Fuzzy’s Family Restaurant: Nine Years of Community Connection

Fuzzy’s Family Restaurant celebrated nine years of operation under its current owners on April 1, acting as a community fixture and a way to keep one family together.

Rosalie Selph has worked in food service since she was 11 years old. Originally from Tampa, Florida, she moved to Mount Vernon following her marriage to Mike Selph in 1982, where she has lived ever since.

“So, 44 years of being up here, I have no desire whatsoever to move away,” said Selph.

While she eventually moved from food service to postal service, Selph began to desire a business which would allow her and her five children, four daughters and one son, to remain together. She also wanted to provide her children flexible work hours to spend time with their own children, informed by her own experiences juggling work and parenthood.

“I had raised five children, and I wanted them to have the opportunity to spend time with their kids,” said Selph. “So, I felt like if I took the sacrifice and bought the business and did the brunt work, we could make hours where they could be parents, and then the kids could have their parents at home and not at work all the time.”

Originally, Selph had been offered another location to purchase, but the building was sold out from under her. Then, she received a message asking if she would be interested in purchasing the local restaurant Fuzzy’s.

“It actually got sold out from underneath me,” said Selph.

However, after a few months, the new owner reached out to Selph to ask if she was still interested in purchasing the restaurant, to which she agreed. The deal was finalized on April 1, 2017.

“We bought it, like I said, back in 2017 – April Fool’s Day,” said Selph. “Tricked all the kids, they thought, but the joke was on them, because they’re still having to work.”

Selph opted to keep the Fuzzy’s Family Restaurant name, as to her, Fuzzy’s was a community staple rather than just a simple restaurant.

“The community knows it was Fuzzy’s for a very long time, even though it went through a few owners,” said Selph. “I just didn’t want to take away from that.”

All of Selph’s children contributed to the business. Her son performed maintenance, and her daughters served as wait staff, with one daughter also assisting with the restaurant’s finances.

At first, they only made a few changes to Fuzzy’s pre-established menu, changing the recipes and introducing side items such as mac-and-cheese, potato salads and cabbage. According to Selph, they focused on providing more vegetables as other local establishments did not.

The restaurant would also stop serving a wide selection of wings in favor of only one flavor, as to not compete with the local T-Byrds Foods.

“It’s not dog-eat-dog around here,” said Selph. “We’ve had each other’s back, and so I go there to eat, they come over here to eat.”

COVID-19 provided the business with a unique challenge, stressing supply lines and raising prices of goods. Because of the pandemic, Selph was forced to drop a number of menu items, such as catfish.

However, Sleph says Fuzzy’s was able to avoid closing and raising its prices during COVID-19 due to a preemptive purchase from their suppliers. She likened the experience to the biblical story where Jesus Christ multiplies bread and fish to feed a large crowd.

“I had good vendors that said, ‘This is fixing to go up, Rosalie,” said Selph. “I went, I bought freezers, filled them slap full of what he told me was fixing to go up, and just like the fish and the bread, it made it through.”

Hurricane Helene also affected the restaurant, destroying sections of the back of the building. However, Selph’s family, including her son and son-in-law, who are both carpenters, came together to repair the restaurant and remain in business.

According to Selph, the business has proven a success in its original goal of keeping her family together for the past nine years. 

“If it’s not successful in anything else, it keeps families together,” said Selph. “We have a good old time up here.”