Job Spotlight with Jennie and Rodrigo Sardinas, owners of Lemongrass Thai and Sushi

It's been said that starting a restaurant isn't the hardest part. It's keeping that dream venture alive for five or more years that is the true challenge in the finicky world of dining out.

It takes a solid business plan, plenty of money, delicious food, top-notch servers and kitchen staff and lots of energy, all wrapped up with a bow tie emblazoned with the words of the universal ingredient: Hard work.

Rodrigo and Jennie Sardinas believe they have what it takes to succeed with their relatively new Lemongrass Thai and Sushi restaurant at 2435 Wynnton Road in Columbus, in the former Jumbo China spot. They launched the eatery nearly three months ago after about two years of planning.

"She's been the driving force. This is her dream, her baby," says Rodrigo, 35, the son of a Korean mother and Cuban father who retired here from the U.S. Army. He's been in Columbus since 1987, calling this area his hometown.

Jennie, 30, is the daughter of a couple who immigrated here, with dad from Thailand and mom from neighboring Laos. Most of her family helps with the restaurant in some way.

While Rodrigo is juggling work at Lemongrass with pursuing his Ph.D. at Auburn University, Jennie is the go-to person at the restaurant, using her experience from about a decade of working in every facet of the business.

Driven and motivated? Rodrigo gives an example from the birth of their second child about a month ago. Not everyone could manage such a situation like Jennie did.

"I'm a very lucky guy," he said, smiling. "She just had another baby. She worked until the day she had the baby. So she checked herself into the hospital on Monday. They let her out Thursday and she was back here Friday. So she's a hard-working girl."

The Ledger-Enquirer visited the couple recently at Lemongrass, talking about the process of launching a restaurant and their outlook toward building it into a success story.

(Click here for Lemongrass Thai and Sushi on Facebook)

This used to be Jumbo China?

Rodrigo: Yes. We used to eat there after church every Sunday. The funny thing before that, when this was Olympic Health Spa, our whole family had memberships here. So me, my dad and my brother, this was the men's gym, and mom would go over there to the women's gym. (laughs)

How did you come to the decision to start Lemongrass?

Jennie: I always liked to be in the restaurant, and I was thinking here would probably be a good spot, and also in the Midtown, I don't see that they have a good Thai food and sushi combination. That made me want to do business in this area. But myself, I like to be in the restaurant. I like to see people. I like to socialize with others and make new friends.

You've worked before in restaurants I understand?

Jennie: I did everything, dishwasher to the front. When I was in Jacksonville, I helped a family start (a restaurant). The chef was very good, and six months later, he trained me. A year later, I was chef in the kitchen. I was chef for five or six years, and then I said, that's too hot, I don't want to be in the kitchen anymore. I want to be outside. Then they trained me to be a server. At first, I was just a bus girl and refill the drinks. After that, I come to Wasabi (restaurant in Columbus). I'd be in the front. He sent me to Tennessee to open a new restaurant, so I managed it for a while.

You're from Thailand?

Jennie: Yes, I am. I moved to the United States when I was 21. When first I come here, I didn't know any English. I was, oh, I want to go home. I stay here for a little while, then I love it here. I love America. I don't want to go back.

How did you land in this location?

Rodrigo: Actually, we had been looking for a place for the past almost two years. She had always wanted to do this, wanted to own a restaurant. We were trying to find the right place, trying to get our finances in order. It's a pretty big financial endeavor. In the beginning, it was one disappointment after another. Nothing was working out. Every place we looked at, there was something wrong with it. Or the sales person contact wouldn't call us back.

But we're Christians and we think everything happens for a reason. We just trust God and keep praying and things will work out. Eventually, what happened, we hadn't even looked at this spot. One of her friends, the previous owner of Jumbo China, is her friend's sister. She knew that we were trying to open a restaurant and find a place. We had gotten an offer to buy an existing restaurant in Opelika and that didn't work out. Her friend said, look, if you really want to do this ... we're trying to find someone to sell it to.

We looked around, and in this area there's mainly fast food. People told us for them to find a good restaurant, they either have to go downtown or go to north Columbus.

This is a fairly large place?

Rodrigo: This seats 198. Initially, we were looking for something smaller, around 3,000 square feet total, seating around 100 people. This is 6,600 square feet. It's a lot bigger. But it's a good thing ... We really feel like this is a blessing because we worked out a really good offer with her friend's sister. On top of that, our landlords are great people to work with. I have several friends that own restaurants, and so does she. And they tell us how much of a headache it is dealing with their landlords. But we got a really reasonable rate for this place here.

And we never have to worry about expanding. Now we can use these other (dining room) sections for other things. We have the private room. We can entertain large parties. We already have the space that we might need in the future.

Were you nervous about starting a restaurant?

Rodrigo: I was. (smiles)

Jennie: No. I really think if we have good food and great service, and here is a good location, too. If people know we're here, we'll have a good business. And also I believe if we are local owned, most of the local people will support us.

Was getting this place together a lot of work?

Rodrigo: It was quite a bit of work. The tables were here. We had to replace the chairs. We wanted to replace the tables but, again, we spent quite a bit of money trying to get this place open. We tried to do the best with what we had. When we have the financial means, we plan to replace the tables, the booths. (My mom) actually did all the booths for us. She reupholstered nearly every booth in here. She was a professional seamstress for 30 years. A lot of the work in here we tried to do ourself to save on costs.

It is a family venture?

