In late January of 2021, Neema Zarrabian ‘21 started his own take out food business in Williamstown called Willy’s Chickens. Neema has always loved cooking. While growing up, he spent a lot of time baking with his mom and eating his dad’s delicious food. Some of his best childhood memories are spending time in the kitchen with his family members. Yummy comfort food has always been a passion of Neema’s.
The inspiration to start his own business came to him late last semester. Throughout the fall, Neema would spend time cooking with and for his roommates. Right before Neema and his housemates were planning to go home for Winter Break, they got contact traced for COVID-19 so they stayed in Williamstown to quarantine together. While quarantining together, they all became obsessed with trying recipes they saw on Tik Tok. One day, one of Neema’s roommates sent him a fried chicken sandwich recipe, so he made it. Everyone loved it. Neema played around with the recipe and finally perfected it.
Neema wanted to grow his passion for cooking in the spring, and expand it on a larger scale, so he decided to start a take out food service called Willy’s Chickens. When I asked Neema what his favorite part of Willy’s Chickens is, he told me, “I love interacting with the customers. I have many loyal, repeat customers, which makes me so happy.” Throughout this experience, Neema has prided himself on putting smiles on people’s faces. “Sunday’s can be stressful, but I think serving delicious comfort food is an easy way to make the start of the week a bit more bearable,” Neema said with a smile on his face. Although his business has done very well, Neema has faced a few challenges. “The hardest part is our small kitchen. When there are a lot of orders, I get stressed out to make sure all of the food is 100% ready and delicious on time.” Additionally, Neema told me how much he has been learning and growing with Willy’s Chickens, specifically with social media and marketing. “I am not the most social media savvy person, so I have been learning a lot about the best ways to market my food on Instagram,” said Neema.
To wrap up my chat with Neema, I asked him if he plans on continuing to work with his food business after graduation. “I have always wanted to be a business owner. I didn’t realize it could be in food, which is one of my passions, until this year, but I would love to somehow continue this – maybe it’s in the form of a food truck or stand or franchise or something. As long as I’m making and selling delicious food that makes people happy, I’ll keep going,” said Neema.
From firsthand experience, I can attest to how delicious Neema’s chicken sandwiches are. Willy’s Chickens has become a staple of my Sunday’s in Williamstown. I highly recommend the fried chicken sandwich with their homemade spicy mayo with a side of Mac and the butter biscuits! The link to the Instragram is below. The order form is in their bio so fill it out for a tasty meal every Sunday!
https://www.instagram.com/willys_chickens/