“I’ve been given this platform to have the ability to make a distinction in individuals’s lives, and our group helps us…In flip, we offer them with consistency, and I believe that’s the important thing to any companies success, is consistency, and it’s one thing I’d undoubtedly say we do properly. You recognize if you come to Jag’s what you’re going to get every time. You recognize you’re going to get nice service, and premier meals that’s served sizzling. Twenty years is unbelievable. I undoubtedly have a smile on my face and I’m happy with the accomplishment we’ve all completed collectively right here. It’s wonderful,” she mentioned.
Brown, and her husband Invoice bought Jag’s in June of 2015, and he or she turned the bulk proprietor of the restaurant. Marking a brand new period at Jag’s, she has added her personal touches to the restaurant’s decor, personal eating choices and leisure lineup.
John Allgaier was the bulk proprietor when Jag’s was based, and George Lang was a minority proprietor.
“From day one, beginning with John Allgaier and myself, we’ve all the time handled our employees like household, and in flip, they’ve handled Jag’s prefer it’s their very own. It goes from the longest tenure to a brand new rent. We pleasure ourselves in caring for one another. It’s an awesome unity, and we now have an exquisite employees,” Brown mentioned.
With 80 workers, greater than half of the employees members have been employed at Jag’s for greater than 10 years. One prepare dinner has been on employees because the starting. Two members of the administration group have been with the corporate for 20 years, together with 10 front-of-house employees members who’ve been on the restaurant for 20 years. One other 15 employees members have been employed at Jag’s for greater than 15 years.
“I’ve been given the very best employees that you would ever ask for,” Brown mentioned.
She described her group as “artistic,” “passionate” and “having a servant’s coronary heart.”
Brown additionally enjoys mentoring different younger girls within the restaurant enterprise.
“It’s being a part of a group, and with the ability to mentor, and being artistic. I like coming to work,” Brown mentioned.
Jag’s additionally continues to provide again to the group. The restaurant has donated meals to first responders, raised funds for native foodbanks together with Freestore Foodbank and Shared Harvest, and supported Boys and Ladies Membership of West Chester/Liberty packages and assets via fundraising occasions. She and her group have led academic periods, instructing native youth about careers in culinary arts.
Brown’s personal journey began previous to Jag’s. When she was rising up, she mentioned the Meals Community didn’t exist. She all the time loved cooking, however it wasn’t till she was in school and took on a job on the Banker’s Membership that she began to comprehend her calling.
“I walked in to clock in on my first day, and walked right into a kitchen, which I had by no means been in, and that was it. I went residence and instructed my mother and father I needed to work in a kitchen, and about six months later, I began working in that kitchen, underneath Chef John York. I cooked for him for 4 years. He was my mentor, and he’s an incredible chef,” mentioned Brown.
After graduating from school, Brown moved to San Francisco, and whereas there, she continued to prepare dinner, and he or she mentioned she hasn’t appeared again since. After returning residence, she took on the function as govt chef at Beckett Ridge Nation Membership.
“Whereas I used to be there, John (Allgaier) had a imaginative and prescient for a fantastic eating institution in West Chester. He, together with a number of group leaders, determined to put money into a restaurant and constructed Jag’s. Unbeknownst to me, I used to be being scouted on the nation membership from quite a lot of these group leaders and was requested to tackle the function at Jag’s,” Brown mentioned.
Upon accepting the place, Brown took about three months off. She traveled throughout the US, visiting as many steakhouses as she might to find out what they had been going to do at Jag’s. She additionally visited quite a lot of meat firms and did quite a lot of analysis.
“On the time after we opened 20 years in the past, I didn’t wish to be an ala carte steakhouse. I used to be extra chef-driven. I needed full plates. I needed to current one thing that not solely tasted good however was very stunning. So, what we did on the time is we created dishes that had been chef-driven, and created all-in-one,” Brown mentioned.
Since then, Brown mentioned she’s been via “quite a bit,” referencing “recession, the pandemic, and a hurricane.”
“Every time we’ve encountered one thing, I really feel like we’ve taken the chance, and actually embraced it, realized from it and gotten higher, significantly, with the pandemic. It actually gave us a reset…the pandemic was very onerous, and we needed to pivot, however we additionally had a time to reel it in, and give attention to what we do properly,” Brown mentioned.
Popping out of the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the enterprise is run extra effectively and smarter.
“Spring clear is an understatement of what occurred at this restaurant throughout covid,” she mentioned.
“It actually gave us an opportunity streamline, and that went all the way in which all the way down to the logistics of our reservations. We had time to take a look at what we had been doing, and the way we might maximize what we had been doing. We had been in a position to work extra effectively, based mostly on menu modifications and menu engineering, and we additionally received a look-outside-of-the-box when it comes to doing issues exterior of our partitions, which means our curbside, and the issues that got here together with that, however none of it might have occurred with out the group and the help we received,” Brown mentioned.
To mark the milestone anniversary, and as a thanks to company, employees and their group companions, Jag’s has introduced a 12 months of distinctive promotions and experiences.
“We’ve had our largest 12 months in 2022, within the historical past of Jag’s,” Brown mentioned. “We’ve completed extra in gross sales being open one much less day.”
Jag’s twentieth anniversary specials will embody a “twentieth Anniversary Sommelier Wine Dinner Sequence” and a “Jag’s twentieth Anniversary Personal Bourbon Barrel Choose with Weller Full Proof Launch,” to call just a few.
Extra data
Jag’s is closed Sundays and Mondays. Visitors are seated from 5 to 9 p.m., Tuesdays via Fridays and from 4 to 9 p.m. Saturdays. Go surfing to jags.com.
