Popular family noodle business opens first brick and mortar shop

The family business was founded in 2001 by husband-and-wife Matt and Monica Easterling of Miamisburg, using Monica’s great grandmother’s recipe.

“My great grandmother grew up on a farm and cooked all the time,” states Monica on the business’s website. “We would watch her in the kitchen, and she would always let us help. Our favorite cooking time with grandma was making the noodles, rolling the dough, playing in the flour and squishing the dough between our fingers. I think that’s why she made them so much because she knew how much we loved them.”

After making the recipe for her own young children for years, Monica finally debuted the noodles to the public at a festival in 2001 in Springboro. According to the family, the demand for noodles grew tremendously as the years went by and as the family attended more and more local festivals.

Credit: Contributed

Credit: Contributed

Today, Bessie’s is carried in more than 120 regional grocery stores between Columbus, Sidney and as far south as Walton, Kentucky. Now with the brick and mortar in Fairborn, fans of Bessie’s can get the noodles hot-and-ready, a commonplace fixture at festivals, or packaged grocer style.

“The customers love (the new deli) because… some of them live where we don’t sell to the grocery stores (or) they don’t want to buy from the grocery store,” Matt said. “There are a few items I sell out of the deli that are not available in the grocery stores, so now they have an opportunity to come and get it.”

In addition to all of Bessie’s noodle dishes, the deli carries more than 40 other items from fresh ground beef, steaks, pork chops, baked goods, ice cream, meats and cheeses from Walnut Creek and more.

Though the deli is still a few weeks away from a grand opening, according to Matt, the shop will begin its permanent hours today, Feb. 23, of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Credit: Contributed

Credit: Contributed