Rodrigo: It really is. Her family's in the kitchen right now. Her mom and dad, they all came over here to this country around the same time, and they all have been working in restaurants the whole time. So her mom and dad do the cooking for us. Her aunt is one of the prep chefs. They helped us with finances, too. It wasn't all from us. They gave us some. My parents gave us some. I took out loans from the bank. So it really was a family effort.

And my mom's constantly going to Atlanta for us to pick up food, if food runs out. Sometimes unexpectedly you sell more than you plan to.

There are special ingredients and spices in Thai food?

Jennie: Lemongrass, galangal, brown leaf, stuff like that. They don't have it here in Columbus.

What was the health department inspection and other licensing like?

Rodrigo: It's a big ordeal. But I feel like we've been really blessed. We've had a lot of local support. My school, Columbus State University, they support us and do meetings in one of the rooms sometimes. A lot of the faculty members come down. Some of my friends who were students come in.

But the health department, the lady we worked with, again, another blessing. They're very particular. She's going to go down her checklist and check everything. She's not going to miss anything. But she's not overbearing. She'll tell us, look, this is what you need to work on. We actually had her come in before, and she said here are some areas you need to fix before we come do this. There are a lot of things you have to do.

But, yeah, it's a lot of paperwork, certificate of occupancy, health inspection, the fire marshal has to come, the Columbus Water Works has to come. We're getting a liquor license, so they have to come.

Jumbo China had a buffet and I see the buffet tables. Do you offer that?

Rodrigo: We kept some of the buffet tables. That's a bit misleading for some customers because they think we're still a buffet and we're not. However, sometimes we entertain large parties. We had a party of 125 once, and for large parties if they want -- we have different price points -- we give them the option. You can select items that you would like for your party and we'll put those on the buffet table for you ... We'll just make sure the buffet table has this many appetizers, this many entrees and these desserts that you selected.

What's your most popular dish?

Jennie: So far, in the Thai food right now, all the curry customers say it is very good. A few families come eat the curry every other day that we're open.

Rodrigo: This is probably true for any restaurant, but 70 to 80 percent of our business right now is repeat customers. We have lots of customers that come every week, two or three times a week. They love our food. And, honestly, that's where most of our revenue is coming from.

Why did you pick Lemongrass for your name?

Jennie: It's a spice. All of the curry (dishes) is based on lemongrass.

Rodrigo: Another interesting thing about our restaurant is we actually grow a lot of our own ingredients. We grow our own lemongrass. A lot of the Thai peppers, we grow them in our backyard. Every morning her aunt picks peppers for the day. Basil, mint, there are a lot of things we use in the restaurant that we go out into our backyard to get.

Do you see all types of people coming in to eat Thai?

Rodrigo: Every demographic of people we've seen. Thai is a really trending food right now. Sushi is, too. There's more of this push to eat healthy. And a lot of people like hibachi. It's kind of a healthier version of steak. We have college students that come, all of the way up to 70- and 80-year-old people. Military people who have been to Thailand before, they like Thai food. Again, I've seen every demographic in here.

What's the most challenging aspect of your job?

Jennie: Keeping up with the employees.

Managing employees?

Jennie: Yes. They always think they know better than you. (smiles) Sometime they won't listen. You have to try to find a way to talk to them and get them to do what you need them to do.

Rodrigo: For example, we tell our waitresses -- and this is not to pick on our waitresses or employees, we're not doing that -- but if you have three tables of customers, the small things matter. If I come to eat here, I want to feel like you care about me, that I'm important.

We don't want to just serve you good food. We had one comment on Yelp or Facebook, and someone said, you know, I felt as if I were eating at home. It was a very personal experience. And that's what people want. They'll come back for that. Even if you make a mistake in their food, they'll come back for that (personal) experience.

We try to tell (wait staff), go back to your table, talk to your customers, make them feel welcome. After you bring them their food, maybe 10 to 15 minutes later, go back and ask how everything is. That way if they don't like something, you can fix it before they leave and it's too late. So it's things like that. It's the routine. Do these things. Act this way.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Jennie: Seeing the plates full of the customers, and seeing every dish coming back clean. I'm very happy and enjoy it when I see that, empty plates.

What are your future plans beyond day-to-day operation of the restaurant?

Rodrigo: We did as much as we can with our finances and opening this place. But we're not done. There's a lot of work that we still want to do to this place. Some of our friends have advised us to do this, those who own restaurants, and they say everything you make for the first one or two years, put it back into the restaurant. So what we would like to do, once we've been open a year or two, is spend two or three months renovating this place, doing some work to the inside, making it look a little nicer.

BIO

Name: Rodrigo and Jennie Sardinas

Age: He’s 35, she’s 30

Hometown: He was born at Fort Stewart, Ga., but calls Columbus home since he’s been here since 1987; she’s from Thailand

Current residence: Columbus

Education: He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from Columbus State University and is working on a Ph.D. in computer science at Auburn University; she earned a bachelor’s degree in Thailand

Previous jobs: He has worked various sales-oriented and management jobs; she has worked at all levels in the restaurant business for about 10 years, from bussing tables and serving to cooking and management

Family: They have two daughters, Linda, 20 months, and Anna, one month old; his parents, Ana, who is Korean, and Jorge, who is Cuban, and her parents, Anna, from Laos, and Ae, from Thailand

Leisure time: They enjoy watching action and comedy movies at home, but don’t have much time for anything else because of the business and classes at Auburn

This story was originally published October 31, 2015 at 10:33 PM with the headline "Job Spotlight with Jennie and Rodrigo Sardinas, owners of Lemongrass Thai and Sushi."