In this episode of the Mike Up In Your Business podcast, hosts Mike, Amy, and Jeremy interview Michelle Heberling, founder of SuppersOn, a backyard‑dining concept that emerged during the COVID‑19 pandemic. Michelle explains how she turned pandemic‑era restrictions into an opportunity by creating outdoor, socially‑distanced dining experiences that leveraged local fish, crab, and other seafood suppliers, turning potential waste into revenue. She describes the strong community network that formed as restaurants, caterers, and local fisheries supported each other, with patrons committing to weekly visits to keep businesses afloat. Michelle also shares her long‑term vision of scaling the model into a franchise, discussing how the concept could be replicated while maintaining local sourcing. The conversation highlights her resilient entrepreneurial mindset, especially in light of personal challenges such as her son’s life‑changing injury. The hosts intersperse the interview with casual banter, reflections on listening to customer pain points, and a light‑hearted food‑quiz segment that tests knowledge of classic French mother sauces and restaurant terminology. The episode ends with a call to action for listeners to rate and subscribe to the podcast.
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Welcome to Mike up in your business. Got special guests with me, Jeremy and Amy. So we're talking about today's guest. I have a nice wave there. We have Michelle Heberling, who I hope I said her name correctly, who is the founder of Suppers on. You can check out our website, supperson.com and Jeremy's able to score her for an interview for us because how do restaurants, caterers, how do they adjust to the COVID pandemic? I think what Michelle shares is a pretty interesting approach. So listen on in.
Yeah.
So Michelle's story I thought was fascinating. I loved how, I loved her energy to get started. The fact that she approached every circumstance with optimism and opportunity I think was one of the main reasons she was able to navigate.
Yeah, that really speaks to the kind of person she is, doesn't it? I mean, and the story then too of her son with this, you know, this injury, life changing injury, and she still has that kind of ability to engage and pivot and keep going. She's. Her story was really inspirational. What a cool concept. These, these amazing backyard, take me somewhere else kind of places. That's what we needed. That's really what everybody wanted at Cove in. In Covid times to be transported out of that mess. And she managed to find a way to do that. It was so cool.
I wonder if there's an opportunity for business when you hear people say something like, I just want to go on a vacation in my backyard, like, like phrases like that almost that they're saying it in an exasperated way.
Yeah.
And I, I'm not. Maybe that's how she thought of it. Maybe people just were exasperated. I know she has people specifically ask. I wonder, all of us as business owners if we can just listen for those, those pain points of our customers that they say almost quippy and that could turn into a business opportunity.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
What would you take away? Schlone. He called himself kapork, by the way. He's like, he goes, yeah, I go by kapork because he made that pork roll. And he's like, no, no, I actually don't like it. So he took it.
Yeah, we're not doing kapork.
Every food that you cook every week will be my new nickname.
Yeah, Yeah, I love that.
It's Jake skirt steak.
Yeah.
I mean, I talked to Michelle for when I did the pre interview, probably an hour and a half and I could have talked to her for like three hours. Like, she's awesome. I think hearing her, it gave me hope because what she said Was she's seen so many restaurants in her town that are. That are failing or have closed. And so the community has really pulled together. And she said that's the lifeline right now is like, they're. They're all working together because they see they need to support each other in order to continue this going. So people in the community are making, I don't want to say goals, but commitments to, you know, be patrons of the businesses per week and things like that. They're using the vendors from the fisheries that. That go out and do the fishing. And it's like, it's just this really awesome community that.
I love that everything she was doing was locally sour, you know, and. And she had relationships with these people and she was supporting their small businesses. And everything that she was doing that was so inspiring.
Right. That guy who was.
He had the fish or the fish, the crabs. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's like, I. I have to dispose of these. I mean, lost money, lost waste of a resource.
Right.
And she's like, I'll have them sold by the time I get there.
Yeah, she did. Stepped up and did it. That's so great.
And I think the big takeaway, too, is like, no matter how many regulations that they create to try and keep these businesses down, she found a loophole. Like, there's a loophole. There's a way to work around it. And I think that that's really inspirational and really cool. Yeah.
I loved her morphing ability. And she kept a big picture in mind, too. She's like, I want to franchise this one.
Yeah. Like, and before she even said that, I was like, this sounds like a franchise. This could be a franchise. It totally fit the bill. I mean, oh, my God, I would love somebody like that right around here that could do that.
Exactly.
Jeremy.
Yeah.
She was like, jeremy, Yeah.
I can send you the book.
That's awesome.
Yeah. But it's great that she has that model. And I. I wonder. She didn't speak to this, but I wonder if the fact that that's playing out in her head that this needs to be a franchise model. As she evaluates local suppliers and does the things he does, I could only assume that there's consideration for that. How does this scale beyond just right?
How does somebody else build this out just like this. Yeah, I like that.
And also, too, she. Because her and I touched on a little bit about how, okay, pre pandemic, your business was this host, it was this. Or actually during it was this and now post. Is it going to go back or are you going to keep going with the same? And I think that's where the franchise came from.
Yeah, yeah.
So cool.
All right, well, let's move on to you. Got a little gameage for us. Oh, yeah. You get a little more competitive now. That's me. And just so everyone knows, Kelsey will be on our group calls, but just for consideration of of time and other projects she's doing, she's not gonna be in these calls for a bit.
Yeah, she said she wasn't doing these calls for a bit. I'm like, what the hell? You act like you're like the president of a company or something.
