Ziggy Zoomba’s BG

He cooked too much chicken fried rice that day in July 2016, and longtime friend Jerrod Poole and a few others came over to help Shivers get rid of the leftovers. Impressed with the taste, Poole told Shivers he should turn his cooking skills into a business.

And after receiving more positive feedback on social media, Shivers took the $47 he had in his pocket and purchased paper plating and ingredients to begin #TriggaMeals, right in his own kitchen. “Twitter helps out a whole lot. I don’t think without the help of Twitter it would have been what it is today,” he said.

Shivers asks customers to post a picture of his food using #TriggaMeals if they liked it. Word spread after a few days and Shivers found he had numerous customers from around Ohio, including Toledo, Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, and even some Michigan cities. Not only did Shivers innovative Twitter marketing draw the attention of customers, it also got noticed by a local business owner—Joe Kostelnik of Ziggy Zoomba’s.

After seeing that popularity of #TriggaMeals, Kostelnik asked his own employees through his staff Facebook page if they had heard of #TriggaMeals and what it was. The response was overwhelmingly positive. “Pretty much every single employee commented that they had it and loved it, or their friends have had it and loved it,” Kostelnik said. Shivers is now serving his #TriggaMeals at Ziggy Zoomba’s located at 300 E. Wooster St.

His menu offers everyday items and a daily special. Everyday menu items include chicken or steak fried rice, chicken or shrimp Alfredo, and egg rolls with the choice of corn beef and Swiss or steak and cheese. An everyday menu item Shivers says is a fan favorite is the loaded buffalo chicken fries and the fried hibachi rice. He recently introduced a three-meat fried hibachi rice as a daily meal. Although Shivers doesn’t currently have a set menu, he hopes to have one by the beginning of the school year, with up to seven to 10 menu items. Shivers is pleased with the current success of #TriggaMeals, but he is quick to point out that success is not simply about dollars and cents, but how he is moving forward as man of character, honoring the memory of his late mother Sharon. A few months before launching #TriggaMeals in July, his mother passed away in March 2016.