Brandon Stevens loves gumbo
Brandon was raised in the restaurant business. His Grandfather Albert “Big Al” Stevens opened Stagecoach Restaurant on Florin Rd. in Sacramento, CA. in 1978. In 1980 his uncle Donald Stevens opened a second location in Elk Grove, CA. and in 1994 his father Derrick Stevens took over for Big Al at the original location. Stagecoach is now the oldest Black-Owned restaurant in the Sacramento area and still going strong.
Brandon started working for the family business in 1993 at the age of 12 as a dishwasher and through the years learned and worked every position in the place from dishwasher, to cook, to server, and everything in between. Eventually he transitioned to the corporate side of the industry and was a General Manager and District Manager for several large and small chains throughout the Bay Area.
“Through the family restaurant I learned to have a special appreciation for southern cuisine and always had the goal of opening my own restaurant at some point so I learned all I could about the industry over the course of 26 years. I thought working for successful chains would teach me how to run a successful restaurant but to be honest I mostly learned what not to do at those companies. At the end of the day they focused so much on numbers and bottom lines that they forgot about the basics which I was taught by my father and grandfather before him. Focus on good food, at a fair price, and great service and the bottom line grows without much effort.”
Mumbo Gumbo PDX came to be through a love of Gumbo which is Brandon’s favorite dish. Traditionally Gumbo is a protein heavy dish that is not on the menu for vegetarians or vegans. It is also hard to find at restaurants and served as is with no option to deviate from the premade recipe. The proverbial light bulb went off and Brandon worked hard to come up with a vegan sauce in addition to his traditional sauce that taste just as good, then he came up with the idea to allow people to customize their proteins so that Gumbo could fit into almost anybody’s diet. Brown Rice Flour is used in place of traditional Wheat Flour so that his Gumbo is Gluten Free as well.
In 2019 the opportunity came up to open a food cart in Portland, OR. and the rest is history. In the first 2 years Mumbo Gumbo PDX has won Yelp’s top food cart in the city in 2019 and 2020, placed 24th on Yelp’s top 100 in the country in 2020, Business Insiders “Best Soup” and “ Best Take-out Restaurant” in Oregon, and Portland Business Journals “Best New Restaurant of 2019”. As a result of all of the support and success Mumbo Gumbo PDX was able to open its second location in November of 2020 and hopes to grow more in the years to come.
