TRANSCRIPT

Derrick Michaud: 

Hello. Welcome to The Real Hernando podcast, created to highlight our amazing local community and small businesses here in Hernando, Mississippi. I'm your host Derrick, and this episode is brought to you by Shelby Row Productions. Today I'm talking with Heather and Joey Ries. They are owners of Mrs. Hippie Eats. Mrs. Hippie Eats is a gourmet, grab-and-go restaurant. They have their fridges and freezers stocked daily with fresh, from scratch delicacies like salads, soups, and casseroles, Italian and Mediterranean-inspired dishes as well as their own spin on classic Southern favorites, and fresh breads and baked goods are served on Fridays and Saturdays. You can find the restaurant at 182 East Center Street right here in Hernando. Joey, Heather, nice to have you.

Heather Ries:

Thanks for having us.

Derrick Michaud:

Thank you for being on the podcast. So it's funny you already waved to the camera. You said you were nervous and shy about this. And you're already engaging. 

Joey Ries:

Doing what I can. 

Derrick Michaud:

So thanks for doing this. As I mentioned in that little intro, this is about the stories behind the businesses. So yes, we're going to talk about Mrs. Hippie Eats, but we also want to talk about Joey and Heather. And let's start from the beginning. Where are y’all from originally? 

Heather Ries:

I am from the Memphis area pretty much. I was born in Texas, but I lived in Memphis most of my life and went to high school there, went to culinary school in Texas. But just moved around all over the place. 

Joey Ries:

I grew up in Greenville, Mississippi, moved here when I was 18, my senior year of high school, and I've been here since. 

Derrick Michaud:

There's definitely a difference in accents. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. She's really country. 

Heather Ries:

A Delta boy. 

Derrick Michaud:

But I mean Memphis is south, but there's definitely a difference between Memphis south and Mississippi south. What part of Memphis did you grow up in? 

Heather Ries:

Well, Midtown mostly. I lived in Raleigh and I lived in Nutbush and I lived all over the place. But Midtown is where I went to high school. That's where I lived. And once I was on my own, Midtown was always where I lived. 

Derrick Michaud:

Yeah. I loved the Midtown. I was fortunate to live there for a few years too. I wasn't quite in the Central Gardens, but I was just on the level. So I was like yeah, I'm in town. [inaudible] and Cleveland to be exact. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. That's a great area. 

Derrick Michaud:

Yeah, it was awesome. I loved it. But because of schools and all that and plus, I love Hernando, that's why I eventually got here. 

Heather Ries:

Well, that's what—I never would have thought I would have been a Mississippi native. 

Joey Ries:

We would love to go to other places. We have some ideas. But kids got to finish here. We got such a good school system. 

Derrick Michaud:

Same here. Look, I'm from Maine. And if you would have told me in 2004 before I moved to Nashville that like you're going to be living in Mississippi and enjoy it, I’d have been like, you are out of your mind. What are you talking about? But you're right. 

Heather Ries:

And this town of all, I mean it’s great. It really is. 

Joey Ries:

It’s close enough to Memphis, 20 minutes. 

Derrick Michaud:

I love it. And we got businesses like yourself. So this is not about me. But so how did you guys meet? When did that happen? I mean you're in Greenville. You're in Memphis. 

Heather Ries:

Cinderella story.

Joey Ries:

Yeah. I moved here in ’94. I did Ole Miss and Delta State for college and all that. But we met—

Heather Ries:

Yeah. Well, I went to culinary school in Texas, moved back when I was 21, worked, and well, worked at the Biltmore State in Nashville for a little while and then kind of established myself as a pastry chef in Memphis. And we have a lot of mutual friends. We didn't realize at the time, but we are really into, well, at the time, not now, but were into going out and seeing live music. And we met at Newby’s on Highland. We had a couple of friends that were playing there. We didn't know each other at the time, and he was there with his cousin and I was there by myself. And he threw a cigarette at me. 

Joey Ries:

No. I threw a cigarette at my cousin, and he ducked and it hit her in the dreads that she had at the time. 

Derrick Michaud:

So friendly fire. 

Joey Ries:

And I apologize the next time we saw the band. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. They played once a week. 

Joey Ries:

Every Thursday. Was it Tuesdays or Thursdays? 

Heather Ries:

Well, it changed. It was Tuesdays. Then it was Thursdays. 

Joey Ries:

Very romantic. 

Derrick Michaud:

So this was in the 90s you said? 

Joey Ries:

No, 2003. 

Heather Ries:

2003 is when we met. We started dating in ‘04 and got married and ‘05. 

Derrick Michaud:

So Highland strip probably looked a lot different than it—

Heather Ries:

Much different. My mom lives on Alexander so we—

Joey Ries:

That was the hangout. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. 

Derrick Michaud:

Newby’s was the premier spot.

Joey Ries:

That was the place. Too Tall Todd? 

Heather Ries:

Too Tall Todd. Yeah. But so that's how we met. And then—

Joey Ries:

It got way more romantic after that. Past the cigarette throwing. 

Derrick Michaud:

I was going to say, no more cigarette throwing. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah, no.

Derrick Michaud:

Was there any other throwing that I need to know about? 

Joey Ries:

Yeah, she throws things all the time. 

Heather Ries:

Look at his eye. No. But he was already living here in Hernando. 

Joey Ries:

No, I was in Memphis. Remember? 

Heather Ries:

Oh yeah, you were. White Station. But shortly after that, he moved to Hernando to the house where we lived for years. It was his grandmother's house, and she had moved in with his mom. And strangely enough, my mom's best friend lived in the same cove that he lived in. And so when we met and we were talking to his mom or my mom was talking to him one night. We were all out watching the same band. And she's like well, I live in Hernando. Where do you live? And he's like, well, I live at 87 Biloxi Cove. And she's like, no, I live 81 Biloxi Cove. They literally lived across the street from each other. 

Joey Ries:

I was like, you're not going to know the street I live on. It's a small cove. There’s four houses. 

Heather Ries:

And I mean my mom was only here just because, long story, but she was living with their best friend. 

Joey Ries:

She lived right across the street like from me, and it was just the weirdest. 

Heather Ries:

Strange.

Joey Ries:

I mean out of all the streets and all the cities. 

Derrick Michaud:

Synergy, right? 

Heather Ries:

So we started dating. I moved down here in October of ‘04. 

Joey Ries:

Her mom kept tabs on me, making sure there was nobody coming over. 

Heather Ries:

And he shortly proposed to me right after—it was funny because I just moved all my stuff in, and the way he proposed was kind of like, I thought he was breaking up with me. And I was like, this guy, like I literally just moved. 

Joey Ries:

I was like, meet me in the driveway after I picked up her wedding ring.

Heather Ries:

Moved to a new town in Mississippi. I thought he was going to break up with me. But he didn't. 

Joey Ries:

It was better than the PF Chang’s plan I was going to do originally. 

Heather Ries:

But yeah, we got married in July of ’05, and we have 12-year-old triplets. 

Derrick Michaud:

Whoa.

Joey Ries:

Yeah. 

Heather Ries:

You didn't know that. 

Derrick Michaud:

No. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. 

Joey Ries:

I didn’t know that. 

Heather Ries:

We had 12-year-old triplets. They were born in April of ’09. And yeah. 

Joey Ries:

Four months premature. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. I was in bed rest in the hospital for over 10 weeks. 

Joey Ries:

She only gained 18 pounds. 

Derrick Michaud:

Seriously? Wow. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. They were two pounds apiece. 

Derrick Michaud:

So that's why you didn't know? 

Heather Ries:

No, I knew. We did in vitro. 

Derrick Michaud:

Okay. 

Heather Ries:

It didn't work the first time. We had some embryos frozen the second time. We had three. It was a long process. It wasn't just like, oh crap, I have triplets. 

Derrick Michaud:

That was a silly question to ask. So in vitro, it's kind of common to have twins and stuff?

