Meet Jeremy Platt | Chef & Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jeremy Platt and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jeremy, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My thought process behind starting my own business was I really wanted to connect everyone to what I do and for them to be invested in what I do. There’s a lot of good food out there, but to connect the food with our story and their experiences has been a beautiful thing to see. My wife and I have an My wife and I have a social work background and when it comes to that line of work building relationships is paramount. I like to tell people that It is the same with business. You have to build relationships. You have to build relationships with customers, with service providers, with our staff. If you don’t have positive relationships, you will never make it. Additionally when my wife and I decided to open the restaurant. We wanted to make sure it was very economical and sustainable and setting us up for a good future.

What should our readers know about your business?
What sets us apart from others? I hate to say it, but it’s easy to go back to the relationships. We have built with our customers and other businesses. These big corporations with multi million dollar backing and marketing apartments have so many resources where a small guys are left with, minimal resources. So it is my goal to not only push ourselves to be spectacular at what we do, but also giving other Small businesses, the spot light. That’s why when I change my menu every month, yeah that’s right. I said it we changed the menu every month. We choose a local small business we create a menu item together and we showcase them all month long on our menu. I think it is silly to think there isn’t any benefit and small businesses working together. Why would you not want to cope promote other people they have customers that maybe have never heard of me, and I have customers as likely have not heard of them so why don’t we work together more? Again, it’s all about the relationships.

How did I get where I am today? I would like to start off in seventh grade. Two significant things happened one my house burnt down and two. My parents split. It was a very weird time for a young kid pair that with being about as ADHD as you can possibly get, I had a very busy. Focusing on one thing at a time was very nonexistent for me. But that’s when I found cooking in seventh grade and it couldn’t have came at better time. When I am in a kitchen, that’s all it is. It’s me in the kitchen. Everything else disappears. Doesn’t matter what’s going on it’s terrible if it’s good. It doesn’t matter when I’m in the kitchen. I get tunnel vision and all the worries out the world and I’m just in my happy place.

How did I get where I am today? My best friend his little sister was getting married. I already had so much passion for cooking and fell in love with barbecue. But she asked me what would be the chances I would cook her wedding? Well, that wedding was 250 people but guess what we did it and we crushed it then the inquiries for catering weddings coming one after the other we catered for six years to the point where business was so big my wife and I were still working our jobs and social work with two beautiful children, it was very hard to manage everything and as I said family will always be number one. It was what I call the shit or get off the pot moment. Something had to give, and we were not gonna let that be family. So we found a building, I quit my job, shortly after my wife quit her job and we built a beautiful restaurant out of an empty canvas of a very old downtown building.

Was it easy? Absolutely not it was quite the opposite and terrifying start with a budget and you quickly find out that you were so far off and now you are over budget so after multiple finally get the building where you want you open up you have a wonderful month supported by wonderful people, then that first tax bill comes in and you about faint on the floor. I’m here to underestimated taxes and that was still a learning curve. Here we are over a year in for the restaurant seven years in with the catering. We’ve built so many relationship relationships, and have had so many people help us out along the way.

What would I like the world to know?
We also have a spice we sell at our restaurant and multiple grocery stores. We call is “Oink Dust”. Before we got where we were with the restaurant my first passion was making my own spice blends. Insert “Oink Dust”. This is our “OG” blend and has really taking off and made a name for us. We hope to really build up our brand and offer more products to help your backyard chef take his game to the next level.

I really REALLY enjoy marketing. I spend a lot of time working on our socials and finding new ways to get our name out there. I am thankful for social media as it has giving us a platform for the people to truly connect with us when they aren’t right in front of me. I think it is very important to be authentic and people see who I truly am instead of some corporate puppet. I love people, I’m a child at heart, and I want people to see the passion I have for what I do.

Take care of the people around you, build them up, build up your community. Take care of them, and they will take care of you. Building positive relationships are key to success.

My story? It’s just beginning!!!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Oh my, a whole week? Well I live in the country and am very proud of where I came from so I promise you we will be outside. Nothing like hitting the backroads, swapping stories, swimming in the creek, followed by a BBQ and drinks on the deck. That is at least one day there. Obviously they’ll get a nice meal at Platt Daddy BBQ but we will have to wash it down with some Ice Cream from TCBY or a cold beer from the “Quincy brewing Co” or my good friends at “The Scoreboard”. We would most definitely get a day on the golf course. We have some pretty nice local courses. Additionally a nice day trip would be on the docket. I love driving “Great River Road” down to Grafton, IL. It’s gorgeous but also has some wonderful bars, restaurants and activities. My favorite bar along the way is in a little town called “Nutwood”. And the bar, you will definitely miss if you blink. It’s called “Bawanas”. Love me a good dive bar. My wife and I try to do this trip as often as we can but as we have became business owners that has became difficult.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My wife and my kids deserve all the recognition in the world. If it was not for them, I would not be here today. I would not be motivated to take our life where it is now I would not be motivated to push myself, and I certainly would not be willing to take the risk that we have taken. Family is the most important thing and I hold myself to a very high standard. If it wasn’t for my wife dropping everything she had going for her to open up our restaurant we would have fell flat on our a*s.

Website: https://www.plattdaddybbq.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plattdaddybbq/?hl=en

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/PlattDaddyBBQ/

Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/platt-daddy-bbq-quincy

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkdXPXo3CxLDQpBVeoMt9iA

Other: TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@plattdaddybbq

Image Credits
Sam Karoll
Justin Waack