Loose Leaf Notes

-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on August  6, 2020.

“I’ve always loved to cook and I love to experiment,” said Michelle Scott, the owner of Jonesburg Pepper Company, a new Locust Street take-out restaurant, located where Oddf3llows used to be. It’s adjacent to the Sacred Star and Stone, which opened just two weeks before the restaurant. Both businesses are women-owned and both owners spoke about the support they give each other.

Jonesburg Pepper offers a full menu for breakfast, lunch and supper, featuring egg biscuits, chicken wings (which they are already becoming known for), chips and salsa and sandwiches, all of which make use of Scott’s specialty pepper jellies, sauces and salsas.

“Everything we make has a pepper in it, in some capacity, but that doesn’t mean it’s hot. It could be a bell pepper. We try to cater to everyone,” Scott said, who previously worked in customer service and has a degree in psychology from Radford University.

Why peppers? She grows them and had an abundant supply that she had to do something with. For eight years Scott sold her jellies on the craft show circuit. In 2014, she became a legitimate business and got her jellies certified, which she sells at outlets, such as Draper Mercantile, Buffalo and More and Wildwood Farms in Floyd. Her home kitchen was certified in 2019.

Scott’s cousin was one of the workers renovating the former Oddf3llows building, owned by Brian and Alison Lynch. He told Scott about the space, which includes a kitchen and an order/take-out area. The longer she thought about it, the more she liked the idea of moving her business there. “The pandemic started and everyone was focusing on take-out,” she said.

The restaurant opened for the last three days in June to get a feel for business traffic, Scott said. What did she learn from that trial run? “I learned that we ran out of food. We sold out of everything on the 1st day,” she said. So, they made a new game plan that included being open all day, currently from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

There is one table where customers can sit and eat inside, but the general focus is take-out. Eight employees share the cooking and daily workload. “We work as a family and all pitch in where it’s needed. It’s a family atmosphere above all else,” said Scott. She lives in Christiansburg but feels at home with the small-town life in Floyd, where her parents grew up.

Meals are made to order and include those suited for children, such as a 4 cheese-grilled-cheese sandwich, chicken nuggets and PBJ with regular jelly or one of Scott’s jelly recipes, which include mild to hot tantalizing flavors like Raspberry or Pineapple Flamingo (Mango), Mixed Berry Pecan, Dark Cherry Carolina Reaper, and Peach Jalapeno.

“We just rolled out 7 new salsas. They’ll change in the fall with some standards remaining,” Scott said. Her Barbeque sauce recipes will be rolled out next and promise to be uniquely tasty.

PHOTOS – 1. A couple visiting Floyd from North Carolina enjoy some Jonesburg Pepper take-out in front of the shop.  2. Jonesburg employees Taegon Morgan, a 2020 Floyd County high school graduate, and senior Jacob Stull take a moment to pose and flash the love sign inside the shop.