Heather Ries:

Yes. And his father was a twin. So we were kind of thinking if we have multiples, great, because if you're doing all of that. 

Joey Ries:

And you're paying so much money, we wanted to buy in bulk. 

Heather Ries:

Let’s do this once.

Joey Ries:

We can’t do this again. 

Derrick Michaud:

Spoken like a true business owner.

Heather Ries:

But we did. We got two boys and a girl. They were born at two pounds, 26 weeks, two pounds apiece. They were in the NICU for another 10 weeks. So we literally spent half of that year in Baptist Women's Hospital. 

Joey Ries:

Yep. 17 weeks on bed rest?

Heather Ries:

Yeah. I didn't leave the room. 

Joey Ries:

She went for a checkup. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. I was working as a personal chef. That's another pretty interesting part. I worked for Mike and Debbi Rose. Debbi Rose's Mrs. Fields Cookies. 

Derrick Michaud:

Okay. Yeah. 

Heather Ries:

And I was their private chef and house manager up until I went into the hospital and never left. But yeah, I was at work one day and just felt weird. And Debbi's like, you should go to the doctor. And they wheeled me next door, and I never went home.

Derrick Michaud:

17 weeks later. 

Heather Ries:

17 weeks later, I got to come back to Mississippi. 

Derrick Michaud:

That’s about four months. 

Joey Ries:

They were supposed to be born July 26. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah, they were born April 3rd. They were supposed to be born in July. 

Joey Ries:

The end of July. So yeah. 

Heather Ries:

They didn't come home until June. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. 

Heather Ries:

We didn't get to even touch them until Mother's Day was the first time we got to hold them. 

Joey Ries:

Yep. 

Heather Ries:

And they were born—

Joey Ries:

I remember our daughter was the first one to burp. 

Heather Ries:

Yep. He was so excited. 

Joey Ries:

I was like, look at her. 

Derrick Michaud:

This little thing.

Joey Ries:

Just like mama. 

Heather Ries:

So ladylike. 

Derrick Michaud:

So obviously, two boys and a girl. 

Joey Ries:

Yep. 

Derrick Michaud:

Are the boys like identical or is it pretty—

Joey Ries:

They are three different people. 

Heather Ries:

Big time. Completely different people.

Derrick Michaud:

But all teenagers? 

Joey Ries:

Yep.

Derrick Michaud:

So they’re 13? 

Heather Ries:

They will be 13 April 3rd. And another funny part to the story, I have a, well, she'll be 30 April 3rd. I have a 30-year-old sister. They were born on her birthday. 

Derrick Michaud:

Oh, that's cool. 

Heather Ries:

At 26 weeks. So I mean it's completely early, but she was having her 17th birthday party at Macaroni Grill, and we're like, don't tell her right now. 

Derrick Michaud:

Yeah, don’t ruin her birthday. 

Heather Ries:

Because she's never going to have one again. 

Derrick Michaud:

Ever again. 

Joey Ries:

Well, also, another interesting, so they all have kind of unique names or whatever. But we have Campbell, Mando, and Holden. But my best friend from college, she was in my wedding, our wedding. His name was Jason Mandolini. Little dude, 115 pounds, called him Mando. Mando sounds like big monster dude. So he passed away before they were born and before we got pregnant and all that. But I asked his parents, I'm like I'm William Joseph. I go by Joey. Can I name the first boy that comes out, as long as they make it, William Mandolini Ries and call him Mando? And they were so excited. So we have our own Mando. So he's living on vicariously through our Mando. 

Derrick Michaud:

Is he the big man? 

Joey Ries:

He's going to be way bigger. He's as big as Jason was already, and he's 12. 

Derrick Michaud:

It’s the name. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. And yeah, it's just funny. But that gets to live on. And so we'll see how it goes after that. 

Derrick Michaud:

So it's one thing to battle like your sister's situation. It's one thing to have the same birthday as a newborn in the family. But three. So no luck there. 

Joey Ries:

Right. And I think I have seven to eight Facebook friends that all have April 3rd. Some good friends of mine. Then you have just some people that are on Facebook. But yeah, it's a pretty common birthday. 

Derrick Michaud:

Yeah. Well, I think you hold the record and having that birthday within one family. No one's going to have that. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. 

Derrick Michaud:

So all right. So you get through that. By this time, you guys obviously have a house together. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. So the kids are in the NICU for a few months. 

Heather Ries:

Well, and at that point, I was, like I said, I was working as a private chef for Mike and Debbi, but I also had a little side business that was called The Sugar Shack. 

Joey Ries:

And that's funny because you just made that poster. 

Derrick Michaud:

So this would be your first…? 

Heather Ries:

This is the first, like I had worked for lots of restaurants and I knew that eventually I would want to work for myself. So I kind of started just a little at home. I was doing cakes and things like that. And when I went, well, and actually I had drummed up quite a few wholesale accounts. I was baking for Otherlands Coffee Shop in Midtown and Miss Cordelia’s in Harbor Town and we had our stuff in Whole Foods. But that all kind of came after when I went into the hospital with the kids. I had all these accounts that I couldn't keep up. So my mom, that's where she came in. So my mom came in and started helping me, and she baked for all of the accounts and all the things and kept my business going. 

Derrick Michaud:

She stepped up. 

Heather Ries:

While I was in hospital.

Joey Ries:

Big time. 

Derrick Michaud:

So does she have a history in baking too? 

Heather Ries:

Well, that's kind of where the whole thing started. Her father was a chef. And so it really kind of started my whole love of food as she was a big foodie.

Joey Ries:

Very Italian.

Heather Ries:

Yeah. We're all just a big Italian cooking family. So she kind of helped keep my business, my little small business afloat at the time. And then had the kids. We kind of both were working on that, and then I had been telling him the whole time, like I'm not going to be able to go back to work. I knew that having three babies, that there would be no way. 

Joey Ries:

But I was a banker. 

Heather Ries:

But he's like, you have to go back. 

Joey Ries:

I'm a financial guy so I'm like, how are we going to make this work? 

Heather Ries:

But then when we were kind of left with no choice and I just immediately lost my income, it made it easier for us to be able to adapt and make those decisions. 

Derrick Michaud:

That was the time to—you hit that crossroad. 

Joey Ries:

And then you figure it out. The kids are at home. She's at home. 

Heather Ries:

They were at home, and I'm like, well, at least I can make money from home. And so I can just kind of bake for a little while. And then we ended up with a big kitchen downtown because I met some people, like the Bells, the family that owns the Peabody and all that. They were friends with Mike and Debbi. They had a huge kitchen downtown that was just sitting there. So they're like, hey, you need a space. So that's kind of, like we had a 3,000 square foot kitchen full of equipment basically handed to us. And all we had to do was pay the utilities. 

Derrick Michaud:

So you have to think hard about that one.

Heather Ries:

Yeah, that was a hard decision to make. So that was when Sugar Shack turned into Ladybugg Bakery. 

Derrick Michaud:

Okay. So Ladybugg started in Memphis? 

Heather Ries:

Yes. It was started as just a wholesale business. And because of selling wholesale to businesses, we met Taylor Berger who was the owner of a yogurt place called YoLo, and it was the first concept in Memphis of that kind. It was you go in, you get your yogurt, you got a bunch of toppings, they weigh it at the end of the situation. 

Joey Ries:

Put it on the scale. 

Heather Ries:

So we started selling yogurt toppings, brownies, cookie dough, that sort of stuff to Taylor. And he came to us because he had seen a similar concept where a yogurt shop had a bakery in it. And he's like, hey, if I build this space out for a brick and mortar for y'all, do you guys want to, do you want to be my bakery? So that's how Ladybugg went from wholesale to a brick and mortar. And we were right at the corner of Cooper and Madison. It was a great location. 

Joey Ries:

Very busy.

Derrick Michaud:

Wow. The universe just lined up for y’all.

