Jack Jenner, 22, first started working in kitchens at the age of 16 as a way to gain experience for his catering course at York College. The former Manor School pupil quickly worked his way up to a head chef position before plying his trade in several businesses based in SPARK: York.
At 18, Jack met his now business partner, Jason Handley. One year later, he opened Baby Boy’s Kitchen for pop-up events. “Baby Boy’s Kitchen started as a food account just to share whatever I was doing in my spare time,” Jack said. “I was posting what I was making at home, and it wasn’t until one of the traders here [SPARK] asked me if I’d thought about making it into a business that I thought, you know what, why not?
“We decided to do it, it was really good, even a bit surreal. Whenever the unit in SPARK was available I’d just go in and do a day, and it went really well.”
Baby Boy’s Burgers is celebrating its first year in business (Image: Harry Booth)
He then moved to work at the newly opened Izakaya, formerly of 21 Grape Lane. “That was the bulk of my fine dining experience,” Jack added.
By 21 years old, Jack decided to open Baby Boy’s Burgers at SPARK: York, his first business.
The self-funded business move, despite being “scary” at first, started to pay dividends as Jack sought business advice from friends and began to grow his brand.
“It’s that sort of learning curve, and it got to around April when the roof came off, and that’s when things started to get a bit mental,” he said.
“It was more the running of everything that was the challenge. The social media stuff we’ve done has really paid off.
“We were trying to push ourselves to get out there more, and I feel like some people must have thought, ‘Who is this kid?'”
Now, one year later, he and his small team are celebrating their success, complete with a new-look menu and bespoke merchandise.
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He added: “Our aim for the first year was just to survive; a lot of businesses don’t make it past the first year. We have so much to celebrate regarding how it has gone.”
Jack said he was “massively relieved” to see his vision for Baby Boy’s take off. “We’ve done well, we have goals for the new year, we do want to expand, and we’ve got many new menu items developed and ready to go, as well as expanding our brand,” he added.
“It’s about realising that we’ve had a first year which has been mental, but thinking about whether we want to have another mental year and risk overextending ourselves or focus on building.
“There’s a lot in the marketing and business side that isn’t my background, so it’s about continuing that education. The next year is also about solidifying the framework we’ve built; we’ve got to build that framework before we put walls on it, or it’ll just come crashing down.”
Baby Boy’s Burgers is celebrating its anniversary with an event at SPARK today (January 18) from 6pm.
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