Joy Zarembka of Busboys and Poets on Inviting Customers to Take a Deliberate Pause

Busboys and Poets, a socially conscious restaurant, bookstore, and community hub, was named after one of the most famous busboy/poets of all time: Langston Hughes.

By providing a space for all people the multi-unit restaurant company has inspired much more than appetites. It has also inspired positive change.

Before she ever worked as Chief Operation Officer for Busboys and Poets, Joy Zarembka worked on her writing at the restaurant.

Writers know the importance of where you choose to “put pen to paper.” You need a calm space where you can work, and one that is comfortable enough to spend considerable amounts of time.

At Busboys and Poets, customers are invited to take a “deliberate pause”. And during that pause, they can eat, drink, enjoy art, buy books, and more. Founded in Washington, DC by artist and activist Andy Shallal in 2005, the restaurant is a “cultural hub where racial and cultural connections are consciously uplifted.”

Busboys and Poets is:

• a community where racial and cultural connections are consciously uplifted.
• a place to take a deliberate pause and feed your mind, body and soul.
• a space for art, culture and politics to intentionally collide.

Joy Zarembka chose the original 14th and V location to be her writing spot because the restaurant was so welcoming. Others have written novels and PhD dissertations while taking their time at Busboys and Poets, she added.

“Lots of restaurants are trying to turn tables and kick people out,” said Joy Zarembka during an interview at Toast HQ with Shawn Walchef of CaliBBQ Media. “We want people to sit and relax, grab a book, grab a drink, take in a show, learn some poetry, look at the artwork, hang out with your friends.

“We are one of those places where we actually don’t kick people out when they’ve been there too long.”

After her book launch event for “The Pigment of Your Imagination” in 2007 at Busboys and Poets, Joy Zarembka transitioned into her place in the Tribe. From VP of Planning and Innovation, she became the company’s COO in 2022.

A big part of Busboys and Poets has been storytelling. Now with the prevalence of online media platforms and the thirst from audiences for unique and engaging digital content, it’s imperative that all businesses learn to tell their own story online.

The plan for the expanding social media presence of Busboys and Poets, like it should be for all brands, is to create content “beyond the dish.”

“We want to make a media space that we could really just broadcast all over the place… We got into social media early on and that allowed us to really build a great following in various places.”

As a member of the Toast point of sale company’s Customer Advisory Board (along with Restaurant Influencer‘s host Shawn Walchef), Joy is using her influence to make positive changes for Busboys and Poets and the industry.

“What’s been so amazing is meeting other restaurateurs who have great ideas, and are doing things differently,” she said about serving on the Toast Customer Advisory Board. Toast is also the title sponsor of the Restaurant Influencers series.

“Just having those conversations has been really the most beneficial because we can take (an idea) back and implement it right away.”

Joy and Busboys have also collaborated with Toast and the Indeed hiring company on helpful industry content online. It’s all part of the mission to make restaurants, and the world, a better place.

“I always want to challenge other restaurateurs, and even challenge Toast and others, to think about how do we make sure we have all the different voices in the room? And we can be talking about race. We can talk about class, gender, you know, tattooed or not tattooed… whatever you want to talk about…

“At Busboys, I often say if you can smile, you can get a job here.”

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