Heather Ries:

It was literally just thing after another that kind of fell into place. And so we're like, yes, let's do this. But then it didn't really turn out. Like it was more kind of like this is YoLo, and there's a redheaded stepchild, Ladybugg Bakery. Like it wasn't what we thought it was going to be. Like our exposure was kind of just like. 

Joey Ries:

He did step up. We couldn't afford to have done what he did. He did help get you started.

Heather Ries:

No, for sure. But it was just kind of not, we were thinking, we want something big or we wanted bigger. We were already envisioning. 

Joey Ries:

In your own name. 

Derrick Michaud:

But it's a good stepping stone. It gave you an opportunity to see what it felt like. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. And it kind of helped us realize that we can probably do this on our own.

Joey Ries:

First retail, trying to get, figuring business out. 

Heather Ries:

That was the big leap from there. There was a space available in Hernando which was home and having the kids at such a young age because when we started the actual business, they were a year old. So I got three one-year-olds. 

Joey Ries:

You need to find that picture with your mom and your sister and them. 

Heather Ries:

But so it was like there was a little place here. 

Joey Ries:

It's right there. 

Heather Ries:

Cakes by…

Joey Ries:

Cynthia. 

Heather Ries:

Cynthia. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. Two doors down.

Heather Ries:

And she had a bakery full of equipment, and she had injured herself and knew that she wasn't going to be able to keep going. So she was like trying to sell the business, sell the place. So she didn't own the building, but we leased the equipment from her. It was a very like–

Joey Ries:

A good friend of ours that owned the building. 

Heather Ries:

Another easy step to make. And he didn't want us to do it. He was—

Derrick Michaud:

What was making you reluctant? 

Joey Ries:

I'm a banker. We don't do restaurant loans at the time. That's just—

Derrick Michaud:

So you've been on the inside of failure.

Joey Ries:

I'm a financial guy, and I'm like, okay, the rent was cheap enough. Obviously, she knows what she's doing. I know the lady that was in there, Cynthia. Roughly what her sales were. And so we're like, we can make it work. And she's in Hernando. She doesn't have to go to Memphis, and it’s awesome to have her staple in our hometown. 

Heather Ries:

Well, and really I mean, okay, so it when we decided to go full brick and mortar, and we decided to move the business from Memphis to Hernando, my mom's husband at the time, my stepdad David was a GM at Macaroni Grill in Memphis. He was also a huge restaurant background. He'd been in the restaurant business for years.

Joey Ries:

Master baker. 

Heather Ries:

Yes. He had gone to Italy, was a baker. So this was also a huge leap for him because he was making like a hundred thousand dollars a year working for this huge restaurant chain. He decided to quit working for them and come quit work with us. 

Derrick Michaud:

As sort of like your business manager?

Heather Ries:

Well, he managed the business and baked our bread. So we were just a, we weren't a bread, I was a cake baker, a pastry chef. I mean I learned bread in culinary school, but it wasn't my forte.

Derrick Michaud:

It's a different beast. 

Heather Ries:

Yes. It really is. I mean there's bread bakers, and there's pastry chefs. So we didn't have one, and we're like, if we're going to open a bakery, we need to have bread. So David, he quit his job at Macaroni Grill and we started the business together as a family. 

Joey Ries:

And he didn't get paid, like nobody got paid.

Heather Ries:

We paid my car note. 

Joey Ries:

Which was $309. We’re like, I can pay our car this month. It's $309. 

Heather Ries:

That's what I made a month for a while. But we made it work. And it wasn't until we started selling lunch that our business really took off. Like you can't make a living selling two-dollar cupcakes. You just can't. 

Derrick Michaud:

Right. I mean with a profit margin of like 20%.

Joey Ries:

I mean she did a lot of cakes. But you know.

Heather Ries:

And I mean the way that we do things, we made everything from scratch. So it was something that it took a minute to get Hernando used to because our flavors and the way that we do things were a little odd. Like I'm like yeah, we make coconut basil macaroons or our cakes have curry in them or salted caramel. 

Joey Ries:

Olive bread. 

Heather Ries:

It took a minute to get people to trust what we were doing, but once they did, it was, you know.

Derrick Michaud:

Well, then you bring out the lunch, and it's going to bring a whole different customer base. 

Heather Ries:

It did. 

Joey Ries:

And we had like 25 seats? 

Heather Ries:

We had 25 seats in our original thing, and on a Friday, because we would do cupcake Friday. We would give a cupcake away for lunch which is really how lunch—

Derrick Michaud:

I would’ve been there.

Heather Ries:

Yeah. On any given Friday, we would sell 150 to 200 lunches. 

Joey Ries:

Lunches when you got 25 seats in the whole place, and we're doing three—I say we. I wasn't working there, but I would try to go in and help every now and then. But three lunch turnovers. It’s a lot.

Heather Ries:

And so everything was great, everything was going great. And then in 2016, my stepfather passed away unexpectedly. And after that, the bakery, I don't think any other people probably ever noticed it, but it was never the same for us. 

Joey Ries:

I mean he was a big—

Heather Ries:

He was an integral part of our business from the beginning. 

Derrick Michaud:

Part of the personality? 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. I mean yes. I mean people thought he was the only owner. 

Heather Ries:

And it was hard. And at the time, my mom worked for Delta. They were huge, like European travelers. They loved to travel to Europe. So she worked for Delta because they could travel for free or fly for free anyway. And when Delta pulled out of Memphis, she had to move to Atlanta. So like about a year after we opened here in Hernando, she moved away and was gone, would come home every couple of months for a few weeks, and it was hard on them, it was hard on us, the whole thing was just a tough situation. 

Derrick Michaud:

Yeah. 

Heather Ries:

And then when he died suddenly, she had to come back full time, and it was hard on all of us. It's still even five years later hard. 

Derrick Michaud:

He was the heart. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. And so the business grew after that. The business didn't change. We had 12 employees. We moved into a larger location down the street. Everything was going well, but it was never the same for us as a family, for mom and I. It was just, it was hard. 

Joey Ries:

Bigger space, bigger problems. You got to sell more food, rent’s double. 

Heather Ries:

Our rent was $3,000 a month. 

Joey Ries:

Which is probably not a lot now, but then to us, it was. 

Derrick Michaud:

It's a lot now. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. I mean that's a lot. 

Joey Ries:

A small business owner, I didn't think about it, but there was plenty of times where Heather worked for free for months. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. I mean mom and I were always the last people to get paid. 

Joey Ries:

You got to pay the bills and pay employees. 

Derrick Michaud:

That's the entrepreneurial story. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. 

Derrick Michaud:

Bootstrapping. 

Joey Ries:

But it’s the trade-off of owning your own business. 

Heather Ries:

We had a huge clientele. People loved us. We were here for almost a decade, almost 10 years. We baked cakes for people's weddings and then their baby showers and then their kid’s first birthday. I mean we were part of everyone's—

Joey Ries:

Community. 

Heather Ries:

And so I mean that really, it helped us as a business. We had a great community following.

Derrick Michaud:

You're established not only as a business but as people. 

Heather Ries:

Yes. And he had been here for a while. I mean we loved this town. But then COVID happened really. That’s ultimately…

Derrick Michaud:

Now by this time—well, we're going to get to that. By this time, were you still at the bank or have you…? 

Joey Ries:

No. So I left the bank in 2011. My mom had gotten cancer. My mom and dad had a—or we still do—have a defensive driving school. You get a speeding ticket in Mississippi, sometimes the judge sends you to our class. Sometimes they send you to a competitor. So I left the bank. 

Heather Ries:

Advanced Driving Academy. 

Derrick Michaud:

I may have been to one before. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah, I've been to a bunch of them before I started working there. No. But so my job became traveling. So I made a deal. My parents had a business partner. I kind of made a deal with him. I'm not working Mondays. She's off on Mondays. That's kind of our day to do our thing. Kids are at school or daycare or whatever. So a lot of times at first, I was leaving on Tuesday with my dad, and I'd come back on Thursday or Friday. It's just like a sales job. You have to go and see the court clerks and the judges, and now I've got lifelong friends that even if I'm down the road, if I'm not doing this anymore, I've still got people that I'm going to stay in touch with. But there for a while, I had to go and meet all these people. 

