The Southern cuisine found at Mrs. Winner’s Chicken & Biscuits is not new to south Fulton County. But what is new are two of the company’s four co-owners, Darryl Berry and James Beasley, neighbors who make their home in the Cascade area. Beasley and Berry joined Mrs. Winner’s in early 2007, bringing with them decades of sales, marketing, management and motivational experience.

“We decided to do something different. We thought quick service was the way to go,” Berry explained in a conversation last week. “And we wanted to make a difference in individual lives.”

The neighbors from Cascade first thought of purchasing five Mrs. Winner’s restaurants. That idea expanded to 10 stores, then 15. But after making their proposal to then-current co-owners Jeff Miller and Chuck Cooper, the Cascade neighbors received a counter proposal that included their buying in to the company, Berry said. Today, Beasley serves as Chief Marketing Officer and Berry serves as Chief Operating Officer.

The Mrs. Winner’s brand was acquired by Famous Recipe Company Operations, LLC in 2006. The company owns 91 of the 113 Mrs. Winner’s Chicken & Biscuit locations located thoughout much of the Southeast and employs more than 1,500. But serving quick service fare is not the only aim found in the aspirations of Beasley and Berry. They tend to speak more about staff empowerment and community involvement than their product line.

“We’re excited about the Mrs. Winner’s brand but we’re also excited about our vision for the company and community participation,” Berry said.

Beasley and Berry spoke of the company’s endeavors at promoting youth, education and its employees. Mrs. Winner’s is sponsoring Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System, DeKalb Public Library’s Vacation Reading Program, has re-worked its employee scholarship program and developed an internal Career Track program to atract and develop talent.

“We don’t just want employees,” Beasley said. “We want career-minded employees.”

Perhaps as much as any community outreach component, Beasley said the company was excited about its partnership with Atlanta Business League and the mentoring program for youth ages 15-17. That effort has now extended to some of Berry and Beasley’s friends who, too, have taken on the role of an ongoing mentor for some of the youth who have expressed an interest in fields such as medicine.

Beasley and Berry are visibly upbeat, believing in their product and its future. Sitting in the Mrs. Winner’s restaurant on Camp Creek Parkway, the conversation kept revolving around the ways to make a difference for people in ways that include, and transcend, the food service industry yet are made possible for Berry and Beasley by their participation in it. At face value, their worldview lends itself to the axiom that the only way to make a difference is to be the difference.

Prior to his new endeavor with Mrs. Winner’s, Berry held sales training and executive leadership roles with Guidant Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer Medical and Procter & Gamble. Berry was previously a managing member of Berry Enterprises and a Vice President at Medtronic Corp.

Beasley was National Accounnt Sales Manager with PepsiCo’s Foodservice Division. He was instrumental in working with key national customers to develop and execute promotions and incentives to increase sales. In 2006, Beasley negotiated contracts worth more than $164 million. Beasley also worked with Nabisco, where he commercialized the company’s product line in the Southeast region.