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Just shy of a year and three months after holding the brick-and-mortar location’s grand opening on April 22, 2024, at the former location of Dawn’s Delectables & Sandwich Shoppe in downtown Centralia, JJ’s ToGo owners and sisters-in-law Jessica and Devin Britton announced the location’s upcoming closure in a post on the business’s Facebook page.
“We love our JJ’s family and are grateful for the past year in our first brick-and-mortar restaurant. This might be the end of the physical location, but not of JJ’s. Stay tuned for more details. Come get it while you still can,” the Brittons said in the July 15 Facebook post. “Your support means the world to us.”
The physical location’s final day of business will be July 26. The Chronicle visited JJ’s ToGo on July 16 to ask the Brittons what some of the details of their future plans are and if they intend to transition back to a catering-faced business, but they were not at the business at the time of the visit.
Prior to opening the physical location, JJ’s ToGo had been a local catering and mobile food business started after Jessica Britton’s sister-in-law asked her to meal prep lunches out of her tiny Chehalis apartment in 2021, as previously reported by The Chronicle.
By March of 2024, they were averaging over 100 lunch orders per day. After successfully growing the catering business and considering a physical location after being forced to move JJ’s into a food truck, Dawn’s Delectables owner Dawn Merchant reached out to the Brittons — informing them she was taking a break from the restaurant industry, planning on closing her business and passing off the location as the new home of JJ’s.
While the business saw initial success, controversy arose last November after the Brittons refused to cater to the wedding of a same-sex couple, Ryah Calkins and Lillian Glover, publicly citing their Christian religious beliefs on social media.
The couple now lives in the Seattle area, but both women grew up in Lewis County, with Glover graduating from Adna High School and Calkins graduating from W.F. West High School in Chehalis.
“We love JJ’s. We love their food, and we really just wanted to share that with everybody who loved us at our wedding,” Calkins previously told The Chronicle. “It’s sad that that couldn’t occur. It was really hard for us.”
Calkins and Glover had been communicating with both JJ’s ToGo and Toledo-based The Crowded Kitchen Catering Co., about wedding catering quotes and chose JJ’s.
They had already been communicating with the Brittons about catering details. But, when they went to meet the Brittons in person to pay, the Brittons saw they were a same sex couple and refused to continue providing service to them or cater their wedding.
After public outcry and even some protestors showing up at the business, the Brittons stated this in a now-deleted social media post.
“Every decision that is made is based on our faith in Jesus Christ. Every creative idea or business decision is prayed about and discussed with every member of management before it is finalized,” the Brittons said. “We publicly dedicated our business to God in front of so many of you and asked Him to make us His vessels and nothing more.”
They added they “apologize to Ryah and Lillian for any inconvenience that has caused in their wedding planning. It is extremely important to us that you both know we love you. And our decision to say no to this event is actually for your benefit. You should have someone catering your event that supports and can celebrate your union.”
Calkins and Glover ultimately had The Crowded Kitchen cater their wedding.
JJ’s ToGo is located at 204 N. Tower Ave. in downtown Centralia. For more information, message the Brittons on the business’s Facebook page at https://tinyurl.com/4arh4342.