Heather Ries:

That was tough.

Joey Ries:

And set up the business and the business picked up and picked up and picked up. 

Heather Ries:

Because I'm working 12 hours a day, and we have three 12-year-olds. 

Derrick Michaud:

And you're both starting new things. 

Joey Ries:

Right. 

Derrick Michaud:

And you’re having to build and triplets. 

Joey Ries:

Once I got our business up, like I got the numbers up enough to pretty much pay my salary and not have to take away from anybody else in the company, and if something happened, she always had to be at work. I was always the one that hey, I don't have to be on the road this week or something like that. So I became not the stay-at-home dad, but I was always the one that took the triplets to birthday parties. I'm hanging out with all the moms at birthday parties. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. I missed the first 10 years of their life. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. I mean she had to be at work. That's just what it was. Or work didn't get done. So yeah, I was Mr. Mom for a while, still went out of town, took care of my business. But yeah. 

Heather Ries:

And then after David died, he stopped traveling as much really because at that point, both mom and I's roles had just changed quite a bit. I took on a lot of the, because he did all the bill paying and took all of that part. 

Derrick Michaud:

General management background.

Joey Ries:

Yeah. We didn't pay attention to bank accounts. He was like, we can't spend any money this week. We’re like okay. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. And so after, all of our roles switched. So he kind of stopped working on the road as much and was at home a lot more and it was just. So from basically the start of 2017 until 2020, we were just doing what we could to get by. I mean business was good, but it was just different. 

Derrick Michaud:

Just a grind. 

Joey Ries:

And COVID, I mean, yeah, obviously, COVID happened. And I know it's been terrible for so many people. Last year was a terrible year for our family. We lost quite a few people, not necessarily COVID. But my role changed. I didn't have to go out and tell as much because you couldn't go see anybody because the buildings are closed, courthouses are closed, stuff like that. She was still working by herself at the bakery just trying to get bills paid. But she was still working so many hours. You have 60, 70, 80 hours a week, and I was at home more just making phone calls. But it kind of turned out to be a blessing. My role has changed with my business where I still don't have to travel that much. I go to some conferences. I stay on the phone as much as I can. But I get to spend full time up here with her, and we wouldn't have this place had not things lined up exactly the way they did. 

Derrick Michaud:

Well, let's talk about that. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. How did we get here? 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. This is a good one. 

Derrick Michaud:

So I can't remember the exact day but February 2020. One day we're like normal, and then the next day the world shuts down. So what was that like? And again, we're not getting into the political side of this.

Heather Ries:

Yeah, nothing politically. But seriously, so I mean I had a memory today, hey, kids aren't going back to school until the 20th. 

Joey Ries:

It was spring break. 

Heather Ries:

We went on spring break March of 2020, and they never went back. 

Derrick Michaud:

Yeah. The 15 days to stop the spread turned into two years.

Heather Ries:

For those last—

Joey Ries:

And I don't know how other parents did that. I mean we're fortunately being self-employed and able to do some—

Heather Ries:

Yeah. So for those first three weeks of March 2020, we basically just did what we could to get by. All of things were up in the air, and everything was—

Joey Ries:

We went to the bakery still. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. Everything was—well, in the first like week or so, we were open, but then they were like well, you can't be open, you can be open, you blah, blah, blah. All the dynamics of everything were changing. 

Derrick Michaud:

And like a daily basis. 

Joey Ries:

We could do to-gos. 

Heather Ries:

Right. We never knew. So we were trying to do to-go stuff just for lunch, and then that was obviously not working. Like I said, we had $3,000 a month rent, we had 12 employees, we were trying to, you know. So then basically I would go in there and cook everything that we had in the building. I turned tomatoes in tomato sauce, whatever we could just trying to get rid of all the food. And then I started doing like to-go orders. I would take pre-orders and go up there and just do it just so we could pay off our bills. March 20th was the day that we closed. 

Derrick Michaud:

So that's when the mandates came down hard. 

Heather Ries:

We closed. And honestly, at that point, we had been trying to sell for a while for about six months or more. But we were both like kind of putting the word out there. I was making—

Joey Ries:

Kind of joking. 

Heather Ries:

Jokes on Facebook but everybody knew I was serious. I'm like, anybody want to buy a bakery like every couple of weeks. 

Derrick Michaud:

I’m over this.

Heather Ries:

I was like, anybody want to buy a bakery? And so we had a girl come to us, and she said, hey, I heard that you guys were wanting to sell. And this was way before, this was six months before March. And we're like, yes. We gave her our number. She was trying to come to everything, and we kind of talked about it briefly, casually. Well, March comes around, and when we closed on March 20th to be completely honest, I knew that we weren't going to open back up, not like it was. There was just no way. 

Joey Ries:

But I mean she was taking all these pre-orders, and I mean I remember going in and she's pretty much doing everything by herself. And all these big casseroles, just like whatever we had in stock, just go ahead and use it. She's so smart with that kind of that stuff.

Heather Ries:

We sold t-shirts. We sold whatever we could because we had some debt.

Joey Ries:

But we would have 100 bags with names on it, and people would pull up and we would meet them out at the handicap ramp. And they would just roll the window down, and if they hadn't paid, we'd like we charge them. And most of them had prepaid. But seriously, so-and-so is pulling up, and it'd be a whole train of cars pulling in, trying to support local businesses. Selling gift cards because we thought we would reopen. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah, we did what we could. We paid off as many of our debts as we could. And then once we closed, literally, I called Jim, our landlord, and said, come over here. We need to talk. I said, Jim, I don't think we're going to be able to make this work. Our lease wasn't up, and we had signed a three-year lease originally. Our three-year lease was up in September because we opened on Halloween. So to the end of September, our lease was going to be up. And I'm like, what can we do? We can't do it. And he said, pay through the end of May and we're good. I'm like okay. Good deal. So I was in there prepping. I left about three o'clock in the afternoon. By 6 PM, he had a sign in the yard. 

Joey Ries:

For lease. 

Heather Ries:

For lease. 

Joey Ries:

Which he's got to do. I mean he's got to—

Heather Ries:

I get it. But my phone was blowing up. Nobody knew anything. Nobody—

Derrick Michaud:

So you're still operating for two months? 

Heather Ries:

We're still a business, and he literally like, I mean people are like, what's going on? Bakery's closing? What's happening? And we hadn't even talked to Megan about selling at that point. And so I'm just posting like, look, yes, we're closed. We know right now that we will not be

reopening in this space. We don't know what's going on beyond that, but we can't continue to do this, what we're doing in this space. 

Derrick Michaud:

He forced your hand.

Heather Ries:

So then we called Megan and we're like, look, you're going to about to get the deal of your life. Like make us an offer. 

Joey Ries:

Just make an offer. 

Heather Ries:

Because at that point, we didn't want to have any debt. So we just wanted to be able to pay off what we had. 

Joey Ries:

Well, and she also left out like a lot of—we had so many costs associated with it because we didn't use or I say, we, they didn't use Styrofoam. Everything we had was biodegradable. We paid up.

Heather Ries:

Right. I was on the board of Project Green Fork. So we were very big into sustainable products and everything that—our costs were just astronomical. 

Joey Ries:

And we could have saved money had we—

Heather Ries:

Just as a business, we were just, yeah. But yeah. So Megan came in. We're like, hey, make us an offer. We all finally came to an agreement, and we made a big announcement because it was a huge business. 

Joey Ries:

It was good for both sides.

Heather Ries:

A huge thing for the community. And we didn't want it to just close, but we also knew that it was not for us anymore. And we couldn't do it. Mom couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. It wasn't going to work. 

Derrick Michaud:

The writing was on the wall. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. 

