During the pandemic, she broadened her customer base by selling her seafood boil in grocery stores.Over the past two years, Yasmin Curtis has operated her Chicago restaurant at varying levels: Closed. Open for delivery. Limited capacity. Closed. Open.
In summer 2020, she was invited to sell her food at a block party hosted by the local grocery store Mariano's. That day, Curtis sold frozen bags of her famous seafood boil from a rented ice-cream truck — and ended up selling 100 units in 20 minutes. When Curtis was first getting her frozen product into stores, she turned to an old-school marketing method: billboards."We wanted to reach different demographics across Illinois," Curtis said.
Today, prices for those same billboards have increased to $20,000 for six weeks, Curtis said. Instead of billboards, she now relies on social media and customer reviews to market her products. While she works with a few influencers, most content comes from unpaid clients who post about their experiences eating at the restaurant or cooking her frozen products at home. That also helps expand her audience to other states where people can't visit her restaurant.