Added value items offer more than a meal

Connie Rouble

By Bill Tremblay

When Connie Rouble started Mississippi Queen Foods a decade ago, she discovered an untapped market.

The Hamilton-based restaurant and catering company specializes in southern and Creole food. However, many of the ingredients required for the recipes are not readily available in Ontario. So when Rouble would return home to Mississippi, she would load up on the ingredients needed to cook in Canada.

“I’d go home and pick up boiled peanuts in a can, grits and spice mixes. I would load it into my suitcase and then get pulled over by customs,” Rouble said. “They didn’t know what to do with me. They were in disbelief that I was 50 pounds over the limit because of peanuts and grits.”

Word of the imported products spread throughout the community of southern Americans living in Canada, and soon Rouble was being asked to add items to her list of imported ingredients. After five years of importing ingredients, Rouble opened an online and phone-order general store to offer the products to others on the hunt for southern flavours.

“These are mostly displaced southerners or people cooking southern food. They would have a specific list for me wanting to source different products,” Rouble said. “I’d have long lists of what people want. Some people spend up to $1,000.”

The items sold in Mississippi Queen’s general store also help to create a “ma and pa southern store” vibe within the dining room of the restaurant. The store’s walls are lined with non-perishable food items for a genuine Mississippi experience.

“This space for me was trying to create the south I know and love and miss,” Rouble said.

A question becomes a sale
When a customer asks about recipes for gumbo or jambalaya, Rouble has the ingredients on hand for them to purchase and take home. As well, when her fellow southerners stop in to pick up an ingredient, they may stay for lunch or dinner.

“One sells the other, so to speak; It all sort of works hand-in-hand,” Rouble said.

Selling grocery items does present challenges for Rouble. Variables like shipping fees and exchange rates create obstacles for turning a profit. As well, when a southern ingredient becomes popular, grocery store chains will begin stocking their shelves with the item.

“I’ve noticed now there are other suppliers bringing certain products into Canada and the market is becoming saturated,” she said. “I tend to pull back and not sell as much of that.”

Rouble also avoids carrying certain ingredients to avoid competing with her own business. For example, she doesn’t stock Mardi Gras King Cake mix — a braided cinnamon cake covered with purple, green and gold icing and topped with a crown.

“My big huge business in January and February is Mardi Gras King Cakes,” she said. “New Orleans tradition is a little plastic baby is inserted in the cake. Whoever finds the baby hosts the next Mardi Gras party.”

The cakes, for natives of Louisiana, are a gifting etiquette during Mardi Gras. Rouble ships her cakes throughout North America in the weeks leading to the celebration.

“It’s during Mardi Gras season that I find out how many displaced southerners live in Canada,” Rouble said.

Brand your merch
When Jeff Camacho opened Burger Revolution in Belleville, Ont., four years ago, the kitchen was too hot to wear a chef’s jacket. Instead, Camacho opted to print T-shirts for his staff featuring the company logo.

“One of the customers said ‘those shirts are ill, and we want to support you guys,’ ” Camacho recalled. “After we printed off the shirts for the staff. We just kept reprinting and everyone just kept buying them.”

The Burger Revolution-branded clothing has now grown to include sweaters, bandanas and onesies. Headbands were also made for youth that visit the restaurant.

“It’s kind of cool, I still see kids wearing the headbands. When they come here, they wear it to show they’ve got it,” Camacho said.

While the clothing makes a modest profit, from a marketing perspective, the items are an impressive success. Located off Highway 401, Burger Revolution often hosts out-of-town guests who stop in during their travels.

The merchandise often joins travellers on the road and fans of the restaurant have started posting photos of the shirts to social media.

“If people see the shirt, they take a picture and post it on Instagram,” Camacho said.

“It’s amazing for us, we love seeing that, we want to know how far it can go.”
So far, Burger Revolution shirts have been spotted in The Philippines, Dublin, Vancouver and throughout the United States.

“It’s a big, small world — it’s pretty sweet, actually,” Camacho said.
“We’re a small company and we just love seeing people wearing it.”

Think outside the box
Value added items aren’t limited to independent operators, or within the walls of the restaurant itself. Nando’s PERi-PERi, for example, recently announced its hot sauces would be added to the shelves of thousands of supermarkets throughout North America.

While the company operates 29 restaurants in three provinces (1,200 locations worldwide), it’s sauces are now in more than 2,400 retail locations Canada-wide. The company describes the sauce as “the hero” in each of its restaurants.

“We’ve bottled it so you can take the flavour, fire and passion of PERi-PERi wherever life takes you,” Paulo Oliveira, head of Nando’s grocery division, said in an email.

In Orangeville, Ont., Soulyve Caribbean Kitchen sells its jerk marinade, its house-made Buck’s Pepper Sauce and T-shirts proclaiming “One Love O.V.” with the restaurant name on the back. Owner Phil Dewar explained selling his sauces is a way to ensure a lasting experience with his customers.
“In my opinion, the value is to be inside the homes of the people. It’s one thing to come to eat lunch and then go home. If you are at home and you want to prepare something, then we become part of the threshold of your cooking,” Dewar said.

He added if customers use his sauce when preparing a meal for family or friends, they become ambassadors for his restaurant.

“They stand behind your brand,” he said. “We become part of the fibre of your food experience outside of the restaurant.”

Soulyve also sells branded T-shirts, an item that became popular within Orangeville’s athletic community, an added advantage, according to Dewar.

“People will look at a healthy, active person sitting there with a Soulyve T-shirt on, they assume this place is an active business and they believe in an active healthy lifestyle, so the food should reflect that,” he said. “It becomes more than a T-shirt, it’s becoming part of their lifestyle.”

Comments

1 comments

Poplarville Mississippi native

If you were wondering, Connie IS the real deal. I first met her at age 5 and even then she was unique. As a teen she had the big hair and designer jeans just like the rest of us, not yet the pin up we see today, but still a genuine character by nature. I am glad some of us listened to the cooking lessons are mommas and grannies gave us , any southern mom would be proud. Best wishes to you Connie Jean !!!! Expecting you at our next high school reunion !!!!!