Heather Ries:

So we made the decision. Megan bought it. Unfortunately, it was a terrible time for a business to try to—I mean we're probably the only people in the world that sold a restaurant during COVID. 

Joey Ries:

And made a little bit of money. 

Heather Ries:

Unfortunately, it didn't work out. She opened in June, and by September, she had closed. 

Derrick Michaud:

That's an awful year to start a bakery. 

Joey Ries:

I mean it was, and she went in. She hired a bunch of employees back. They all knew what they were doing, went in and helped train, and it just, we wanted all the success for them I mean because Ladybugg, that's a big part of our, 10 years of our or your life. 

Derrick Michaud:

There you go. 

Joey Ries:

So I mean we wanted to succeed and continue. Just with COVID, they made it very hard on restaurants. 

Heather Ries:

It was impossible. 

Joey Ries:

Restaurants were the worst people in the world. Like if you go there, you're going to get COVID. And they kept changing the rules. And then Heather, so Heather made a little bit of money and got to take a break. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. So basically that was, at that point, I was so wiped out, so burnt, I just wanted to be done. And we sold and my whole intention was I'm going to spend all this time at home with my family. I've missed the first 10 years of their life. I want to be home with my kids and my husband. And it's going to be great. And I was—

Joey Ries:

Now she’s like, get me out of this house. 

Heather Ries:

I basically did nothing for about a year, and it was awesome. But then I got bored. 

Joey Ries:

She can't sit still.

Heather Ries:

Yeah. I'm used to working 12 hours a day. That's just my personality. 

Derrick Michaud:

And you're doing your own thing, being your own boss. So you have this innate self-motivation that can cause that antsyness. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. Because I ain’t going back to work for somebody else. 

Joey Ries:

She's always wanted to get back into, like get away from baking as much and cook a real food. She's a real chef. She wanted to do something different. 

Heather Ries:

And that's how this started. I started really at first as before we even sold the bakery, I was bored, and I was doing little cooking videos and stuff at home and posting little videos online. 

Joey Ries:

With my shaky hands holding the camera.

Heather Ries:

Yeah. And doing little cooking demos. And my thought was like, I'll start a blog. That way I can do some recipes. I'm still cooking and enjoying what I want to do but then I can be at home. And then it quickly turned into hey, I'm going to start cooking some food for people because people would ask me to do something and I would do it. And then—

Joey Ries:

But it wasn't cakes and cupcakes.

Heather Ries:

It clearly became—well, when we sold the bakery, we had a non-compete. So that was a big thing, and we still do. We have a 100 mile and three year non-compete from the day we sold it. So I couldn't do cakes, and I had a couple of wedding cakes lined up that I'm like, Megan, if you see me post a picture of this cake, like it was already on the books and I'm not going to tell these people no. So I was like, no cakes, no this. But I can do other stuff. So I was just kind of having fun and cooking. And then somebody called the health department on me. 

Derrick Michaud:

Let’s talk about this.

Joey Ries:

So she was doing meal prep. Some of our old customers like, I'd love to come get some food from you. I see your cooking demos. 

Heather Ries:

Well, because nobody would go out to eat. So at that time, it was nobody wanted to go to a restaurant. 

Joey Ries:

So I kind of jokingly said, hey, I'm going to break up this folding table and put in the garage as our little, and we had a bunch of like Walmart bags and meal prep containers. 

Heather Ries:

I had like 20 to 30 customers a week that were like coming by the house and buying food. 

Joey Ries:

There was a two-hour pickup window from like three to five on two days a week. We would have cars lined up, and they would come in and pay and pick up their meal prep. And I remember my neighbor, good guy, he came over. He's like, yeah, one of the neighbors across the street was wondering why y’all had so many cars coming by the house. 

Heather Ries:

Not selling drugs or anything. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. I mean, yeah, we're not doing, yeah. 

Heather Ries:

So that happened. We were already kind of thinking like maybe we should do something with this. I don't know. I've been in the restaurant business for a long time so I know there are cottage laws. There are certain things you can cook out of your house, and there's certain things you can't. So I wasn't trying to like get around the rules or anything. It all happened so quickly, and it was just like—

Joey Ries:

Well, they just made donations, and you gave them food. 

Derrick Michaud:

But it started friends. The next thing you know, your garage is your storefront. 

Heather Ries:

And I bought another fridge, and I got all this stuff going. And I'm like, okay, well, we can't do this for too long. How the whole health department thing started, apparently, someone had been sending photos, screenshots of the stuff that I was posting on Facebook to our health department inspector who was my health department inspector for 10 years at the bakery. So she knew me. And what really set it off I guess, for Christmas the year before we opened here or the December before, we had cooked, we're like, hey, let's do something nice for the police department and the fire department. So we smoked a bunch of barbecue butts. I made sauce. We made slaw. 

Joey Ries:

Everything from scratch.

Heather Ries:

Cooked a bunch of buns and took it to each, you know, and they're like, hey, will you take a picture with us? Thank you so much. 

Joey Ries:

Fire department. Police department.

Heather Ries:

So we posted it on Hernando Happenings, and that day, I got a call from the health department. 

Joey Ries:

I was a Super Cuts getting a haircut, and she's like, well, we can't sell food anymore. 

Heather Ries:

I was like, well, that helped make that decision for us. She straight up told me that they would take me to court. She's like, Heather, we have gotten, you know better than this. I've gotten so many calls. They keep sending me posts or sending me pictures of your posts. Like she's still doing it. She’s still doing it.

Derrick Michaud:

Did you ever at one point see like a suspicious white van down the street with tinted windows? 

Heather Ries:

We know. We know who it was. 

Joey Ries:

We know who it was. We’re not going to mention. But the thing what we did that day was not illegal. We can cook all the food and give it away. 

Derrick Michaud:

It was just build up from the garage. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. But they were like, this particular person. 

Heather Ries:

But it actually, honestly—

Joey Ries:

Thank you for reporting us. 

Heather Ries:

Yes. It was the best thing that ever happened because like it lit a fire under my butt, and I was like, let's go find a space. And I knew this space was here.

Derrick Michaud:

So when did this decision happen, let's find the space? 

Heather Ries:

December of 2021? 

Joey Ries:

So when we got reported, I went ahead—

Heather Ries:

Yeah. December of, wasn’t it— 

Derrick Michaud:

No, 2021. Because you took a year off, right? 

Joey Ries:

We opened in 2021 in April, on April 9th. 

Derrick Michaud:

Oh, so December 2020. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. I didn't take a whole year off. 

Joey Ries:

But so the day we got reported, I was pretty upset. I'm like, that's fine. They reported us. We're not—so I got home. I created an email. Mrs. Hippie Eats. It's a Gmail. I got on the Secretary of State, created a sole proprietorship. I'm like, you know what? We're not going away. 

Heather Ries:

That day we legalized ourselves. 

Derrick Michaud:

You have a customer base. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. 

Derrick Michaud:

There you go.

Heather Ries:

Yeah. So basically I knew this space was here because this was area 51's kitchen. And at that point—

Joey Ries:

They're good friends of ours. 

Heather Ries:

They were already like, and actually, the reason I knew they were moving out of this location is because I was looking at their other location. 

Derrick Michaud:

The one they're in now? 

Heather Ries:

No. 

Joey Ries:

They had another retail shop. 

Derrick Michaud:

That little strip right there? 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. So I knew that that space was available, and it was this size. That size is exactly what I—

Joey Ries:

We didn't want to be in a strip center. She's always wanted to make something her own. 

Derrick Michaud:

So for some context, area 51, we all know them. And they've been on the podcast. 

Joey Ries:

Yep. Good people. 

Derrick Michaud:

The original location was on that little strip. And when they were expanding–

Heather Ries:

This was their kitchen.

Derrick Michaud:

This was like their satellite kitchen. 

