Meet Engie & Jason Heidelberg | Owners of Graze Box

We had the good fortune of connecting with Engie & Jason Heidelberg and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Engie & Jason, any advice for those thinking about whether to keep going or to give up?

The truth is, you don’t. You’ll never know whether or not to keep going and you’ll never know if you fail or succeed unless you keep moving forward. We don’t believe in failures, we believe in lessons. There are lessons that we learn, and then we pivot and move forward yet again.

In the early days of Graze Box, we questioned ourselves a lot. We had left our corporate jobs and it wasn’t by choice, it was due to the pandemic in which so many others were laid off as well. It wasn’t easy, still is not easy and once it becomes easy we will challenge ourselves and our business with something new. There were weeks where we would question if this was the right path, it is okay to question, but keep putting in the work. Our sales would flood over every time we questioned if this was the path we were meant to be on, and so we continued.

We continued to work hard, we continued to do our best and we continued to follow our vision. It’s natural to question yourself, to question your path and your decisions, but if you don’t take a chance on yourself then how will you ever have the opportunity to succeed?

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

Engie has her degrees in Biochemistry and Political Science, while Jason has his master degree in music performance and has toured China playing the cello in various cities. We come from a background of Operations in fortune 500 companies and startups, from licensing cannabis dispensaries to selling real estate, we’ve done and seen it all.  Between the both of us we have over 20 years of restaurant and hospitality experience and we are excited to be implementing what we’ve learned in our business. We believe our vast knowledge and diversity in our past professional lives have contributed to the success we have today.

We believe in order to grow your business you must first grow yourself. It’s not easy, we are a family owned business, thus when something comes up, it comes up for us both. Thankfully, we have an amazing team to drive Graze Box forward and we would not be here without every one of them. As mentioned previously, we lost Engie’s mother two weeks prior to the opening of our store, we’ve gone through opening our business during a pandemic and navigating through the waves, we’ve gone through a massive car wreck and fire evacuations and have not once turned away a customer. You get through obstacles by being focused and believing the importance of showing up for your customers and for your brand.

Tough Times fade but tough people never do, that is written in my 2000 year book and its something we remind ourselves on the daily. If it was easy, everyone could do it, so you must stand out, you must work hard and you must change with the times or else you’ll be stuck in the past.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We’re lucky to live in Southern California, we’ve got it all! The beach, the dessert, the mountains, there is something for everyone! We’re big foodies, so when we have guests visiting from out of state, we make sure to make reservations at Trust 2.0 in Orange, California. It is a private chef experience. Whatever the chef serves you that night, you will not be disappointed. Rockin Baja Lobster is also a favorite for us, we opt to sit outside order some drinks and enjoy the most flavorful seafood in Newport Beach, in our opinion. A nice little secret is the Rooftop bar on top of the Westin Hotel in Anaheim, there you can have a few more drinks and enjoy Disneyland fireworks with the backdrop of California Adventure crowd free! There’s too many places to list that have become our favorites or a little hole in the wall that we’ve discovered here and there, but one thing is for sure, if someone is visiting good food and good company go hand in hand.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

Our biggest supporter is Engie’s Mom, Samia, passed away two weeks prior to our scheduled grand opening. We are comforted in knowing she is celebrating with us from Heaven and was here to see and contribute to the start of Graze Box. We push forward because of her. Much of our menu is a direct representation of her. She will forever be in our hearts and we believe she is cheering us on every step of the way.

We are thankful for our support system and influx of support. Jason’s Dad, William, without fail loves every photo, comments on every photo we share,  and calls every morning to check in on us and see what the day holds. He’s our honorary “manager” – Living in Kentucky doesn’t slow him down one bit, and we are so thankful for his love and support.

Our Cousin Ann A., who found out we had been laid off weeks a part, picked up the phone and convinced us to start Graze Box. She believed in us when we were in a dark place and did not believe in ourselves, we started Graze Box in less than 24 hours and now we have outgrown our shared commercial kitchen space and opened up our first Brick n’ Mortar location and in search for location #2!

Our community, Linda M., Lydia M, Jen H., Kristin B., Christina R., Kayla C., Lacy Nicole to name a few, these ladies are pillars in our community and have supported us, encouraged us and believed in us since day one. They have instilled in us that there is a greater purpose in life and that it is our duty to help one another out. We are thankful to them for using their platform and for their kindness in our darkest and happiest of hours.

Website: https://grazeoc.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/graze.box/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grazeoc/

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/graze-box-lake-forest-3

Image Credits
Graze OC, LLC ; Michael Pascual Media