Living the dream. Warner Robins couple opens small Southern and Cajun food restaurant
Michele and Stephon Roberts have dreamed about owning and operating their own restaurant for years.
Today, they’re living their dream.
The husband and wife team recently opened Hunni BJ’s Foodbar & Grill, a new cafeteria-style restaurant in Warner Robins that serves up Southern and Cajun food.
The small restaurant at 504 Russell Parkway in a shopping strip is named after each of their late mothers.
Her mom, Harriet Miller Pierce, was nicknamed Hunni, pronounced honey, and they combined her nickname with the initials of his mom’s name, Barbara Johnson, to create Hunni BJ’s Foodbar and Grill.
“My mom used to have small restaurant back home,” said Michele who’s originally from Millen. “And his mom used to run a catering services, and we both used to help.
“That’s funny, isn’t it? So, that’s why spun it around. We said, hey we’ll just call it Hunni BJ’s.”
Photos of a painting of their mom’s faces intertwined hang in the restaurant. The painting was done by a Ghana artist, a friend of Michele’s daughter’s husband, who is from Africa.
A love of cooking
Stephon Roberts, a native of Albany, made a career in food service.
When he was a manager for Ryan’s Steakhouse, he opened up new stores and trained the staff. He’s also managed other restaurants like Ole Times Country Buffet, Cook Out and Krystal’s.
Additionally, he worked in food service for the Georgia Department of Corrections for 20 years. He also operates his own catering business, Big Rob’z Cooking & Catering.
At one time, Stephon was simultaneously working for the state prison system, managing a restaurant and operating his catering business.
Today, he’s focused on their new restaurant and his catering business.
“It’s been a dream of mine for a long time,” Stephon said of the restaurant.
Michele Roberts has always enjoyed cooking.
“I had no choice. I had five children,” she said with a laugh.
She also has her own hair salon, All Dolled Up at 301 East Robins West Parkway in Warner Robins. She’s keeping the salon but does hair by appointment only, which allows her to focus on their restaurant.
Michele said she prayed about the restaurant for years and believes God put it in her heart that she would have her own restaurant.
For the past several years, as the couple dreamed and prayed, they started buying items for their restaurant as they came across them from chairs for the tables to wall hangings.
“Oh my goodness” are words imprinted in one of the wall hangings.
Michele explained that when Stephon is in the kitchen cooking and samples what he’s making, if it’s really good, he often exclaims, “Oh my goodness.”
He’s also known for his lemonades, hence, the sign, “That lemonade.”
Their restaurant slogan is, “We cook with love. Come taste the buzz.”
“That means to me that when I cook ... I like to take my time and sample what I cook to make sure it’s good for the palate and then everybody raves about it and they tell everybody about it. That’s where the taste the buzz comes from,” she said.
The couple first opened their restaurant for three days in mid-June to test the waters and have been experimenting with different hours since to see what works best.
Their current hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays, which includes a brunch until noon, and then 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays. The restaurant offers dine-in and takeout. The number is 478-236-2243.
The food
At Hunni BJ’s, customers can expect three to four meats, a variety of vegetables and one dessert a day. A plate includes one meat and two vegetables.
The Roberts arrive early each day to cook what they’re serving that day.
On a recent visit, among the offerings were fried chicken, baked chicken, fried pork chops, curry chicken, rice and gravy, macaroni and cheese, cabbage, collards, black-eyed peas, butter beans, green beans, potato salad, along with a dinner roll or hoe cake cornbread. Dessert for the day was buttermilk pie.
They’re considering adopting a schedule where the same meats and vegetables are offered regularly on certain days but right now, the daily offering varies.
The Roberts already have repeat customers, including Donovan Williams who works in maintenance for the Houston County Board of Education.
“I love it,” Williams said as he was selecting two meals to take with him on a recent visit. “Everything is delicious.”
The Roberts have been married for 15 years and make their home in Warner Robins. They were asked what it means to them to finally have their restaurant.
“I can’t explain it,” Stephon said. “It’s like to live a dream; just leave a legacy here. The blessing is not for us. It’s for us to pass on.”
Their children help out at the restaurant and they hope that their grandchildren and great grandchildren will also join them in the small family business.
“It’s just the fullness of joy to see people I guess enjoy the food,” Michele said. “I guess I feel complete. I accomplished it; to see the end result of the dream.”