Heather Ries:

When they moved downtown and they didn't have enough space down there to make all of their ice cream, this was their kitchen. So I knew, number one, that it was plumbed and ready to go as a retail kitchen space. And so I was like, hey, I want that. The rent was cheap which I've already had two locations in Hernando so I know for rent to be what it is, I'm like, that's a good rent. So there was somebody else looking at the spot, and it was between me and whoever it was. I have no idea. But I was like, no, please, please, please, please. And it worked out, and we got it. 

Joey Ries:

And when you own a restaurant with ovens, you learn more about electrical stuff than you ever wanted to know. Like stage one or whatever it's called, phase one and all. You've got to make sure it's got all the—and you can tell. We have all the outlets that we need and stuff. 

Derrick Michaud:

So there's more learning curves? 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. So I mean this place was already ready to go. I mean pretty much—

Heather Ries:

So I had my eye on this spot, I wanted it, and it worked out. And we signed the lease December of 2020, and we opened April 9th of 2021. 

Derrick Michaud:

That's a good chunk of time. 

Joey Ries:

And area 51 was—they were supposed to be here through the end of January.

Heather Ries:

I mean because I wasn’t in a hurry. I was still in that mindset of like, what am I doing? 

Joey Ries:

Like we could’ve open in February. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. 

Joey Ries:

But she kept putting it off and putting it off.

Heather Ries:

I didn’t want to do it because I knew that as soon as we opened that I just kept thinking my life is going to be like it was before. I'm going to be working all the time. I'm not going to have any time to myself. But also, made a huge point with this place to not let that happen again, and that's why we're closed Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I mean I still work on Tuesdays, but that gives me freedom. I wanted to be able to travel or do things with the kids. I mean we went to New Orleans six times in 2020. Like it's our favorite place on earth. And I mean we did our fun stuff and—

Derrick Michaud:

Through learning from your experiences, you made sure that, because look, when you're your own business owner, you can make these kinds of decisions if you feel like you can manage to make money. You learn your lesson. You're like, we need to have work-life balance. 

Heather Ries:

Right. 

Derrick Michaud:

So you can design it from the very beginning to make that template. 

Joey Ries:

Well, with Ladybugg, there was no taking off work. With all the employees, the overhead. So all four nobody had to have with all the overhead. So when we went on vacation in July, we shut the bakery down for two weeks. Christmas, we had to shut down for two weeks. That was the only time she got a vacation. 

Heather Ries:

And Mom and David would travel a lot to Europe so we kind of had to close for two weeks at a time because there'd be times where they wouldn't make it back. 

Joey Ries:

They were flying for free, jump seats. 

Heather Ries:

But we did it like a European business. We closed. And when you're in Europe, that's what you do. You go on holiday. You close for a month, and people just deal with it. 

Derrick Michaud:

And then they come back. 

Heather Ries:

And we did have people that were like, what kind of business just closes for two weeks? I'm like— 

Joey Ries:

This kind. 

Heather Ries:

One that if they don't do that, they don't have any time off. And literally, we would look forward to every six months. It was like, okay, here we go. We got a little time off. 

Joey Ries:

Our accountant didn't like it. He was like, if you can't afford, you need to be open. 

Derrick Michaud:

So December to April, are you, were with the ovens already here? Area 51 ice cream doesn't need ovens. 

Heather Ries:

Oh, they do. They bake cookies and stuff.

Joey Ries:

So there was the flooring. This was the flooring they had. When they moved out, luckily, we were able to go find the exact same flooring. We pretty much pulled all of this flooring up, re-glued it down, and this was all gray cinder blocks. They did have that green that's up. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah, it was fine. But I was like, no. It was all this color, and I was not loving it. 

Joey Ries:

No, I told her, I was like, it's already ready to go. It's nice and clean and looks clean. We don't have to do anything because I'm cheap. And she's like, we got to make it my own. And so, of course— 

Heather Ries:

Well, at first, we were just doing that one like green wall because area 51 already had the green in here. And I was like, we'll just paint this one wall. And then I'm like, I don't like this gray. And I'm going to tell him, like I want to paint, and oh my God, it's hard to paint over—

Joey Ries:

Cinder blocks. 

Heather Ries:

When we first started and I'm like, oh Lord. 

Derrick Michaud:

So let's paint a picture because even for the viewers. They can't see it and obviously, the listeners can't see. So as you walk in, you walk in, you got two coolers on the left and right. 

Joey Ries:

Yep. We got a freezer and a refrigerator. 

Derrick Michaud:

And then you have a counter, and there's a space for cookies and brownies and lemon squares that I have to have. 

Heather Ries:

Yes. 

Derrick Michaud:

But then so as you're facing the counter, the wall behind you and then to the right is all yellow. 

Heather Ries:

And it's called mac and cheese. 

Joey Ries:

It’s mac and cheese. 

Derrick Michaud:

Mac and cheese color. Does Crayola have that crayon? You need to talk to them. 

Joey Ries:

That green wall was plumbed for their ice cream machines. 

Derrick Michaud:

So the green is behind the counter. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah, the green wall, that's behind the counter.

Heather Ries:

Well, yeah, and behind the counter is actually a really cool like wallpaper that I got. And that was their green wall. That whole wall was not green before but we painted it. 

Joey Ries:

We were going to go with that wallpaper that's on the cooler over there. So my awesome neighbor I was mentioning earlier— 

Heather Ries:

He built the counter for us.

Joey Ries:

We need a counter, and he was about to have a hip replacement and I didn't want to bug him. But I'm like, we're trying to get in under budget. 

Heather Ries:

But at the time, lumber prices were so high. So everyone's like don't build something. 

Joey Ries:

Well, he seriously came in, and I'm like, just please let us pay you to do it. He's like, I'm not going to charge you other than costs. And he comes in. He's like, how big you want it? What do you want? And I said, all this, getting the measurements, and he's on his phone. And he goes, all right, it'll be about $193. Well, then he brought me the receipt and it was $193.87. He went over budget 87 cents. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. He was almost to the penny. 

Joey Ries:

Obviously, we paid him for his time and stuff. But I mean it was just—

Heather Ries:

It worked out perfectly. We had gone to all over. I mean every thrift store and—

Joey Ries:

Trying to find something. 

Heather Ries:

Like antique shop and Ikea. And I'm like I just need something. 

Derrick Michaud:

Something to put a register on. 

Joey Ries:

Well, and also, another friend of ours that donated a couple of the coolers. One of the coolers back there and one of the coolers up there that have been sitting in a warehouse for a decade. Never been plugged in since then. We had to get a new plug on them, and we plugged them in. They got to temperature. I mean good friends. We got to come in, we went $4,000 over budget I think which was fine. But without all the help from friends of the community, they just made it so much easier. 

Heather Ries:

And we really did. I mean as soon as we opened, we had people—

Joey Ries:

We sold out of food the first—the one day we opened, the first day we opened, we had to close the next day because we didn't have any more food. 

Heather Ries:

And I had cooked, it was just me and him. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. I mean I'm prepping but I'm not—

Heather Ries:

And I had literally cooked for like two weeks to stock the fridge and the freezer. And we didn't even have that freezer at the time. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. We had that thing.

Heather Ries:

We just had this little reach-in freezer that area 51 had sold us. 

Derrick Michaud:

Now in April 2021, there's still mandates too. Right? 

Heather Ries:

A little. Yeah. 

Joey Ries:

I mean we were to-go. So that was one thing that helped. 

Derrick Michaud:

So this was not—well, I mean you’re all to-go. That's right. 

Joey Ries:

So I mean at that point—

Heather Ries:

The one thing about this concept is—

Joey Ries:

Restaurants at that point had—

Heather Ries:

You don’t have the overhead of servers or tables or any of that stuff.

Joey Ries:

You had to operate at like what? 25% capacity. And restaurants do not survive at 25% capacity or 50% capacity. They need all of their tables filled. And even if they did allow more than 25% or 50%, people just weren't going out as much to eat. But we opened at the perfect time. 

Heather Ries:

It's a good concept. It really is. 

