MIDLAND, Texas — Just because you’re the owner of a restaurant doesn’t mean you always have to hang out in the office.
For Tiara Jackson, she’s right in the thick of things whether it’s a slow day or rush hour at her restaurant Tubby’s Kitchen and Catering in Midland.
But it took a lot of work for her to get to this point.
“When I was 16, I started working in Sonic, became a manager at 18, worked there till I was 31. So, I had a lot of food experience with people and customer service," Jackson said. "After that we would cook from home, we started selling fish plates out of our house on Fridays and then it just grew into us getting a food truck back in 2016. We upgraded in 2020 to another food truck and then back in 2022 we got the call that we were able to get into a brick and mortar. So, my husband and I both left our full-time jobs to open this restaurant.”
Jackson is not alone when it comes to running Tubby’s. She and her husband work as a team to keep everything in order.
“We both run and operate Tubby’s," Jackson said. "It was a sacrifice leaving full-time jobs with benefits and things like that. So, when you step out on your own with no loans, no grants, no help it’s a lot but it’s worth it.”
Jackson said she feels that all her hard work has paid off based on the amount of support Tubby's gets from the community.
“Community, loved ones, people we don’t know, strangers, we have support coming from all over. Now we have support coming from all over Texas, across the U.S. and we want to make Tubby’s a household name," Jackson said. "Doing stuff in the community like if we do sports events and stuff like that it puts our name out there and it feels great to know that people enjoy eating our food.”
Jackson doesn’t cook and feed people just for business. She said Tubby’s gets involved in giving back to the community whenever they can.
She feels it’s only natural to do so given her position in life.
“Opening Tubby’s, I feel like I want to make an imprint in the world and my community, and I think being able to feed people in their stomachs and their souls pretty much fulfills that," Jackson said. "I just like to give out and help people. To be able to be blessed you got to give more than you receive, and we enjoy giving.”
Jackson is glad that she was able to make Tubby’s possible and add it to the list of black owned businesses in the area.
“Being a black business owner and a black woman all together makes it a little more personal having your own business and your own establishment in this community," Jackson said. "There’s not very many black owned businesses here in Midland anymore, so to be able to serve people of all minorities all day every day is a blessing.”