Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Fehribach.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Paul. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
We opened Big Jones in 2008 with a vision of creating a Southern space in Chicago with food, ambience, and service all true to the spirit of the South. When you consider what a diverse set of regions and peoples make up the South, it proved to be a daring and challenging vision, one which we never stop refining. Big Jones is at once a tribute to the diverse American South and its places and people, and a home in Chicago for Southerners or would-be Southerners looking for a taste of home. Most importantly, we recognize that the South has a long history which is filled with as much conflict and heartache as it is all of the beautiful things we love.
We seek to raise the voices (and recipes) of the people who represent the best of the South, from the African Americans who endured slavery and Jim Crow while inventing what would become one of today’s outstanding world cuisines, to today’s generation of artisans, farmers, and cooks, who are reckoning with that past and building a new South that holds more promise than ever, and is still the most delicious place to eat in America.
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?
We opened in April 2008, so we had a few good months before the economic crisis took us off at the knees. It was a long road clawing back from that, but we stuck with it. The other major challenge has been trying to represent Southern food honestly in a Northern city, where many people have rather narrow, or often even colonial, views of the South as a region. We’ve had to overcome notions that to be Southern, food has to be “cheap” or “dirty” or any one of a number of absurd and condescending ideas that certain Yankees maintain. One by one, though, we change minds and hearts.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
When we began planning what was to become Big Jones in 2005/2006, I had no idea that Southern food was about to catch a wave and become trendy. It was the cuisine that most interested me personally, because I identified with it personally as someone who grew up in the woods in Southern Indiana and has a born taste for country cooking.
I’ve long believed that food tells a story, and is often the most important story, about the people who create it, carry it, or are sustained by it. I felt like this story wasn’t being told, and I wanted to tell it. We turned out to be on the leading edge of a wave we are often credited with starting, but personally, I have always felt it was just luck because I was doing what I wanted to do and the trends that emerged were definitely a benefit.
Pricing:
- Brunch entrees, $12-18
- Dinner entrees, $14-25
Contact Info:
- Address: Big Jones
5347 North Clark Street,
Chicago, IL 60647 - Website: bigjoneschicago.com
- Phone: 773-275-5725
- Email: bigjones@bigjoneschicago.com
- Instagram: bigjoneschicago
- Facebook: bigjoneschicago
- Twitter: bigjones
Image Credit:
Headshot – Grant Kessler
All other photos – Paul Fehribach
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