Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Ada.
Hi Megan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve always wanted to work at a restaurant. When I was a child, I was envious of other young kids whose parents owned a restaurant and got to work in the restaurant. My first job was at McDonald’s, and I loved it. I continued to work in the industry. I graduated from The Ohio State University with a pre-medical degree. I attended medical school for 3 months but then decided to go to culinary school at Johnson and Wales. I then discovered the franchise Sunny Street Cafe and had the opportunity to own a franchise in Westerville. I was 25 years old. With five years of restaurant-owning experience, I was ready to open my own concept, Asterisk Supper Club. I found out I was pregnant a couple of months before we opened, so I worked the first year of Asterisk pregnant and worked up till the day I had her. She is now 7 years old. Asterisk is a unique concept offering afternoon tea service, comfort food, and unique cocktails. We use antique dishes that were either purchased from thrift stores or donated to us from guests whose family members may have passed. Three years later I was approached by a building owner who wanted me to open up a restaurant in their building in the Short North. I signed a lease, not knowing what concept I wanted to have. My talented chef husband thought we love ramen; let’s do ramen! That’s how Ampersand Asian Supper Club came about. We offer chef-driven gourmet ramen and rice bowls. I moved to Uptown Westerville, so I’m definitely local and can walk to Asterisk. We are now in the process of opening a second Ampersand in Uptown. This will be my 4th restaurant.
I couldn’t have done any of this without my parents. My mom’s interior design experience and my dad truly believed in me and took out loans for the restaurants with my parent’s home and business as collateral. Over the last 14 years, the businesses have successfully made all-on-time loan payments.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have been many challenges along the way. When I purchased Sunny Street, being so young, I was judged for my age. People doubted me or thought my parents just bought this spoiled kid from a restaurant. If for the very few times I wasn’t there, people thought I was on vacation or just not working. I wasn’t allowed “time off”. After a few years, I had proven myself that all those assumptions were the complete opposite. My dad taught me that no matter what you do in life, you do it 100%, even if it’s cleaning the toilets. I have a very strong work ethic, and failure is not an option, so eventually, people saw that. When I opened Asterisk, I had 5 years of restaurant ownership, so I felt as if I was ready to open my own concept. It was so hard! Thinking and making all the decisions to create a concept was hard but fun! Once we opened, it was hectic, but we pulled it off and stayed afloat enough to make sure our guests wanted to keep coming back. I ended up hiring a consultant 2 years into being opened because I was still struggling to figure this restaurant out. Through the consultant, I met my future husband. I hired Joshua Cook, and we fell in love, and now he is my life partner at work and at home. Then when we opened Ampersand Asian Supper Club together, our challenge with this restaurant was the fact that he wasn’t Asian. People were very mean and accused us of not knowing what we were doing or qualified to cook Asian food even though we both love Asian food, and I grew up eating ramen. My dad’s side of the family is Pacific Islander from Guam, which has a huge Japanese influence. But people are just so quick to judge and point fingers at those actually doing something challenging! I 100% hands down will say covid was the most challenging time of my 14 years of owning restaurants. Our core team worked endless hours because we were doing so little in sales and couldn’t afford to hire anyone but at the same time, very few people were working. My husband and I were working from 10 am to 1 am many nights. Then, once we got some momentum going, the protests in the Short North caused us to have to board up and, as a result, do even less in sales. Once we were able to reopen and things started to get to somewhat back to normal, we were hiring anyone who applied no matter what their experience was because we were so desperate, and again, the amount of people applying was so minimal. And on top of not being qualified, they wanted $20+ an hour. Then people would quit with no notice, and we’d have to do this over and over again. Not until middle of 2023 did it feel like we could go somewhat back to a normal schedule and find more qualified team members.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
Sunny Street Cafe is a breakfast franchise that serves breakfast and lunch. I purchased this franchise in 2010. We are known for our fresh ingredients and very friendly, welcoming service. Asterisk Supper Club opened in 2016 as a tea house with creative cocktails and comfort food. We’re known for our beautiful ambiance with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, chandeliers, and a bar from the late 1800s. We have a unique afternoon tea service that people come from all over the city to experience. We also feature an elevated comfort food menu along with unique cocktails. Ampersand Asian Supper Club opened in 2019 in the Short North. Ampersand has a cool modern ambiance with an open kitchen that specializes in ramen and rice bowls. We make all our broths in-house and carefully resource our ingredients. I’m most proud of our uniqueness. We’re places that you’ll experience and never forget!
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love Columbus! The food scene is great, and there are always great events. People are friendly, and the communities that makeup Columbus are awesome. Columbus is clean and maintains for the most part. I think Columbus could use a more effective transit system where people don’t have to take multiple buses to get from one side of Columbus to the other.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sunnystreetcafe.com | www.asterisksupperclub.com | https://ampersandasiansupperclub.com/
- Instagram: https://www.facebook.com/ampersandasiansupperclub/
https://www.facebook.com/sunnystreetcafewesterville/
https://www.facebook.com/asterisksupperclub/
https://www.instagram.com/asterisksupperclub/
https://www.instagram.com/ampersandasiansupperclub/
Image Credits
April De Farias
