Meet Jason Schrampfer of JimPa’s Catering in Kennesaw

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Schrampfer.

Jason, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I actually started out as a graphic designer and illustrator. I’ve worked as a freelancer for fifteen years. In that time, I’ve also work for several sign companies and also had my own advertising company, ADitude Advertising. My father, Jim Schrampfer, has been in the restaurant business for 45 years. When I was very young, he worked for Po Folks. We would move from state to state and he would build new locations, hire and train the staff, and then we would move on. In the 90’s, he ran Uncle Bud’s, which was a fan favorite especially at the main store in Smyrna. In 2005, he started his own restaurant, Catfish Jim’s. It was here where he began to get into catering. In 2010, he closed the restaurant to pursue catering full time. It didn’t take long before the phone calls and emails were overwhelming from our customers wanting to know where we went. So in early 2011, he opened a store location for JimPa’s Catering. The restaurant is only open on Friday and Saturday nights because we are off during the week doing the catering events. We have customers that still come every weekend that have been following Jim from the Uncle Bud’s days, some 24 years. In August of 2015, Jim passed away after suffering from throat cancer. Following that, the family had to decide what to do with the business. After much discussion, I decided to take over running JimPa’s. So I quit my job in the sign world and jumped into the restaurant business.

When I took over at JimPa’s, there was a lot of work to be done. Many of our restaurant and catering customers knew of Jim’s passing and had assumed we had shut down. I had to do a lot of work to reach out to old customers and at the same time garner new customers. The facts that my father was old school and did everything by fax didn’t make things easy. I worked on rebuilding and establishing our Facebook page and rebuilt our web site. Slowly word started spreading that we were still open and going strong. Over the past year, I’ve worked on developing our online presence and engaging our customers through Facebook and email marketing. Today we are getting more and more new customers each week. They typically tell us that they’ve driven past us, but weren’t sure about trying us. However, either seeing the crowds or by someone recommending us, they decided to give us a try. I’ve not met one customer that has regretted their decision.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Far from smooth. I had worked for my dad when I was a teenager and we owned a miniature golf course in Marietta called Dilly Dally’s. It was during this time that I learn about running a business and managing it correctly. As previously mentioned, I’ve run and owed several businesses in my time, but I’ve never stepped into the inner workings of a restaurant. So when I took over JimPa’s, I understood how to run a business, but I knew nothing about running a kitchen or cooking on this level. Fortunately for me, my dad’s right hand girl, Kristen Conley, who had been working with my dad for almost 7 years, was there to train me. I’m glad I’m a fast learner, because there was a sharp learning curve to overcome. Once I started feeling like I was getting some footing, then I had a couple of my employees leave to go to college or pursue other careers. So then I spent a lot time looking for new employees. However, the current group of wonderful ladies I have working for me are great.

On a side note, one of the other major struggles I’ve had is it seems like we’ve been plagued by gremlins. All year we’ve had equipment issues. As soon as we get one thing fixed, something else breaks. At one point, we had the walk-in fridge and freezer in the store and the freezer on the catering truck break in the same week. Not having the experience that my dad had with all this equipment, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find good and reputable repair companies.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
JimPa’s specializes in southern cooking, with our focus on fried catfish and fried chicken. We have both catfish fillets and whole catfish. Our catfish is farm raised so it doesn’t have that gamey, muddy flavor that typical bottom feeding wild catfish has. We marinade our chicken and fry it up golden brown and juicy. Our fantail shrimp is made in house. We butterfly it, batter dip it, panko breads it and fry it up just right. We make our hushpuppies from scratch, as well as our Cole slaw, white beans, tartar sauce, and cocktail sauce. We brew our southern sweet tea and make our addictive lemonade in house also.

All of this is what make us different and keeps people coming back. Everything we make is fresh and cooked to order. We don’t have food just sitting under a heat lamp. We start cooking it when you order it. And that goes for the catering too. We have a full kitchen in our catering truck. When we go on a cater, we set up the truck and cook the meal on the truck at the event location and serve it right out of the fryers. We can handle caterings of 50 people up to 5000.

What I’m most proud of is the quality and care we put into what we serve. We all loved Jim and what he created, so we take extra pride in getting the thumbs up from longtime customers that tell us that nothing has changed and new customers that can’t believe their taste buds. I also love seeing people that say they don’t like fish or whatever, and then I’ll get them to try ours and the next thing I see is them walking away with a plateful.

What were you like growing up?
Growing up I played sports; baseball, soccer, bowling, football, track. I was a cub scout and a boy scout. I’ve always had an interest in art. I loved drawing and putting models together, but it was in middle school that I really took a liking to art beyond just the artsy crafty things you do as a kid. High school was where I really developed my skills and desire to pursue art as a career. I’ve always liked reading and learning things. I love puzzles and solving challenges.

Contact Info:

• Address: 3140 Cobb Parkway NW, Suite 10
  Kennesaw, GA 30152
• Website: www.jimpascatering.com
• Phone: Restaurant: 770-529-5400 Catering: 770-310-8438
• Email: jason@jimpascatering.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/JimPasCatering/
• Yelp: www.yelp.com/biz/jimpas-catfish-and-chicken-kennesaw