Meet Ernisha Randolph of Sweet Butter Hospitality Group & Shuckin and Jivin Restaurant

Thanks for sharing your story with us Ernisha. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
My journey with entrepreneurship began when I started a Candy House at eight years old. I began making about $500/day before I traded business for fun/school activities. I became a teen parent at 14 and had many younger girls looking up to me so at 19 I decided to start a non-profit mentoring (501c(3)) program teaching them the direction I should’ve chosen.

I managed over 50 adult Volunteers & 200+ mentees over a few years span. Shortly after enrolling in college, I launched Juanita’s Kitchen with my grandmother, a catering company that is still in business today. Two years after incorporating JK, I secured our 1st government contract and began to attract many high profile clients, local & federal government agencies, celebrities, and locals.

After our customers continued to request easier access to our food, in 2017, I decided it was time to launch Sweet Butter Hospitality Group where we (Co-Founder A. Randolph & I) for two years tested the restaurant & entertainment market by hosting a pop-up dinner shows (four shows in one weekend, three times a year, always sold out). Hosting the pop-up dinner shows gave me the opportunity to market the upcoming Brands that were to be created under the Hospitality Company.

The catering company was moved under the Hospitality Co’s umbrella, our new Restaurant ‘Shuckin & Jivin’ was birthed in Sweet Butter, which opened in June 2018 and served over 30,000 meals in its 1st five months of operation. The Restaurant’s CEO & COO (Shonee Alicia & Ernest Tayon) helped build it from scratch. Also in the Hospitality Group is a product based business that provides grocery products to restaurants, convenience stores & supermarkets, and ‘The Candy Girls Gourmet Desserts’ (CEO is Sarah Gracel) that serves B2B & B2C. My newest product in the Hospitality Group is ‘Jivin Sauce’ and is now available for sale online at weshuckin.com

Has it been a smooth road?
The road to entrepreneurship hasn’t been smooth and actually started rocky. The Catering Company was birthed after my great grandmother, and my mother passed two months apart. My grandmother (Juanita-the name sake & Founder of the Catering co) was taking care of the both of them.

I was 21, and in college, my teen siblings were just entering high school, and cancer was getting the best of my mom. After their passing, my grandmother felt defeated and was in a really bad space. We encouraged her to start a catering business. Though I’ve led our family business to see many successes, the difficulties of entrepreneurship have been experienced more than a few times.

Catering requires long nights and early mornings. There has been times I was awake for almost 48 hours because “The job needs to get done by any means.” Before I could afford staff, and before I began to systemize the business, the workload was so heavy sometimes I felt like giving up, thank God for Grandma who remained strong in those times.

But looking at the fruit of our labor now and how we’ve grown from just a catering business to a Hospitality Group, have several great staff who help grow the businesses and how we’re building a brand that not only I, but our faithful customers & followers can be proud of, I’m glad I persevered.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Sweet Butter Hospitality Group & Shuckin and Jivin Restaurant – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I am the Founder of Sweet Butter Hospitality Group, a company that owns multiple brands such as a Catering company, grocery product co, Restaurant & more. I specialize in creating Southern experiences in South Florida by bringing back the days when food was more than something you ate, but also something you experienced.

I am most known for being the Super Southern Miami Socialite who cooks some of the best food Miami has tasted, creates really good recipes and great events merging food & entertainment (via my pop up dinner shows), and who built a Food Empire while training my family to run different aspects of the business. I’m most proud of my family’s involvement. Generational wealth is being created and everyone is taking ownership of their part of the company. Even my children, the youngest being 8 years old- They all work so hard and take it seriously. Our closest customers know & have loved that about us for years. Family is at the center of all our companies.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My dad (parents) taking us to multiple restaurants daily to “expand our palates.”

Contact Info:

• Address: 4759 NW 167th Street Miami, FL 33055
• Website: sweetbuttermiami.com
• Phone: 3059744751
• Email: info@sweetbuttermiami.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/weshuckin
• Facebook: Ernisha Randolph
• Twitter: Mrs_Ernisha