But you have to also just be active. You can't think that even if you open an online business, like a virtual business, that you think you have to figure out how to connect with folks in that virtual community or in the four by four block radius you're in. The same thing we did when we opened up in Rockefeller Center. You know, the goal there was to give MTA employees, construction workers, everyday folks that work in midtown an option not to have to buy a $19 meal, right? So they can walk in and get a $9.99 veggie bowl or $10.99 chicken bowl. And it was out there talking to folks. So we did like these golden tickets, we were handing out golden tickets to people early on when we opened up in the second wave of the pandemic at Rockefeller Center, and now people understand why we were there. So we consider ourselves like a community builder, really touching people, and it's hard work, it is not easy at all.

Yeah, I mean, I'll definitely walk you through. I think being a black business owner, days are always rough, right? Owning a business is always hard. And so no, it never crossed my mind to close Field Trip. Right, I would talk to my dad on the phone, he's like, 'You're not gonna close, you're not gonna close this place. You can't afford to close it because if you close the doors, you're not coming back.' And I remember Danny Meyer going on TV and saying he's gonna close all his restaurants for three weeks and we're gonna come back and everything's gonna be okay, and a lot of people followed him as the pinnacle, the guy at the top. And my wife, being a nurse that was in it, she was like, 'No, it's not gonna be three weeks, it's gonna be like three months, so don't think three weeks.' And I was telling a lot of my peers, 'Closing a restaurant? Don't close your restaurant, it's not three weeks, guys. Just figure out how to keep some type of cash flow going.' And I kept it going. I went to every individual employee and said, 'Hey, you see the sales are declining. I'm really sorry, I'm gonna have to cut you back to about maybe five or six hours a week,' which is crazy even saying that to somebody. And I remember a young woman named Iris who worked for me, she was like, 'No, no, give my five or six hours to Shay, I'll be okay.' And I was like, 'What do you mean?' 'Don't worry, just call when we come back. You're gonna be here when you come back.' 'I don't know how to get my hours back, so just give my five or six hours to Shay or Kira.' And that's how it started. A lot of people were like, 'Oh, don't worry, JJ, I'll be okay. When you need me, just call me.' And that was the first time in my career I didn't have to go to the peanut gallery, I didn't have to go to the gatekeepers and say this is what I wanted to do. I had these heart-to-heart conversations as a business owner with the people that worked for me really hard. And we scaled down, it was literally me, a manager, and a prep cook. I opened the gate, I closed the gate. We went five days, we went six days a week. It was the hardest I ever worked during the pandemic. And actually the community of Harlem, people that didn't believe I owned the restaurant, started to be like, 'Yo, man, you must really own this spot because I see you opening and closing the gate, I see you mopping the floors.' So then we built a buy a bowl program. One of my old partners, Will Sears, I brought in my sister who's very familiar with the nonprofit world, some other people, we built this buy a bowl program because we started to feed hospitals and front line workers during the pandemic. My wife's hospital first, then Harlem Hospital, and we kept it very uptown focused on uptown hospitals: Mount Sinai, Columbia Presbyterian. Hospitals in the Bronx were calling us telling us there's no food, the deli just closed. So we were just sending food to everybody. And the whole country got behind Field Trip, and we built this buy a bowl program. We made no money off of it, and it allowed me to bring my staff back. And to date, now we still feed people, we've done close to 300,000 meals, which is incredible.

And just the incredible goodwill and support that came out just given the work that you guys were doing and the way in which you stayed so committed to being able to stay true to your point. Yeah, I mean, a lot of people were walking through the door, they used to be our patrons, and being like, 'I'll work for food.' It was a really gut check. With my grandfather telling me, 'Be thankful you have a roof over your head and food on the table.' And that was like a full 360 moment of like, when you're a young kid you're like, 'What are you talking about, old man?' because we take those things really for granted. And during the pandemic, it made me also realize that restaurants are the backbone of America. They do more than just, it's not a luxury, it's a necessity. And we can actually end hunger and a bunch of stuff in the world if you lean on restaurants.

You know, the people really believe in you, they'll show up and support you. Like I remember the day Governor Cuomo said he was closing restaurants, but nobody knew it was going to be delivery and takeout only. I felt like the whole Harlem came to Field Trip. I was like, what's going on here? I can't cook food fast enough. But it showed me that if you really put yourself out there, you show vulnerability, you talk about your mission, you really help out folks along the way, that people will come and support that. Because you can get rice from anywhere, you can get a roasted chicken anywhere, you can get an air conditioner anywhere. But people will really support that. And then two, I think just really hiring really good folks, really good people. That's what I really learned. Without the Field Trip staff during the pandemic, there would have been no Field Trip. It didn't matter what I wanted to do, what I wanted to push for. People were coming to work, we didn't know what was going on, it was unsafe, double masks, triple masks, right? Really coming to work to push, to feed other people, to make sure a business survives. So I really learned don't take for granted your team. Really support them. And what we've evolved into for Field Trip is, I tell everybody, I worked at Field Trip, it's a safe space. This is a safe space. We all go through things in life, so if you're vulnerable and honest to us, Lisa Cash, our director of operations, will always try to figure out how to make it work for you because we know how hard you work for us, work with us. And that was the biggest thing that I learned.

