Foodies’ reviews made this new Columbus restaurant popular so fast it ran out of food
Brothers Skylar Toole and Aspen Jones wanted a quiet, soft opening for their new family-friendly restaurant.
They put a welcome sign up, and planned to feed whoever happened to come in. It was meant to give their employees a chance to train, hire more staff and work out the kinks.
It was just supposed to be a couple people coming in to eat, Jones told the Ledger-Enquirer. But on July 7, the first reviews were posted on the Columbus, GA Foodies group on Facebook.
Toasted, on Moon Road in Columbus, was slammed that first weekend.
“I think it was like 200 chairs in an hour and a half or something,” Toole said.
Staff had to step up quickly. Servers who didn’t know the system yet had to learn on the fly, and the brothers helped the line cooks who were reading the menu as they learned how to prepare the food.
“We’re proud of what we sent out that night,” Jones said. “Everybody was pretty happy, and we kept getting more reviews and more reviews.”
Toole and Jones hope Toasted will live up to the legacy of their father, restaurateur Mark Jones, as they join popular menu items from the family’s former restaurants with new dishes.
‘Country fusion’
The early popularity of Toasted continues to run strong, Toole said. It has especially been busy on the weekends.
Last Saturday, the short-staffed restaurant ran out of food because of the high demand. They didn’t have anyone to prep food, Jones said, so the cooks were prepping dishes as they made everything to order.
“I’m thankful for it,” he said. “I just wish that I could have fed everybody that day.”
Toasted is still hiring more staff, Toole said, asking that potential applicants should come to the restaurant in person to ask about a job.
Toole credits the Columbus Foodies Facebook group for their success. Members were responding quickly to questions about the Toasted’s location, 5727 Moon Rd., and menu options.
“They really threw our name out there,” Toole said. “(They posted) our food, pictures of our food and pictures of our menu.”
Jones describes the Toasted menu as “country fusion’. There are unique menu items that people won’t find anywhere else, he said. One of those items is the Plucked & Peachy, a chicken biscuit with peach marmalade.
Some of the menu items were pulled from Mark Jones’ former downtown restaurant PHILLY-osophy.
“We had a lot of people asking ‘when are you bringing the Phillies back?,” Toole said. “So, we brought a few Phillies back guys.”
There’s also menu items that originated from The Black Cow, Flip Side and Aspen’s Mountain Grill.
“The menu is a little collaborative of everything we’ve done in the past plus a little bit of what we want to do in the future,” Toole said.
A family legacy
Owning and operating restaurants has been in the brothers’ family for generations.
Their father, Mark Jones, has owned restaurants in Columbus and Harris county since 1995. Their grandmother owned a restaurant called The Beef House, and their great-grandparents were the owner of an Italian restaurant in the 1950’s.
Toole has been working for his dad since he was 15 years old, and Jones has also been cooking his whole life.
“I grew up running around getting drinks, getting buckets of ice and washing dishes,” Jones said. “So, it’s definitely been a family thing for me.”
Mark asked Jones one day if he was serious about wanting to open his own restaurant. Once Jones said yes, his father agreed to help him get started.
Toole worked at a car dealership at the time when his brother and father approached him with the idea.
“Hey, let’s open some restaurants,” his brother said.
Initially, it was going to be only Toasted, Toole said, but now the brothers have a couple more in the works. Mark’s experience and support has been instrumental in getting Toasted off to a good start, they said.
When the restaurant was unexpectedly slammed during that first weekend, Jones called his dad.
“I’m overwhelmed,” he told Mark. “I need you here.”
Mark showed up at Toasted within 20 minutes and started teaching his sons how to manage the high demand.
It’s never been in his dad to roll over and quit, Jones said, and Mark showed this quality to his kids in his work ethic and how he fought to recover from a devastating car accident. In 2018, Mark ran into an 18-wheeler in Phenix City leaving doctors unsure if he would walk again.
As the brothers continue their family’s legacy, Toole remembers the best business advice his father has given him.
“Nobody will run your business like you run your business,” he said. “Always make sure that you’re at least in there saying ‘Hey’ to everybody walking around and get feedback from everybody.”
