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Neighborhood café and barber shop to be featured on reality show segment

26th May 2015   ·   0 Comments

By Charmaine Jackson
Contributing Writer

Five years ago, Tommye Myrick and Phyllis Johnson, owners of The Juju Bag Café and Barber Salon decided it was time to take their Gentilly business to the next level. From the beginning, they only considered Chef Robert Irvine, who is known for transforming struggling restaurants across the country on Food Network’s Restaurant Impossible, to help make this change a reality.

“They denied us once,” said Johnson, of the first attempt to appear on the show.

When they submitted another application, they received a phone call from the producers who acknowledged their second application. After a Skype interview, Johnson said the assessment process happened very fast. “The next day producers flew in to take a look at the place,” she said. “And the next day, the designer came, and the next week, we were in it,” she continued.

The Beginning

Before Myrick and Johnson acquired the dwelling that houses The Juju Bag Café and Barber Salon, it was half living quarters and half barber shop. As a former educator and theater director, Myrick wanted to convert the living quarters into a bookstore; however, when their business was the first on their block to return post Katrina, people in the neighborhood sought it as a place to escape the devastation around them. “People stopped by to use the phone, to send a fax, or use the Wi-Fi,” said Johnson. In line with the vision Myrick intended for the space, it ultimately became a safe haven for neighbors in the community.

‘Restaurant Impossible’ host Robert Irvine talks with owners of the JuJu Cafe and Barber Salon, Phyllis Johnson and Tommye Myrick. Photo courtesy of Food Network

‘Restaurant Impossible’ host Robert Irvine talks with owners of the JuJu Cafe and Barber Salon, Phyllis Johnson and Tommye Myrick.
Photo courtesy of Food Network

For the budding entrepreneurs, selling sandwiches to help meet the needs of the community slowly evolved into the business today called The Juju Bag Café. With no restaurant experience, Myrick and Johnson took a leap of faith and have relied on their passion, purpose, support of neighbors, and even personal funds to keep the business open. While those seem like solid ingredients, the owners and staff realized a major overhaul for the business, primarily for the café, is the recipe for success.

The Makeover

Since the owners reached out to Restaurant Impossible, many improvements were noted in the application for the café, Johnson mentioned. As for the tangibles, new signage, commercial-grade kitchen equipment, more storage were desired.

Intangibles were just as important. “It was not just about renovations. It was about getting help in terms of management and advertisement strategies, information about the menu, and all of what they do on ‘Restaurant Impos­sible,’” Johnson stated. In addition, learning hiring strategies, how to cut costs, and correcting the wrongs were priority concerns that needed to be addressed. The main issue: “We need to get more business because we are struggling,” Johnson said.

Day one was dedicated to ironing out morale issues between Myrick and her disgruntled seven employees, as they complained of micromanaging, lack of training and kitchen equipment, as well as a need for structure. This sparked contention as Myrick, who runs the kitchen, became defensive and resisted accepting responsibility for the staff’s shortcomings. “I can’t put a Band-Aid on something I cannot fix,” Irvine said to Myrick, who then became frustrated and confessed to wanting to abandon the mission completely. Eventually, Chef Irvine had a one-on-one conversation with Myrick about her management style and also discussed the business’ finances. During that talk, she revealed her greatest fear is failure.

As a result of the tons of opinions and comments, it created a strong bout of emotions with the staff. While truths were told, the staff said that strong reactions from Chef Irvine made them regret mentioning those issues that were addressed. “He probably didn’t say things the way we wanted him to say things, but we needed to hear it because it was the truth,” Jamyra, a worker, stated about how issues were addressed.

Behind schedule, renovations began in the latter part of the day. While the makeover team cleaned and prepared to execute the renovations, the issue of sanitation emerged, as well as, proper temperatures for food stored in the refrigerator. Chef Irvin emphasized that due to time restraints, renovations would be done quickly.

For the very first time in show history, his team had to redesign a barbershop.

As the other half of the business, the barbershop would receive the majority of the $10,000 makeover budget. When the newly revamped spaces were revealed, the owners and staff were surprised to discover the barbershop received a full makeover, while the kitchen received minimal attention. “My first impression was why did they do so much to the barbershop?” Johnson stated. She firmly noted that the need is the café, not the barbershop. With a classic, vintage theme, the barbershop was furnished with new styling chairs, waiting benches decorated with pillows, new lighting and vanities, and was also painted. The designer added a sentimental touch for Johnson, who is the Master Barber. He enlarged a photograph of Johnson’s dad, Jasper Johnson, who was pictured cutting his patron’s hair, in his barbershop in Philadelphia.

The café was painted, received a wall treatment, table tops were retouched, a new fryer was added to the kitchen and the staff was trained by celebrity chefs. Chef Irvin suggested they should downsize the menu. As for changes already implemented, the owners changed the hours of operations to match the needs of the community.

“We all got a reality check,” Miki Palmer, the kitchen manager, stated. “It was helpful to have him and it was emotional because we’re so close and hearing him yell and talk to [the owner] like he did…but certain issues needed to be addressed,” she continued.

As for the lack of changes to the café, the staff all agreed they expected more change. “We are still working in the same small kitchen, there is not enough storage,” they mentioned.

“I think they did what they thought was best,” Johnson said of the crew applying most of the budget to the barber salon.

“We believe in our product, The Juju Bag Café and Barber Salon, and ‘exiting stage left’ is not an option,” Myrick stated.

This article originally published in the May 25, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

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