Derrick Michaud:

Which I want to get to what's in the coolers and what y’all serve too. But again, to paint one more shot and picture, when you walk in and you're facing the cash register, you can look and like you're seeing the kitchen. 

Heather Ries:

Yes. 

Derrick Michaud:

And when I came in to meet you guys for our pre-interview the first and last time I met you, Heather here was just like humming around this place. 

Joey Ries:

Oh yeah. No, yeah. 

Heather Ries:

That’s how I always am.

Derrick Michaud:

And there’s was trays of bacon with brown sugar. It smelt so amazing in here. It smelt good. It was lively. So I think that's cool too. You're getting like an ambiance in here when you walk in. You're really, truly seeing—

Joey Ries:

You get to see everything getting made. 

Derrick Michaud:

You can see your personality. So part of this podcast is to get to know the owners because sometimes they're not in the picture. They’re not on Facebook. You don't see them. You come here, you're going to see Heather and Joey. And I met Joey, and Joey's like, I just run the register. 

Joey Ries:

Look, I'm just front of house. I put things in the coolers and ring people up and answer phones. 

Heather Ries:

But that was funny because that guy interviewed me last week or Thursday or whatever, he was like doing his thing and I was running around doing me. And he's like, well, let's just sit down and chat for a minute and maybe you won't be so nervous. And he's like, oh, you're probably, and then he was like, but you're probably always like this. I'm like, I'm not nervous. This is just me. I’m literally like phew, phew. 

Joey Ries:

Prep list. Then you erase that prep list and start another prep list. I mean it's all day long. 

Derrick Michaud:

I was in here with my iPad, trying to get some information, just running it through with you. And I think I did like four laps. It was like here and then it was in the middle and then we're in the back and then back in the middle. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. 

Joey Ries:

So when I went on the road with our company, the driving school business, I always, when I go to a town, Natchez, Mississippi, I go see somebody, I'm like where can I go eat that I can't get in Hernando? I want to find all the cool holes in the walls. One thing I would get nervous going in places if you don't know whether you order at the counter, you sit down. You kind of want to know how things work. So I pride myself and our employees and her, when people come in, if we don't think they've been in, we're going to ask them if they've been in. We're going to explain everything to them. And depending on what they buy, I'm going to probably explain what to do with this too. We pride ourselves on—

Heather Ries:

Trying to make it easy and unapproachable. 

Derrick Michaud:

Let's explain it right now then. Let's pretend someone's in here that's never been here before. 

Joey Ries:

All right. So I call it my spiel. When you walk into your left, we got our refrigerator, the refrigerator case. We've got a paper menu. It's got everything on it that is in the refrigerator case. 

Heather Ries:

And that's a daily menu.

Joey Ries:

And it's daily. 

Derrick Michaud:

So the left one as you walk in is the refrigerator. 

Joey Ries:

Just a cold case, not a freezer. 

Derrick Michaud:

Just cold case. 

Joey Ries:

Right. 

Derrick Michaud:

And what would you find in that? 

Joey Ries:

Well, four to five different kinds of chicken salad. We sell it by the bulk. It's always in pounds unless we get to a smaller portion at the end. We put everything in, then we'll price it accordingly. Soups, meal prep. 

Derrick Michaud:

When you say meal prep, what does that mean? 

Joey Ries:

She does a lot of salmon and a couple of vegetables. 

Heather Ries:

Right. I do basically already prepared meals. So someone can come in and all they have to do is throw it in the microwave. 

Derrick Michaud:

Meat, rice, veggies? 

Heather Ries:

Yes. It makes it easy.

Joey Ries:

Pork tenderloins. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah, I do pork tenderloin meals. I do four or five different kinds of salmon a week. Mahi-mahi. Always something that's about six to eight ounces of a protein and anywhere from 10 to 12 ounces of a grain, a starch, or maybe no starch. I try to do some without starches for just health conscious reasons. Now I do not keep track of macros and all that stuff. I don't know anything about that. 

Derrick Michaud:

Macros. 

Heather Ries:

Exactly. 

Joey Ries:

Well, people come in with a lot of fad diets I guess. And good for them, but we don't—

Derrick Michaud:

I thought you were talking about macaroons. 

Joey Ries:

We are not going to list our calories on there. It's not necessarily health food. It’s good food. 

Heather Ries:

Exactly. And that's what I try to tell people. I don't do keto stuff because I don't know anything about it. We literally cook everything in-house from scratch every day. No preservatives. No cans of anything. So it's not going to have high sodium or blah, blah, blah because it's all from scratch. So it will be better for you than going to fast food restaurants. 

Derrick Michaud:

Yeah. But there might be some carbs. 

Joey Ries:

Right. It's going to be butter and heavy cream. 

Heather Ries:

But it's still just anything that's made from scratch is going to be better than just—

Joey Ries:

Well, then we have, so on the other side of the store on the right side, you've got your double door freezer. That's where we have a lot of family meals, casseroles— 

Heather Ries:

Pasta sauces, pastas— 

Joey Ries:

Soups. 

Heather Ries:

Meatballs, meatloaves, lasagnas. 

Derrick Michaud:

And you can just throw them in the oven? 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. We had lasagna last night. It was fantastic. 

Heather Ries:

It is nice because—

Joey Ries:

Yeah. We’re like uhhh.

Heather Ries:

We're like, what are we going to eat tonight? And I just came up and grabbed a lasagna and a meatball, and we're like we're all set an hour later. 

Joey Ries:

But we always do like our cottage pots, like a shepherd's pie but it's made with ground beef instead of ground lamb. And on top of it, you have mashed potatoes. So she does big bulks of like mashed potatoes that we sell two pounds at a time or just you can come in and get side items. If you already got a protein that you're cooking that night, we've got roasted broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, all kinds of stuff.

Heather Ries:

Chicken pot pie is one of our most popular items. Chicken and dumplings. We do our Mississippi pot roast is—

Joey Ries:

The best seller.

Heather Ries:

Probably our best seller out of everything. 

Joey Ries:

14 hours, cooked overnight while we’re at home sleeping.

Derrick Michaud:

So these are to order? 

Heather Ries:

No. You come in and grab like—

Derrick Michaud:

Well, yeah, I know you can grab what's in here. But can you do—

Heather Ries:

Well, you can call. So we post the menu everyday on our Facebook.

Joey Ries:

When you see those notes on the wall, on the green wall? Those are people—

Heather Ries:

Recommendations. 

Joey Ries:

That say, hey, please make this again. So we call people when we do, if you want something that we haven't done. 

Heather Ries:

Basically, if you see our menu on Wednesday morning and you're like, hey, I want a pot roast and it's probably going to sell out by five o'clock, call us and we'll hold it for you. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah, we do it all the time. 

Heather Ries:

So it's not necessarily like a pre-order type situation. But you can always call and hold anything that we have in the building. 

Joey Ries:

And there's no—

Heather Ries:

And we do take or I mean I'll do caterings, that sort of thing if I know ahead of time with enough notice or off-site caterings. I do a lot of like private type situations where you I go into their house and cook for them. 

Derrick Michaud:

Yeah. 

Heather Ries:

Any of that kind of stuff. But this—

Joey Ries:

There's no set menu.

Heather Ries:

On a day to day is just come in and grab what we have. 

Derrick Michaud:

So I kind of interrupted when you were talking about the menu. So the menu—

Joey Ries:

Changes hourly. 

Derrick Michaud:

Okay. Hourly. 

Joey Ries:

All day long. As I’m marking stuff off that we sold out of. We’re not necessarily replacing that item. There’s just more stuff going in there.

Derrick Michaud:

So is that why you’ll post a new picture?

Joey Ries:

Yeah, because if we had to do printed menus, we would have 100 menus. And so it just changes.

Heather Ries:

We take pictures and we post what we have when we open on Wednesday. And then stuff sells out, we mark it out. As we add new things, I'll take pictures and post them on the thing and try to post on Hernando Happenings. 