Yeah, I mean, that's a fully loaded question. Our slogan is 'Rice is culture.' I believe everybody has grown up in some type of rice culture. Either you've grown up around a rice grain, if you're fortunate you're growing up around a specific rice grain, or you grew up around the rice dish. And if you don't really know a culture you're trying to learn, you can go eat that rice biryani, you can eat coconut rice and peas, you can have a rose gold gondolas, joe la france. You can literally go in the right brain and then learn about the culture, and it kind of breaks down all the barriers. You can have a conversation over it, you can learn about stuff. Like I remember going to Israel and eating Israeli red beans and rice, and I was like, what is this? Oh, and then really learn how that worked, and how the people moved and shaped in that culture. So I believe rice is one of the most disrespected ingredients in the United States, but the foundation of all culture. And if you take that, you take the implant of Field Trip, and you start to plug that into communities that are mixed race communities, different people, and create this kind of safe space around this grain, it starts to have people start to have conversations that they never have before. And I think some of the greatest moments at Field Trip are when you'll see firefighters, you'll see police officers, you'll see Harlem nights, you'll see moms, you'll see nannies all sitting down or in the line, and they're just talking like, 'So did you get the pineapple black fried rice? I've never had that before.' It just naturally creates this conversation, which then makes everybody feel like I'm human, like we're just the same person. And that's what we hope to do with Field Trip: break down barriers, start to put it in communities that start to make people respect culture that they maybe never respected before. And also from a bigger picture, the United States' rice culture at one point was really big, and how can we start to bring that back in a very accessible route? Because the rice you see at Field Trip is the same rice that you'll see at Eleven Madison Park, you'll see at Sean Brock's restaurant, Bill Seattle, Lina. We just sell that same rice for $10. Carolina Gold rice or Texas brown rice or no bleacher and rich. It's the same rice, but we're just letting everybody know it's accessible. Don't think about it as this highbrow. And I think if that happens, we'll start to move forward. You'll go to the grocery store one day and you'll start to see refrigerated rice or frozen rice on the shelf.

You know, I think I've been groomed by you guys as a big thinker, and going to all these Forbes 30 Under 30 summits, it makes your brain go in so many different ways. But food is the all for me. Food is the ultimate vessel, it's just this conversation starter. And you know, like Tesla is an energy company, they just happen to have cars. Or Amazon is a trucking company that happens to have products. However we look at it, Field Trip is potentially an agricultural company, a community activism company, that just happens to cook food that really tastes really good.

Yeah, I mean, I think the workforce I entered was a lot different than now or even five years ago. But I always believe that when you're coming into the workforce, you should go work for somebody that you believe in. Right? You don't have enough knowledge yet. You might, unless you created something in college that's crushing it, but there's like that one person, right? And if you're going to go work for somebody you believe in, that's going to help that first phase. So like if you believe in the CEO or you believe in that CMO, go work underneath them, go put in the two years. Don't just put in one year, you need to at least put two years in to grab the knowledge. Because the first couple of months are rough, you're trying to get a rhythm, you're like, 'What's going on? I don't understand the language.' But as every day goes on, it starts to change. And then you will grow, and in those two years out of college, you will then figure out what you want to do. It will help guide you on the yellow brick road. And I'll give this prime example: I graduated college, I wanted to work in Puerto Rico for the Ritz-Carlton, it didn't work out. I worked for Wegmans' management training program, hated it. Whoever knew prepared foods would be a big thing? I was working at prepared foods, I laughed and said, 'I went to culinary school in America, what did you guys know?' And me and the chef butted heads, and I parted ways. And I went to go work at Jane Restaurant in West Houston, between Thompson and LaGuardia. I never knew the chef, never knew the culture, but I ate the food first and I fell in love with the food, and I was like, 'Okay, I want to learn about this food.' And then I loved the culture. And come to find out, I helped open up the first Smith in New York City. I was a part of that whole process of how they developed it, what it was like, the feeling, touching it. I look back on my career, I look back on Field Trip, and go, 'Oh, without that experience, I probably would never have been able to create Field Trip, because I will always go back to those notes and say, they did this, they did this, they looked at this, they did research here, and let me see if I apply that because I know how that works now.' So some of the payoff takes five, ten years before you actually have the tools in the toolbox. But yeah, go out and work for somebody you believe in, and look at it from an overall picture. I think my chief of staff, Kara, tells me all the time, there are so many perks working with you, but it's really hard to talk about it. But I tell people anytime, work for me, you get to meet so many different people from so many different industries that hopefully the trajectory of your career will surpass me working beside me. So go out work for somebody you believe in. And if I was working in the industry and I wanted to be in sales or CMO marketing in the media world, I would go work for Jessica Sibley.

No, not of course. But you know, y'all are the same level. You guys, but you go work for, you know, I would wear you up, but it's great.

We would love to have you. You know, you ever do something at Fifth, you know, let me know, we'll drop some food off any time for you.