Business

This Is It! BBQ & Seafood: Atlanta’s best place for Southern cooking

ROLLINGOUT.COM — This Is It! BBQ & Seafood is dedicated to Southern culinary excellence.

Published

5 years ago

February 5, 2019

By Rollingout.com

This Is It! BBQ & Seafood is dedicated to Southern culinary excellence and its founder, Shelley “Butch” Anthony III, has set a new standard for family and business dining. This Is It! continues to forge ahead toward greater heights in expanded markets across the country and internationally.

The seeds for Anthony’s entrepreneurial spirit were planted in Tampa, Florida, where he helped his parents operate their family-owned restaurant. Years later, he tried his hand at the corporate sector, before returning to the food-service industry.

Anthony opened his first restaurant — “Butch’s Slide-In BBQ” — in 1977 and has since successfully operated a multitude of restaurants in various locations.

With two decades in the industry, This Is It! BBQ & Seafood is recognized for its exceptional hospitality and authentic, home-style recipes. As This Is It! BBQ & Seafood launches into global markets, rolling out asked Anthony to reflect on how it all began and what’s coming next.

What’s the origin of this successful restaurant chain?

It actually started over 65 years ago. In 1951, my parents opened a diner in Tampa, Florida, named Anthony’s Drive-In. That’s where I got my start in the restaurant business, working for them.

How hard was it to go from location No. 1 to adding a second location?

The first official This Is It! BBQ & Seafood location opened in 1983. I opened the second one in 1985. It was difficult going from the first to the second because the first location was not yet generating enough income to fund the second location. Adding the second location actually made the income problem worse. I did everything in my power to make them both work, but it was very difficult.

What are your future expansion plans?

Last year, I signed a licensing agreement with a company, Belief Brands, to open 300 This Is It! BBQ & Seafood franchise locations all over the U.S. and Canada over the next 10 years.

Describe your management style and customer-service beliefs. How do you translate them to your front-line workers?

My management style is simple: I put God first in all that I do. We believe in delighting our customers with delicious Southern-style food cooked with love and history and delivered with excellent customer service. The message gets all the way down to our front-line workers through communication and observation. They get to hear it in our communication and training, and they get to see it in our behavior.

How do you expect the city of Atlanta to respond to the added attention of hosting the 2019 Super Bowl?

Atlanta is a wonderful host city with years of experience. We did a great job with the summer Olympics in 1996, and I know we are preparing to show the world we can do it again with the Super Bowl. I expect … we will show the world once again [that] Atlanta is truly [a] global city with the extensive capabilities needed to successfully host large global events.

Visit This Is It! BBQ & Seafood’s website: www.thisisitbbq.com

Following them on social media:

IG: @thisisitbbqandseafood

Twitter: @thisisitbbq

FB: @TheOfficialThisIsIt

This article originally appeared in Rollingout.com.

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Business

V.P. Kamala Harris: Americans With Criminal Records Will Soon Be Eligible for SBA Loans

Speaking in Las Vegas on Jan. 27, Vice President Kamala Harris announced a forthcoming federal rule that will extend access to Small Business Administration (SBA) loans to Americans who have been convicted of felonies but have served their time. Small business owners typically apply for the SBA loans to start or sustain their businesses.

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

On her daylong trip, Harris was joined by Horford, SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman, Interim Under Secretary of Commerce for Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Eric Morrissette, and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev).

By California Black Media

Small business owners typically apply for the SBA loans to start or sustain their businesses.

Harris thanked U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV-04), the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, for the work he has done in Washington to support small businesses and to invest in people.

“He and I spent some time this afternoon with business leaders and small business leaders here in Nevada. The work you have been doing to invest in community and to invest in the ambition and natural capacity of communities has been exceptional,” Harris said, speaking to a crowd of a few hundred people at the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Hall in East Las Vegas.

“Formerly incarcerated individuals face significant barriers to economic opportunity once they leave prison and return to the community, with an unemployment rate among the population of more than 27%,” the White House press release continued. “Today’s announcement builds on the Vice President’s work to increase access to capital. Research finds that entrepreneurship can reduce recidivism for unemployed formerly incarcerated individuals by as much as 30%.”

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G.O.P. Lawmakers: Repeal AB 5 and Resist Nationalization of “Disastrous” Contractor Law

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

File Photo: Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (R-Yuba City)

By California Black Media

Republican lawmakers gathered outside of the Employee Development Department in Sacramento on Jan. 23 to call for the repeal of AB5, the five-year old California law that reclassified gig workers and other independent contractors as W-2 employees under the state’s labor code.
Organizers said they also held the rally to push back against current efforts in Washington to pass a similar federal law.

“We are here to talk about this very important issue – a battle we have fought for many years – to stop this disastrous AB 5 policy,” said Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (R-Yuba City).
Now, that threat has gone national as we have seen this new rule being pushed out of the Biden administration,” Gallagher continued.

On Jan. 10, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a new rule providing guidance on “on how to analyze who is an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).”
“This final rule rescinds the Independent Contractor Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act rule (2021 IC Rule), that was published on January 7, 2021, and replaces it with an analysis for determining employee or independent contractor status that is more consistent with the FLSA as interpreted by longstanding judicial precedent,” a Department of Labor statement reads.
U.S. Congressmember Kevin Kiley (R-CA-3), who is a former California Assemblymember, spoke at the rally.

“We are here today to warn against the nationalization of one of the worst laws that has ever been passed in California, which has devastated the livelihoods of folks in over 600 professions,” said Kiley, adding that the law has led to a 10.5% decline in self-employment in California.

Kiley blamed U.S Acting Secretary of Labor, July Su, who was the former secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, for leading the effort to redefine “contract workers” at the federal level.
Kiley said two separate lawsuits have been filed against Su’s Rule – its constitutionality and the way it was enacted, respectively. He said he is also working on legislation in Congress that puts restrictions on the creation and implementation of executive branch decisions like Su’s.
Assemblymember Kate Sanchez (R-Rancho Santa Margarita) announced that she plans to introduce legislation to repeal AB 5 during the current legislative session.

“So many working moms like myself, who are also raising kids, managing households, were devastated by the effects of AB 5 because they lost access to hundreds of flexible professions,” Sanchez continued. “I’ve been told by many of these women that they have lost their livelihoods as bookkeepers, artists, family caregivers, designers, and hairstylists because of this destructive law.”