I know, I know. Like, she has, like, other responsibilities.
I know. What the heck?
See if she listens to this episode.
I laugh like ET.
All right, I'll see if she says anything about that. So the. It's a food quiz. We got to do food.
Okay.
Of course we got.
I'm always good for food. J. Bolognese.
Oh, that's good.
Wow. A.
Well, you were talking about what we cooked this weekend.
You made bolognese?
No, my husband did. I just ate it. I'm just here to eat the food. That's what my role is here.
All right, so the first one is which of the following is not a French mother sauce?
What does it mean to be a mother sauce?
There's five mother sauces or everything else.
I think I saw this in. Oh, Jeremy, you had to have seen this movie. It was a really good movie with Judi Dench and he's the Indian kid and is. They move in across a Michelin rated restaurant and it's like 100 yards feet or something like that. Did you see that?
I did not see it. I know which one you're talking about.
You would love it because it's so. It's all. It's based on, like the Michelin star.
You know, it was something that was.
Very classic and very classic traditionally in French. And then rebellious young Indian kid who's like using his mom's, you know, unique spices, Indian spices. But he elevates to this. This new chef game where he actually becomes one of these nouveau kind of, you know, how the chefs become absolute, like phenomenal superstars.
Like celebrities.
For sure.
Celebrities. Absolute celebrity. But it was like heartless at that point. And he ends up going back. It's a really good movie. But they do talk about these main sources, like the. The ones you have to know how to do.
Yeah.
Hence the other sauce.
Yeah.
Favreau did a movie, I think it was called Chef.
Yes.
It was very, very well done. And what I love about him is when he does those serious type of movies, he. The vernacular is very important to him, and the way that people speak is very important to him. So it was very authentic with how chefs talk and the way that they. Oh, it's cool.
Yeah, yeah.
So if you get a chance to watch that, that was. That was good.
That was a good one, too. Okay.
But, yeah, so there's five mother sauces. Which one on this is not okay? Right? Okay, so A is tomato, B is volute, C is demi glace, and D is hollandaise. Okay.
Okay, got my answer.
Okay, number two, the term Lane Lanyap from the south and the French term amuse bouche are little quote, unquote, bonuses served. At what point during the meal? Is it after the second course, before the dessert, or before the first course?
Got it.
I've had things at all times. A little bonuses. Hey, the chef made you something.
Yeah.
I've had that all different times.
I know.
Look on your face was. That was priceless. You, like, got excited. So arguably the first formal restaurant was started in France. By whom? Was it A, Escoffier, B, Bolinger or C, Sawyer? Or it could be soyer. It's, er. I think it's soye.
Okay, I think I got that one right. And the reason is. I don't know, but I'm just listening to Jeremy's pronunciation of the names. One of them he nailed right away because then he would know. And the other ones, he's like, I don't know. I'm a little unsure. So.
But maybe he's throwing us off. Maybe that's.
He could be. He knows I'm not that smart.
I don't know.
All right, so. So question one. Which is not a mother tomato?
I say tomato.
I said hollandaise.
So you're both wrong. This was actually not. Not a trick question, but sort of. So demi glace is not a mother sauce. Espanol is a mother sauce, but it's the mother sauce for demi glace.
Ah.
And what does it mean to be a mother sauce?
It's just there's five mother sauces that.
You basically make everything else from. Basically.
Essentially are like, okay, okay.
So they're the foundation sauces, and everything's a variant of one of those five.
Correct.
For the most part.
Okay. I mean, there's plenty of sauces you can make without those. But those were, like, in classical French. Those are. Those are the interesting. Okay, okay.
I didn't think of Tomato.
Yeah, tomatoes. A mother sauce. Yep. And so espanol is a mother sauce. And so to make demi, it's half sauce espanol, half brown stock reduced by half. And that's why they call it demi.
Ah, okay.
Okay. So number two, when is an amuse bouche or lanyap served during the meal?
After the second course.
I said before the first.
Yes, Amy got it before the first.
Well, I was so confused because then you've also had those ones that are like, after everything because they're just.
Nailed it. You just.
I. I got lucky. I got lucky.
You didn't.
You nailed it.
I really did. I got lucky.
Damn you.
Because I've had. Yeah, I've had that. Where they come out like, oh, the chef prepared you a little something like you get this little taster thing. Yeah, this is delicious.
What was the first word, John? Not amuse. Boosh. Chair.
Lanyap.
Lanyap. I've never heard that before. Have you heard before?
I've only heard that from this one southern chef that I worked with, and he said it's like a. It's the term they use in the South. So you might hear. You go to. When you go.
Okay.
3 is the first formal restaurant, arguably was started in France by whom the.
First guy is at a scoffe or whatever.
I said the second guy.
Amy, you got it. It's Bollinger.
Wow, you were so confident in the name for the first fella.
That's because he's the father of modern cooking. So he did. He contributed a lot of other things. Like he basically wrote the encyclopedia for modern cooking, but in 1765, that's when they say that this guy, Bull and J started the first actual modern style restaurant.
Very cool.
Every day you learn every day. We hope you are listening, friends. Learn something. Today I would like to ask the major favor. Could you please go to RateOurPodcast.com it's O U R Rate Our Podcast.com and rate the show and make sure you subscribe so you don't miss a single episode. Thank you so much for joining us. Today's episode of Mike up in your business.
Wishing you good times.
Wishing you I like the hand circle. Wishing you a good time. Or washing the window.
