Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeremy Young.
Hi Jeremy, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started cooking at fast food and family restaurants as a means to pay my way through college. I quickly fell in love with the craft and began looking for ways to further develop my skills. As I worked my way through culinary school and higher caliber restaurants, I began to develop my own personal style of cooking and leadership. I felt the importance of the work, the necessity of creating spaces for people to gather and break bread in person. I felt the nobility of serving others. I felt the camaraderie of leading a team of like-minded individuals towards a common goal. After years of grinding on the line for other chefs and restaurateurs, I felt I had my own story to tell and my own ethics to follow. I took the plunge into small business ownership, opening my own restaurant in 2020.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s been an incredibly rocky road. Owning and operating a small, independent restaurant is not for the faint of heart. You must be incredibly disciplined in order to turn even a small profit. Most of my time has been spent trying to keep the lights on, trying to make payroll, and trying to keep guests walking through our doors. Every piece of equipment that fails is a critical blow. Every spike in costs – ingredients, labor, utilities, rent – can be devastating. My work is an endless string of pivots and creative problem-solving.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Yellow Ranger specializes in chef-driven, scratch, seasonal American+Chinese cuisine. We cook from our hearts and our collective backgrounds, creating a decidedly novel and untraditional menu that speaks to our background as immigrants and misfits. We are loud about what we believe and unapologetic about our vision of culinary fusion. We want to provide a joyful space for our community to gather and share memorable meals. We are made from the “weirdness” that used to be pervasive in Austin, TX, and we desperately want to preserve that fading culture of individuality, creativity, art, music, and unexpectedness.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Austin has changed a lot since I moved here in 2011. It is bigger, wealthier, and more refined, but it has lost a bit of its soul in the growth process. I miss the chaos and the immediacy of the music and art scenes; it used to feel like the city was saturated in unavoidable music and art culture. Austin today feels sterilized. Many of the restaurants and bars that made me fall in love with the city have been pushed out by rising costs and rent. They have been replaced by bigger groups, corporations, out of state chains. To me, these new businesses do not embody the spirit of Austin; they are safe alternatives come to profit off the city’s growth.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://yellowrangeratx.com
- Instagram: @yellowrangeratx, @yellowrangernorth
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/EIPN7FbLm68
