CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - From quitting their jobs to traveling the world, opening beloved restaurants, and facing personal health challenges, Jamie Brown and Jeff Tonidandel share how tiny steps led to big dreams. This week, they joined QC Life’s Jana Angel for an episode of Coffee & Conversations.
Ever wanted to quit your job and travel the world? Have you thought about opening up a restaurant inspired by your favorite places? Have you ever experienced a time when your body was fighting a battle with you, and you didn’t know why? If any of these thoughts cross your mind, then this conversation is for you.
This week, we are diving into the extraordinary journey of Jamie Brown and Jeff Tonidandel, the husband-and-wife team behind the Tonidandel-Brown Restaurant Group.
After getting married, they quit their jobs, traveled the world, and used that inspiration to open their first restaurant with no prior experience. They talk about navigating the unexpected, leaning on their team, and trusting that the next step will appear when you’re willing to take the leap.
Jamie also opens up about her battle with food sensitivities and how it shaped their approach to hospitality and the full dining experience. This pair has navigated challenges and changes together successfully with two distinctive personality types. In this conversation, we learn about the perfect ingredient that makes this recipe for success so right.
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The episode will live stream at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 26. This live stream has ended. The full episode will be available soon.
About Community Matters Cafe: This local spot might seem like a great place to get caffeinated and fill up on delicious eats, but it is so much more than that. Community Matters Cafe is a live learning lab where graduates from the Charlotte Rescue Mission complete a 180-day life skills and rehabilitation program to build confidence and restore hope. This was the perfect place for Coffee & Conversations, because we are all brewing something beautiful together.
Watch all episodes
Check out all of our episodes of Coffee & Conversations in the video playlist below.
What Coffee & Conversations is all about
Jana Angel writes: Coffee & Conversations. Two of life’s greatest pleasures.
In a world that’s generally peppered with more chaos than calm, there’s nothing like unwinding with a cup of coffee and a chat with someone you care about.
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Or someone you just met. Or someone who simply has something interesting to say. (And, let’s face it: Everyone has a great story to tell.)
I’ve always felt like the proverbial coffee house brings a feeling of being grounded, especially during a hectic time. But I’ve also always felt that coffee houses are just ... cool.
Maybe it’s because I was raised on “Friends,” and saw the coffee shop (aka Central Perk) as the place where the cool kids always hung out. The place where the brews pulled people in, and pulled out their stories.
I desperately wanted to be an intellectual with a laptop and a cappuccino typing away at some life-change prose that someone would read someday. The coffee shop was filled with a community of people who all seemed to be doing something so important.
It took me forever to actually like the taste of coffee. And I never felt like I fit into the “cool” category.
But now that I’m a “grown up” (winces slightly), I’m taking a step out of my comfort zone and into that coffee shop. I want to not only meet the cool people in our community, but also learn from them.
With my new WBTV series Coffee & Conversations, I’m going chat with people who are working to get the most out of their lives. People who are making choices every day to brew the life they’ve dreamed for themselves.
I want to bring to life stories about the choices we make to fill our own cup, and then pour into others. Stories that can help you and I feel more confident to dream bigger, be bolder, and just do the things we want to do.
Stories of people right here in our Charlotte-area backyard that we can all learn and grow from.
These stories will be from people you may have never heard of, or maybe people you haven’t met yet. Whoever they are, we’ll meet at a coffee house and brew something beautiful together.
Be sure to tune in to Coffee & Conversations, where our stories will leave you feeling inspired, vulnerable, playful, encouraged, and invited to dream really freaking big! I hope it will mean as much to you as it does to me.
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