Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Zemba.
Hi Shannon, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
as briefly as I can. My love for the service industy started in 2000, right afywr high school. my mom and step dad who have been living in St. Croix U.S.V.I asked me to come help them run their hotels, and open a couple restaurants. So I made the move to a far away place, it was the first time I ever been on an air plane. It was a total different way of living and the food flavors where also so different, amd I feel in love. I lived there for about 12 years where I helped my mom and step dad run their hotel and their restaurants. while working for them I ventured out so i could learn more about restaurants and managing. So I also worked for the McCormick’s who had several businesses on the island and Texas. after a couple years working for them they sent me to there management program in Texas where they had several clubs and restaurants and I traveled between several city’s and their businesses to learn all I could about restaurants and business management and also worked with their promotional manager. in 2007 my parent’s sold their hotels and moved home. I wanted to learn even more so I applied at The Buccaneer Resort on the island and became their Food and Beverage Manager for a few years before home was calling me in 2011 when I moved back. When I came back to Ohio I new I wanted to work in restaurants I applied at The Bistro on Main where I was a bartender for 4 years. in that time in 2013 I got married to my husband and we moved to Franklin Township, Kent, Ohio. We loved that we were in the country semi and between our hometown of Streetsboro where our youngest daughter lives with her mom and also close to a great city of Kent, and our eldest in Ravenna with her dad and Step Mom. In-between both pur girls. I wanted to open my own restaurant i had always wanted my own place and Kent was also the prefect location for this. I wanted to expand more so I left the Bistro and started to work for Sean Monday at One Red Door and Flip Side and became his GM for several years and in the mean time i worked on opening and looking into opening my own place. a friend and I became partners and decided to come up with our own concept of a breakfast spot. in 2019 the owner of Rise and Shine in Kent decided she wanted to retire. I met with her and after meeting she decided to sell to us. So my husband and I decided purchased Rise n Shine from her abd took over her lease. We opened our own concept of a different kind of breakfast spot. So in 2019 Over Easy Morning Cafe was born. then the pandemic hit and we navigated to keep open. My husband was working with NFS for 14years but in 2022 we had the chance to move to The Erie Depot and at this time my partner moved on and our lease was up so we decided to move and changed our name to Over Easy At The Depot. This is when my husband came to work at the restaurant also and we really turned it into a family owned and ran restaurant. When we moved my chef at the time decided he wanted to retire soon. so I actually moved to the kitchen full time and Chad my husband took over the front of house duties, like the paper work and accounting, food cost etc. so I could focus on the back of house more. My chef worked on teaching me all things in the kitchen so I could be my own chef over the restaurant. I always loved working in the kitchen and cooking is something that I enjoyed doing as a kid with my nana and grandmother. I love what we do together as a family and what we created for the community both our girls work with us it is a family owned and ran restaurant.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
the main problems we face are things like navigating getting product and pricing fluctuation. we prep a lot to put out fresh food and one thing we need is constancy and things sometimes are hard to get one week to the next. it has been tough since the pandemic. our main issues we face now are staffing for back of the house. So that means no days off for me hahah
As you know, we’re big fans of Over Easy At The Depot. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
we are a family owned and ran business. I love taking food and putting a creative spin on a dish. I am the head cook and work very hard at putting out fresh good food. I love calaberating in cooking with my husband. we also work on all our specials together, we do things collectively as a family. I would say the city of Kent has a lot of great family owned businesses and great eateries, i dont like to compare i want all us to thrive abd bring people to our community. I just love what I do and try to put that into our business and I hope that just shows and sets us apart in our own special way. but what I do love is that we have all mix matched coffee mugs and salt and pepper shakers. I have always loved/collected salt and pepper shakers and coffee mugs and I love all kinds because I love coffee and every morning I come in at 6 am and pick a different mug every morning and one that brightens my day up a little bit. my husband and I also love trains so its fitting that we are in an old Train Depot one of our family vacations was a trip to Horseshoe Curve. Most of the train collection in the restaurant is our own personal collection.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
I believe owning a family owned business means not only is it alot of work for yourself and your family. but you also thrive because not only is it your family that helps and mentors you. but it is with the help of so many people like our customer’s, other business ownes, our Chamber of Commerce, our community, main street kent and friends. Family owned means more then just your family. My guest become apart of the OEATD family. But just for me special thanks To my husband for beleiving in me in 2019 when i asked him to go to the bank with me to open a restaurant lol. And our girls our family’s, and very importantly my two fur kids Luna and Kylo I couldnt do what I love without them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://overeasyatthedepot.com
- Facebook: over easy at the depot
