Owner gifts Grandma Rosie’s Spring Valley location to ‘committed manager’

Grandma Rosie’s Sweet Treats owner Jason Judd told employee Jermey Simmons, “one of these days I’m going to be able to pay you what you’re worth.”

That day has come.

Judd started Grandma Rosie’s Sweet Treats with his wife and cousin and grew the business into a franchise with locations in Spring Valley, Princeton and others throughout the Illinois Valley.

Judd and his wife gifted the Spring Valley location to Simmons to operate himself.

“He gave up vacations for our business, birthday parties and he wouldn’t even tell me,” Judd said. “He cares about this business as much as I do.”

The decision came after many years as Simmons was able to keep the business growing even after Judd had to take a step back. For the two, their relationship began simple but quickly grew to a partnership.

In 2017, Judd was first approached by Simmons’ father, Andy, who asked if he might have an opening for his son after he left his previous job.

“Andy has dedicated his entire life to the service of people,” Judd said. “He did that when he was in the military all the way until today. I said that any man that does something like that, if he asks me a favor, he is getting it. I hired (Simmons) literally just to satisfy his dad.”

Simmons began working at Grandma Rosie’s Spring Valley doing odd jobs around the store. He would clean coolers, stock fries and organize shelves.

“When I first came in, I was just listening to [Judd] talk about the restaurant and heard his plans for expanding,” Simmons said. “I would just come into work and think, how would I like this done if it was my restaurant, and that’s how i kept doing it.”

Judd said Simmons would take the initiative to spend hours cleaning and organizing various parts of the shop and everything would come out perfect. As Simmons learned more, his responsibilities began to expand.

“He was taking the liberties when that wasn’t his job,” Judd said. “Anything that he could do, from the first time I hired him, to make Grandma Rosie’s a better business, he did it.”

Simmons eventually became a manager of the Spring Valley location with plans for more. Judd initially had plans for Simmons to take over a new location in Rochelle, but couldn’t ask him to make a commitment that would affect his family and four children.

Judd decided he would manage the Rochelle location and promote Simmons to general manager of Spring Valley, a position he had always handled himself.

Under Simmons’ management the store continued to grow and perform better than before. The employees were trained and became great employees.

“Usually when I step away, the business kind of plateaus, it won’t really sink but plateau,” Judd said. “Well this business kept getting better and better.”

Simmons displayed his commitment to Judd and Grandma Rosie’s everyday since they’ve met, according to Judd. Simmons willingly took winter pay cuts and missed family events to come and help the store when it was needed.

Judd detailed how Simmons once left his child’s birthday party to come to the store. Simmons never mentioned to Judd he was busy when he called, but rather dropped what he was doing to come and help.

Simmons accepted responsibility for any shortcomings the restaurant may have had, even when it wasn’t his fault, an attribute Judd gives him immense credit for.

Judd said sometimes he can have a short temper and has bipolar disorder. He believes no one should be ashamed of their mental health. Despite any type of bumps in the road that all relationships go through, the two came through better and with a stronger business.

The restaurant business sees a =high employee turnover rate. Judd believes a large reason for this is how the owners can treat their employees.

“One of things that I’ve always promised myself is that I’m going to treat my employees like family because if they don’t work the way that they do my kids don’t eat at home,” Judd said. “I’ve worked for a lot of places before where that wasn’t the case.”

Moving forward, Judd would love to see Simmons continue to push the business forward and to eventually own more than just the Spring Valley location. Simmons mentioned they have already had talks for expanding.

Since Simmons has taken over Grandma Rosie’s Spring Valley has already made a few changes, such as adding Sallie Sue’s coffee of Magnolia — and he will soon be adding breakfast items to the menu.

The NewsTribune is committed to keeping readers up to date with business happenings in the area. This can include the opening of new businesses and businesses that are closing. Much of our reporting relies on what we see and hear, but we’re also reaching out to readers for tips on business items. If you have a tip to share, email Jayce Eustice at jeustice@shawmedia.com.