The owner of Twice Baked, Joseph Shorter, decided to open the Opelika restaurant to pursue his passion for cooking and help provide job opportunities for others who’ve been incarcerated.
Shorter, 43, said he knows how difficult it is for people with a criminal background to find a job after they’re released from prison and how hard it is to transition back to everyday life.
In 1993, Shorter’s mother went missing and was found about a year later, but he said no one knows the cause of her death. After that, Shorter said he stopped caring and started “acting out.”
After being incarcerated for a combined total of eight years, Shorter decided to turn his life around.
“I was doing a lot of things that I wasn’t proud of, and I just got tired,” Shorter said. “I got tired of disappointing people and disappointing myself, so I figured I had to change. I prayed and prayed, and God blessed me with change.”
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Shorter decided to become a businessman.
“It wasn’t easy, but change is change. I feel like I can help other people change,” he said. “I think that’s why I’m here, to actually help other people. That’s why I’m here. It’s not for me. I’m just a vessel.”
When Shorter was released, he started looking for jobs. He said it was a struggle, but over time he was able to find work with different “in-and-out jobs,” which he says got him to where he is today.
He worked in several different restaurants and expanded his cooking expertise.
He already had the passion for cooking, he said, which came from watching his mother cook and helping her when he was growing up.
“I feel like food can bring a lot of healing power and actually bring a smile to people’s face,” he said. “You can meet different people through your food, and it also brings people together.”
By 2018, he had opened a small restaurant in Auburn, and he and his wife, Megan, also started a cleaning service, Z&S At Your Service.
Two years later, during COVID-19, Shorter decided to move the restaurant, Twice Baked, to 909 S. Railroad Ave. in downtown Opelika, which was larger and offered room for customers to come in and sit down to eat.
Even during the height of the pandemic, Shorter was able to make the move and stay open through the support from the community, he said.
“That’s what kept us going,” he said. “Really, that’s what keeps any restaurant business going is the community.”
Shorter said he is self-taught and has never taken a culinary class. The dishes at Twice Baked are made from scratch and the menu consists of Philly cheese steaks, Sloppy Joes, wings, tacos and twice-baked potatoes, which is where he got the name for the restaurant.
He said he felt called to give back to the community and try to help in some kind of way, so he created a way to offer a second chance to individuals struggling to find jobs because of their background.
“It’s hard for a lot of people to get jobs with a criminal background mainly because you get judged a lot,” he said. “Here, we don’t judge no matter who you are: creed, color, it doesn’t matter.”
Since opening the restaurant and cleaning service, Shorter has helped nine people transition to jobs after being released from prison, he said, and all of them have now moved on to better jobs or to further their education.
“We have people that worked here for a little while and moved on because this is a stepping stone,” Shorter said. “I’ve helped a couple find jobs, but basically from working in here they meet people that actually come in and eat and offer jobs, too.”
Besides providing a job opportunity, Shorter tries to help these individuals change the course of their lives as well as show them that someone loves and cares about them.
“I want to show other people that you can do the same thing if you put the energy and time into it and change your whole demeanor of who you used to be and try to be a better person,” Shorter said.
Twice Baked is also a family business. Shorter’s wife makes the desserts and their 17-year-old daughter Azariah and Shorter’s brother Chris Thompson also work at the restaurant.
Shorter said working with family has been wonderful and an important part of running the business. He wanted to establish something for his family as well as for those in need of a job.
Azariah has plans to go to culinary school, and Shorter said he wants to maintain the restaurant for her to inherit.
“I want to instill in her the value of work ethic. I want to show her that she can do the same thing I can,” he said. “I want to show her the ins and outs and let her know it’s not simple, because running a business is not easy.
“But I just want for her to be able to have something in life to do and not go through some of the struggles I went through.”