Eat Y’all Opens Showroom at Dallas Market

Under the umbrella of their Eat Y’all brand, Marianna and Andy Chapman will open their first wholesale showroom at the Dallas Market Center in conjunction with the Dallas Total Home & Gift Show.

From small-town farming backgrounds and with entrepreneurial success spanning two decades, the Chapmans’ diverse experiences have been translated into their food business.

Marianna grew up on a farm in the hills of Mississippi where she spent summers assisting her father in farming and her mother in the gardening and canning efforts that would feed their family of six over the winter months. Later, she owned her own business consulting firm that advised retail businesses and made her a popular speaker at retail business events such as AmericasMart University and the National Main Street Conference. 

From a programming and Internet business background and as a self-taught expert griller and food connoisseur, Andy launched a marketing experiment called Eat Jackson in 2009. He went on to expand the company with the birth of the Eat Y’all brand in 2013.

Andy grew up as the middle of seven children, and as such developed a masterful ability to be creative with available groceries. In 2012, his skill saved the day when Marianna discovered just moments before guests arrived that she’d forgotten to buy the sauce for a neighborhood barbecue party. A few minutes later, their 6-year-old daughter, whose nickname is Sugar Taylor, was standing on a stool stirring Andy’s concoction with a wooden spoon before serving it to guests who were eager to take home the leftovers of the newly dubbed “Sugar Taylor Sauce.”

Marianna used her farm upbringing to can enough Sugar Taylor Sauce to satisfy the demands of friends and family. As the versatility of Sugar Taylor Sauce became apparent, demand continued to expand until early December 2013, when the Chapman’s three children canvassed their neighborhood promising Christmas delivery of commercially packaged Sugar Taylor Sauce. With a deadline set, the Chapmans found themselves in the artisan gourmet business.

Since then, they’ve experienced booming demand for their collection of pantry products and will share bold Southern flavors with the opening of their showroom in B14 at the Gourmet Market in the World Trade Center in Dallas, an opening highlighted by two live cooking demonstrations at the Culinary Bar in the atrium of the World Trade Center on June 24 and 25.

The Eat Y’all Southern Food Products collection featured in their new showroom includes Sugar Taylor Sauce as well as June Bugg Rub. They will also be showcasing their curated collection of Southern-made artisan gourmet products, including Bonney’s Hot Sauce, Delta Blues Rice (long grain rice, rice grits and brown rice) and Valine’s Famous Cocktail Sauce. In addition, Andy’s grilling expertise will come to bear as he presents a brand-new premium ceramic grill and outdoor furniture line called the Gourmet Guru Grill along with a full line of grilling accessories. This is the Dallas Market debut for all of the products.