Meet JC and Angela Johnson | Owners of The Serving Spoon Restaurant

We had the good fortune of connecting with JC and Angela Johnson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi JC and Angela, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My thought process behind starting my own business was really to continue the legacy of my Dad. He worked hard to build this business and when he decided to retire in 2004, my husband and I purchased it from him. He had already made an impact in the community and we didn’t want his labors of love and care for the community to go to waste.

Please tell us more about your work. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
I am by nature a nurturer. I got married at 19, never completed college and really never had a career so to speak. To date I have been married to my husband JC for over 35 years. I’ve worked in the restaurant business on and off since I was 16 years old. My greatest job/career/profession was being a Mom and a Wife. My husband JC was the main provider and his career which was Hospital Administration, allowed me to stay home mostly to raise our 3 amazing children.

We have one daughter (34) and two sons (31 and 28) as well as one amazing son-in-love and 2 beautiful grandsons. What sets us apart from the others in my opinion is our faith that we have in God, we live it to the best of our ability and are very mindful of what He is calling for. We have definitely had challenges and have overcome them by the grace of God. Jesus is OUR ROCK and we are nothing without Him but we are everything with Him. God has found favor with us and has given my husband the strength and the wisdom and the business acumen to take The Serving Spoon to the place where we are now.

Yes we could’ve expanded several times over, but timing and opportunity is everything and for whatever reason the alignment for certain opportunities never lined up.

Lessons I’ve learned along the way have been many. However, one that holds true the most is that there are things, situations and circumstances in this life that you can not control so simply stated, let go and let God. My Dad always says, ” If you are going to pray about it, don’t worry about it. If you are going to worry about it, don’t pray about it” Also to always treat people with respect. Don’t judge a book by its cover and things are not always what they seem. So judge less and be more understanding and compassionate towards people’s situation because everybody is going through something but you may never know it.

I would love for people just to know about our brand that we are a brand of caring and providing good service and good food to people who just want to feel good, be comfortable, let their hair down, and be better when they leave here than when they arrived.

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.
Wow, so I am a homebody, so more than likely we would stay in and cook or order out. Go to an occasional restaurant. At some point we would hang out at the beach, take a drive down to Santa Barbara and have a nice meal. Go to a movie or two, do some shopping. Depending on what we had a taste for that we didn’t want to cook or know how to cook we would go to the restaurant of choice. Mainly fine dining. Being in the service industry and serving all the time, when I go out, I desire to be served and catered to. I would definitely make The Serving Spoon our breakfast spot probably daily, because breakfast is a pain to cook at home and the clean up is just as painful. Also The Griddle for breakfast. For lunch, 26 Beach, Yardhouse, Geoffreys in Malibu, Crystal Cove, and Malibu Seafood on PCH, Mashikos Sushi in Culver City, Houstons in Manhattan Beach, so many more. For dinner Maestros, Ocean Prime, Eddie Vs, Nicks in Manhattan Beach. Javiers in Laguna Niguel as well as The Beachcomber, also Sunset at Zuma, Chinois on Main in Santa Monica. Beauty and Essex for a funky vibe.

Some people watching, shopping and dining which would be Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade, Century City or Orange Coast Plaza, and Beverly Hills Rodeo Drive.

The Getty Museum is always a nice respite when you want calm. But chances are it would be mostly binge watching our favorite shows and a lot of snacks!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would love to dedicate our shout out to my Dad, Harold E. Sparks. If he did not start this business, we nor this business would be where it is today. This is a very tough business to maintain. My Dad is a very wise man and he has certain sayings……one of them being; “It’s easy to get into, but hard to get out of” Now for this purpose, the restaurant business is easy to get into but hard to MAINTAIN.

I learned a lot from him regarding customer service and making sure the customers are taken care of. People work hard for their money and they have a choice as to where they want to spend it. So when people choose to spend their hard earned money with us, we want to do our best that we treat them well.

He moved out here from Cincinnati Ohio and started from scratch. He had never worked in the restaurant industry before. He just knew he didn’t want to continue to work for anyone anymore, so he decided to take this route. Being that he knew NOTHING about the restaurant business, nor any other business for that matter, makes his tenacity and story that much more amazing ( to me at least ) because he had no background or training in opening this type of business, or any business because he had never owned his own business before. So the bravery that it took for him to do what he did was REMARKABLE.

Website: www.theservingspoon.net

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Image Credits
Andrea D’Agosto Photography