He went from serving plates in his yellow Cadillac to chef at new Columbus restaurant
Jarrett Farley made his second mark in the Columbus food scene by riding around in a yellow Cadillac with a makeshift grill hitched to the back. He’d hit up parks and nightclubs, looking for new or repeat customers to buy plates of food.
A few years and more than 12,000 Facebook followers later, he will soon stop selling plates on social media.
It’s not a bad thing. Farley, 38, will be a chef at a new soul food restaurant, The Straw Hat, which is set to open in Columbus in February.
It almost didn’t happen. There was a time when Farley wasn’t sure he’d ever be in a kitchen again. But he’s navigated a series of rough years and odd jobs to get where he is today, he said.
Farley opened his first restaurant, Slim’s Chicken and Waffles, in 2008 on Warm Springs Road. He used the money he made as a DJ and nightclub promoter to open the doors. Slim’s remained open for three years, but the Great Recession took its toll, eventually forcing Farley to close down.
The next few years were tough for him. Farley’s house caught on fire, and he ended up living with his mother. He wasn’t sure he’d cook again, he said.
But that changed in March 2016. Farley had been laid off from a construction job at Ft. Benning when he posted a picture of a baked potato on social media. It blew up, he said.
“I didn’t even really plan on cooking again, for real for real,” he said. “After that, I sold them for six months every day — 30 or 40 potatoes.”
He made his first grill from a metal drum and an old trailer that was sitting in his yard. While selling plates on social media, he also drove his Cadillac wherever people were to sell his food.
The operation has grown since then, and it has been Farley’s primary source of income for nearly four years, he said.
Almost every day, Farley pushes his buggy through the aisles of a local grocery store in search of food. In a few hours, after a little heat and a little love, his finished meals are piled high and packed tightly into white foam containers and delivered to his customers who are primarily retired people, he said.
Some times, Farley won’t cook on Mondays, calling them a “slow day.” Some times, he’ll ask his Facebook followers what they’d like to eat that day. He also chooses on some days to just make up the menu as he goes.
On his Facebook page, “Slim’s Grill Trapp Booming,” Farley posts photos of daily meals for sale. He does dishes like beef tips or chicken, sausage and shrimp alfredo with corn and garlic bread.
A plate costs $10. He sells anywhere from 20 to 50 plates per day, depending on what he’s cooked. He’s become so well known and friendly with grocery store employees that they’ll let give him a heads up on what items will soon go on sale.
“I just kind of freestyle it,” he said. “I’ve got my clientele built up to where whatever I cook, they support it.”
Farley never went to culinary school, but he learned to cook as a young boy while watching his father, Wilson Farley, and other Columbus firefighters cook lunches at the fire station.
“I used to go over there for lunch, and I used to help them and watch them,” he said. “They just take what they got. Everybody used to put in their little money. They’d go to the store and come up with a little menu. Everybody would do their part.”
His newest venture, The Straw Hat, is set to open sometime in February at 3360 Buena Vista Road Suite 11. Farley and owner Christi Murrell will work the kitchen.
“Now, we’re trying to get this right here going, so (we) can take it to another level where I don’t have to ride around no more,” he said. “I’m just happy I can do it the right way now.”
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "He went from serving plates in his yellow Cadillac to chef at new Columbus restaurant."