OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — Shiequane Burks, owner of Fat Mamaas Po Boyz & Sandwiches 55, has overcome a life of struggles to live her dream of running her own restaurant.
- Fat Mamaas Po Boyz & Sandwhiches 55 opened in 2022.
- Burks works two jobs and runs the restaurant by herself.
- The restaurant is on Ohio Street in Oshkosh.
Inside Fat Mama's Po Boyz & Sandwiches 55, Shiequane Burks is living out her dream.
“This here, me cooking, that’s my everything,” she says.
Burks grew up with seven siblings, but she says her mom always cooked for them.
“I knew I wanted to open up a restaurant when I was young, and I used to watch my mom cook,” she says.
Burks says she remembers the first time she cooked for her mom and the joy it brought both of them.
The restaurant's name honors Burks’ mom. “Fat Mama” was the nickname she gave Burks, and “55” was the year she was born.
“If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be doing this,” Burks says. “When I close up, I thank God, I thank my mom because God is everything to me, and he gave me her.”
See inside Fat Mama's Po Boyz & Sandwiches 55:
Opening her restaurant, however, wasn’t smooth sailing.
After leaving home at 13, then getting pregnant at 14, Burks was in and out of prison for selling drugs.
“I did things to survive,” she says. “I don’t regret nothing I’ve been through because it teaches me, it taught me, and it makes me a better person… I did a whole turnaround.”
While she never forgot her dream, Burks says it’s still surreal sitting in her restaurant today.
“Sometimes I be like, how did I do this by myself?” she says. “Especially what I’ve been through.”
Today, Burks serves up a variety of sandwiches and sides, all made by her.
“Try to bring something that Oshkosh doesn’t have,” she says. “Something that will soothe your soul.”
The walls of the restaurant are filled with testimonials of the service and food.
“I thought the food was really, really good,” Desiree Frank, a first-time customer, says. “That barbeque sauce is top notch, I would eat probably anything slathered in that stuff.”
And Burks hopes her story will inspire others.
“If you want to do something, and you just put your determination and heart into it, it can be done,” she says. "Just because you've been through what you've been through, there's always something better for you."
