T
oday we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Jewett.
Jennifer, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
In a way this started because I had to leave a career I loved, working at Chef John Sedlar’s restaurant called Playa (which is now Chef Walter Manzke’s Petty Cash).
I had started at Chef Sedlar’s other restaurant Rivera after culinary school and felt like I was on track to continue working my way up in professional kitchens. But then my back starting hurting, to the point where I could barely walk after a long shift. It turned out to be a problem with one of my discs, and there was no easy fix. I was devastated, but I was also dealing with a lot of pain. I had to say (what I hoped would be a temporary) goodbye to my culinary career for the time being and hope I got better with surgery, physical therapy and exercise.
A couple of years later after getting married and giving birth to a beautiful baby boy, I found myself feeling much better (the pregnancy had somehow helped my back pain, which apparently can happen in some cases) and looking for a way to get back to cooking. I knew that going back to the restaurant world would be tough with a newborn, so my husband suggested thinking of business ideas I could start on my own.
He knew that I had had a small side business after college making gourmet cheesecakes, so he was probably thinking on a smaller scale like that. Little did he know! As our son was getting older and starting to eat solid foods I was beginning to realize what a challenge it could be to cook for children as they develop their tastes and go through phases of wanting only one thing or being very picky.
I would hear friends often complain about the stresses of cooking for their little ones. At the same time, my husband had experimented with a number of different food delivery services to help out at meal time, but he ended up unhappy with most of them. So the idea was born. I would start a meal delivery service of my own that would focus on families with young children.
I started in a kitchen near Downtown L.A. with one employee, (who’s terrific and still with me), and help from a good friend who was my Chef de Cuisine at Playa. In the beginning, my clients were friends. My husband, and I took turns doing the deliveries. I took on a few more clients and hired some more staff, but it was definitely tough going. I didn’t have any funding or investment and couldn’t afford to advertise.
I was getting great reviews for my food, but I wasn’t getting the word out to potential customers. Then one of my friends who had been ordering from me asked if I would be willing to deliver lunches to her son’s preschool. Apparently, the school had been looking for a delivery company for a while. It wasn’t really what I had intended to do with the business, but it was certainly in line with my original vision. I said I’d give it a shot.
I had no idea this was the first of many big changes for my business. One school turned to two, and then four, and within a year I knew that I’d have to find a bigger space. However, I also knew I had the opportunity to change my business once again. I’d had, in the back of my mind, an idea to start a retail store that sold ready-made, grab-n-go meals and snacks. Instead of selling these through a delivery service, I’d have a storefront.
Instead of putting customers on delivery plans of breakfast lunch and dinner they could walk in and buy just what they needed for the next few days or just to have lunch in the store. They could buy family style platter for dinner that night, along with some organic made from scratch chicken nuggets for the kids, or a freshly roasted salmon dish for one. I wanted to extend my philosophy for the types of recipes I’d already been cooking.
These meals would be organic, healthy and delicious, a combination that can be hard to find. I also wouldn’t try to restrict calories. In my opinion, if you start with whole organic ingredients, use healthy fats and carbohydrates, that is what’s important. At the beginning of December of 2017, I had the grand opening of Citizen Sprout, a little over three years after making those first meals in a cramped kitchen in Downtown L.A.
It felt like the culmination of everything I’d been working toward. But I know my business is still young, and in a way, I’m just starting. I still deliver lunches to schools (19 at the moment) and that side of the business continues to grow. I’ve also had interest in my opening new retail locations, so we’ll see. Right now, I’m focused on adjusting to the growth we’ve gone through this year.
Luckily, I have a terrific team at work (and at home! I couldn’t have done this without my two boys). I just try to improve every day, I think with business new and old that’s so very important, to strive to do better for you, your employees, and your customers.
Has it been a smooth road?
Haha, no! Starting a business is incredibly difficult! Believing you have a great idea and executing it on a daily basis is something that I still struggle with. Starting this company four years ago, I imagined that I would cook a couple of times a week and deliver to a couple of local families, I never thought that I would be sitting here today at my own storefront.
I began this business believing that I was starting a small side business, something to keep me busy and cooking part-time, so experiencing this type of growth has been incredibly challenging because it wasn’t my original business plan. Learning how to pivot and grow and then continually keep growing and trying to get better each and every day.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Citizen Sprout sells ready-made, grab and go meals, snacks, smoothies, and drinks. Our food is healthy, scratch-made, and organic, with vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options.
I think what sets us apart, and what we really take pride in, is the way we compose our meals. Oftentimes when you’re buying a ready-made meal from, say, a supermarket, it can tend to be bland and over-simplified. It’s really surprising when you buy one of these types of meals and truly find it delicious.
I wanted to question the assumption that if it’s ready-made it, for some reason, has to lack taste, or that it can’t be interesting or even challenging. I wanted to make composed dishes that you’d be more likely to find at a restaurant. And yet, since these aren’t being made to be, necessarily, eaten right away, that needs to be factored in when putting the dish together.
Someone might eat lunch in our store, or they might take a meal home for dinner that night, or for the next night. It’s a challenge, and it’s something we’re constantly thinking about and improving upon. The same goes for our school lunches. Creating composed meals for children of different ages can be very complex.
Children in Preschool will have different palates than children in Fifth Grade. You have to season the food differently. What’s bland for an eight-year-old might be perfect for a four-year-old.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I love Santa Monica and am grateful that the city has allowed me to open up my business here.
I think we as Californians, and maybe especially Angelenos, can be seen as almost ridiculously health-conscience when it comes to what we eat. But the truth is trends that start here have a way of propagating all over the country as time goes on. Of course not every healthy-eating trend is going to be good, or something that should be followed.
That said having an interest in what you eat is a good thing. To me, this all means that I’m in the perfect place to be serving the type of food I make. And I don’t think healthy organic food made with whole ingredients will ever go out of style. I also think people in the Los Angeles area are busy, and often don’t have time to cook, and restaurant take-out is often not the healthiest choice!
As for our school lunch deliveries, I couldn’t ask for a better place than Santa Monica. But I think I knew that when I was still in Downtown L.A. and had to drive out here for so many of our deliveries.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1128 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401 - Website: www.citizensprout.com
- Phone: 424-248-4123
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @citizensprout
Image Credit:
Project M+
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