Inspiring Conversations with Jason Day of Red Bicycle Murfreesboro

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Day.

Hi Jason, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I was working in S. California running a skilled nursing facility for the past 11 years. Not wanting to spend the next 10 years of my life talking about end-of-life situations and also not wanting to regret never taking that big swing (risk) in my life, I decided to come to Tennessee and take my life savings to open a restaurant that made people happy.

Also, I felt stagnant in my former career and wanted to challenge myself by embarking on something I had never done before (i,e. Restaurant). As we started to build out the restaurant it became clear that delays and unexpected costs were going to put me way over budget and, by the time it got to where we could open, I was flat broke. I had spent every dime I had and maxed out my credit cards. Fortunately, throughout the build-out, I was also marketing the store so we had a nice turnout when it opened. Four months in, we had our ribbon cutting with the city and things were looking great. The next week COVID hit and I was forced to shut down the dining room.

I then changed the business model overnight from an in-house meeting spot to a curbside delivery option with food and coffee. I also introduced nightly specials that we originally did not have on our menu (i,e. Burger/Beer combo for $10, etc). That became popular and enabled me the ability to pay the bills and get through COVID. It also advanced my menu, as we added more dinner options due to the COVID specials to now be able to serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner to go with our coffee and other drinks. Despite COVID struggles, we had a solid 1st year and started off 2021 in great fashion.

Good enough, in fact, to allow me the opportunity to open a 2nd location that presented itself on the Murfreesboro Square downtown, which is currently under construction and I’m looking to open that in November of 2021.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
As previously mentioned, I put all my money into this and owed a lot of people when this opened (contractors, etc.) so that was quite stressful and just as I was coming out of that, COVID hit four months into being open as I was still learning what I was doing.

But I adjusted quickly, changed the business model overnight, and made the best of it and we came out of it better than we otherwise would’ve been. It forced me to work on things quicker than I likely would’ve otherwise (i,e. Website ordering, etc) and expanded our menu into what it is today.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Red Bicycle Murfreesboro?
Red Bicycle Murfreesboro is a unique place. We specialize in gourmet coffee but have expanded our menu because of the aforementioned circumstances to include delicious food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All of our food is scratch-made, to-order, and doesn’t have that “fast food” feel to it that is so abundant here in Murfreesboro.

We also serve six flavors of signature Mimosas (8oz) and MANmosas (16oz), craft beer, and wine. Despite COVID hitting us in 2020 four months into being open, we’ve come out of it better and are now expanding into the heart of the historic downtown square in Murfreesboro. That location is set to open in November 2021.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
I worked 15 hrs/day to keep my labor costs down while also doing all of the marketing for the store, but all of my employees deserve a ton of credit for adjusting seemingly every day to changes that COVID required.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.RBMurfreesboro.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/redbicycleboro
• Facebook: facebook.com/redbicycleboro
• Twitter: twitter.com/redbicycleboro