New Beginnings For Local Food Chain

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The Back Yard Burger in Columbus closed its doors in 2016.

Well, thanks to one man, the burger place is taking steps forward into making a come back.

Josh Powell started his franchise partnership in Arkansas back in 1996.

Since then he has come to own 9 Back Yard Burgers.

His newest one is right here is Columbus.

“It’s a beautiful restaurant. I mean, it’s big. It’s spacious. Again, Walmart has a lot to do with that. I like being right next to our biggest competition and comparing apples to apples,” said Powell.

He has taken on the task of not opening up a new restaurant but reopening a closed one.

By doing this he has faced some varying difficulties.

“The biggest difference is we’ve got to win them back over. You know, we either failed for whatever reason and you know it’s time to change it and them know it’s under new ownership, it’s different. Different place. Same burger. Same good burger but different place,” said Powell.

Another big challenge he faces is the unknown reputation created by the previous Back Yard Burger.

“Reputation. I have no clue what the reputation was here in town. So, Hopefully it was decent and we change that,” said Powell.

These challenges haven’t stopped him though. He says that he believes in second chances.

Where better to have a second chance than Columbus?

“The locations terrific and you know Columbus is actually founded on second chances. It actually was a failed city that moved across the river so I was like man that’s pretty cool. That’s what I really thought about it. You know this is a chance to rebuild and do that here in a town that was founded on rebuilding,” said Powell.

Powell is excited to take on the competition.

“That’s exciting to me. To be in the main stretch of town next to thriving successful big, big chain companies. That’s were we thrive at, is defeating them,”said Powell.

Powell will hire about 25 people ranging from hourly to salary for his restaurant.