Joey Ries:

Very seasonal. We're about to get into farmer season, farmers market. So especially when we get to that, it's going to be different items. We're going to have our staples that we always have or try to keep, but as the season changes, we're going to have whatever's fresh. And she will figure out something to do with it.

Heather Ries:

And also, another thing in the cold case, we'll do like little croissant kits. So it's perfect for a lunch. You can come in and it's got a croissant, a little bit of lettuce to go with it, and either like a little cup of chicken salad or pimento cheese or egg salad. 

Joey Ries:

Pasta salad

Heather Ries:

With some sort of side with it. So it's literally a whole lunch you can just grab. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. 

Derrick Michaud:

That's so great because there's not a lot of that going on. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. 

Derrick Michaud:

Unless you go to Kroger in the fresh area, you get these prepared meals a little bit. 

Heather Ries:

And like I said, even that stuff a lot of times will have preservatives in it or stuff like that. 

Derrick Michaud:

Oh, it's been packaged and shipped across the country. Let's be real. 

Heather Ries:

And we have the AWG, the big grocer that's opening up on 51. I don't know if you're familiar with that. 

Joey Ries:

There's a huge warehouse about 69 and 51. 

Heather Ries:

It takes up a couple of miles down 51 across from Magnolia Lighting in Whitfield. But there are several people in town working on that project that are from Germany or Slovenia or whatever. And they're coming in here every day and buying two and three meals. 

Joey Ries:

And I'm like, how would you hear about us? They're like, Facebook. 

Derrick Michaud:

It's like the most organic, healthiest TV dinner. 

Heather Ries:

Instead of them going to McDonald’s and buying a fast food, they're coming here, and they're getting a good prepared meal. 

Derrick Michaud:

I'm sold. I can't believe I haven't been here before. 

Joey Ries:

Well, it makes us happy that people from another country that are here for a year working, I mean they seriously come in every day we're open. 

Heather Ries:

Well, especially I mean and being in this industry, Europeans have a completely different view of food than—I mean they'll go to the market every single day. And when I worked as a private chef for the family in Memphis, I shopped every day for their food, and that's the kind of thing that around here a lot of people don't do. You go to the store, and you get what's fresh over there and that's why you cook that. Because hey, that fish just came out of the ocean or that, so that. And I like that type of mentality when it comes to food. Everything should be fresh. 

Derrick Michaud:

I've been to Europe twice in Austria, and the food is just better. And it's not like it's because it's Austrian cuisine. It's just a cheeseburger tastes better because what we call organic is their regular.

Heather Ries:

Yeah. And here, and I mean I'm not trying to be little or anything, but so many people are into convenience and quickness. 

Derrick Michaud:

I’m guilty of it.

Heather Ries:

And the quick and convenient things are not good for. 

Joey Ries:

When you have triplets, sometimes you got to do that. 

Heather Ries:

We're trying to take and make that different and make sure that like quick and convenient can also be healthy. I mean because we have people that have stopped going to the grocery store altogether because they come in here and they buy everything they need for their family for the week. 

Joey Ries:

We have a guy that comes in once a week, spends almost $300. I mean that's what he does. That's just his thing. I know when he comes, he's going to fill that counter up with a bunch of food, some from the freezer, some from the cooler. 

Heather Ries:

We've got great—yeah. And that's the thing. Like after every person comes in—

Joey Ries:

I had a lady spend a thousand dollars one time in here. 

Derrick Michaud:

Wow. 

Joey Ries:

I made a lot of gift cards too. I mean she was, but— 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. We're constantly like, after someone leaves, you got to walk back up there and make sure everything is, make sure we don't need to mark something off because as we're telling people, like as it sells out, we try to keep track. 

Joey Ries:

Yeah. I feel bad when we sell out of something, and I haven't marked it off. They're like, it shows it's on the board. I'm like. 

Heather Ries:

But yeah, then on Fridays and Saturdays, we do baked goods and bread. And I make Amy do that. Amy worked for me at the bakery four years, and when we closed the bakery and Megan bought it, she worked for Megan for a little while and then she went to City Hall Cheesecake. And then I had to beg Kim if I could have her back. It was funny because Kim is a great woman, and when she knew that we were opening and she even went to me and went to Amy and she's like, I know you're going to want to go back to work for Heather. Just give me enough notice. 

Derrick Michaud:

Just let me know. 

Joey Ries:

Amy’s a very key part of our business. 

Heather Ries:

And I have her do the baked goods because I don't want to do it. And that's what she's. So she does all the baked goods for everybody on Fridays and Saturdays. I make cinnamon rolls and bread, but she does most of the rest of it. 

Derrick Michaud:

That's awesome. Well, look, thanks for being here, guys. 

Joey Ries:

Thanks for having us. 

Derrick Michaud:

Before we wrap this up, let's do some CTA as we call it, a call to action. So let's start with where you can find the menu online. So it's a Facebook page. 

Heather Ries:

Facebook. We do have a website, MrsHippieEats.com. 

Joey Ries:

And it's M-R-S-HippieEats. It's not—

Heather Ries:

Well, I mean the website doesn't have a dot. It's just MrsHippieEats. 

Derrick Michaud:

Yeah, right. Which is a great name by the way. It's so awesome. 

Heather Ries:

Thank you. 

Derrick Michaud:

I mean it's on the tie-dye shirt. 

Joey Ries:

Well, there we go. 

Derrick Michaud:

You got the hippie part. But then Mrs. Hippie Eats. 

Heather Ries:

Right. And it's funny because so many people say Miss Hippie. I'm like, you didn't take your grammar lesson seriously. Mrs. 

Joey Ries:

But Facebook is the most up-to-date. She never gets on there and post what we sold out of because she's too busy to do that. So all day long, she will update whenever something new goes in the cooler.

Heather Ries:

We are on Instagram, but I'm really bad about posting on Instagram. I need to get better about that. But a lot of people, especially some of our older clientele are like, well, I'm not on Facebook. Well, you can still go to our website, and it will take you directly. You can click on it. It'll take you directly to our social media pages. Even if you don't follow us on Facebook, you can still see our menu. 

Derrick Michaud:

Yeah. I see the post all the time. 

Joey Ries:

If you see something you want and there's a picture of it on Facebook, call us and we will put your name on it and put it in the back. And that way, you know we'll have it. 

Heather Ries:

We're doing monthly giveaways right now. I started last month. I tried to do a $50 gift card to our shop and then a $20 gift card to another local shop. 

Derrick Michaud:

I saw that. 

Heather Ries:

And last time I had to delete it because somebody tried to start a new page and was sending someone, like asking for money and give me your credit card number. You're a winner. 

Derrick Michaud:

I saw that in your story. Like sorry, guys, but… 

Joey Ries:

You're trying to do something nice. And yeah. 

Derrick Michaud:

Man. 

Heather Ries:

Yeah. So look, this is like textbook small business in Hernando which is why I started this podcast and this whole thing. This is so cool, and I appreciate y'all's time for being here. 

Joey Ries:

We appreciate you.

Derrick Michaud:

So let me just wrap this up here, and then we'll get on our way. So look, to our listeners and viewers, please share this episode so more people can learn about Mrs. Hippie Eats and Joey and Heather. They'd really appreciate it. They don't know this yet, but they're going to save me a platter of those lemon squares. 

Heather Ries:

We can do that.

Derrick Michaud:

Visit our website, TheRealHernando.com. There you can find this episode in audio, video, and text format. We transcribe the whole episode. So when you go to the episode page, you can read this entire—

Heather Ries:

You might have to transcribe my dialect anyway.

Derrick Michaud:

And you can subscribe for free on our website. That will give you email notifications for new episodes. Also, we're on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Audible, all the major platforms and YouTube. And you can follow us on Instagram and Facebook, both are at The Real Hernando. Thanks, guys. 

Heather Ries:

Thank you. 

Joey Ries:

Thank you. 

Derrick Michaud:

Appreciate y'all. 

Joey Ries:

Been a pleasure. 

Derrick Michaud:

Take care.