Jazzy Gourmet Popcorn is the vision of Cedric Roland. Cedric and his family were living in Anchorage and running a booth at the Anchorage Saturday Market for several years. He, his wife Cheryl, and their daughter Jade ran the booth. The popularity of his popcorn varieties was enough for him to consider opening a store. He could not find a brick and mortar space in Anchorage. They were either too big or too small or didn’t have the appropriate kitchen space. Cheryl saw an ad on Craigslist for a spot that formerly housed a Thai food restaurant off the Old Glenn Highway in the Eagle River area. The space was ideal and had the 12-foot hood over the stove that he needed. As it turned out many of his customers were already from the Eagle River area and they embraced Jazzy Gourmet Popcorn.
Cedric was then approached by the Manager of Concessions at the Ted Stevens airport in Anchorage Alaska to open a kiosk in the commons area. After long deliberations, the kiosk was opened on June 1st, 2018. Cedric always wanted to open a brick and mortar location in Anchorage but the time and place needed to be right. During his search for equipment for the location, Mr Roland made a call to Dallas looking for used equipment to bring up to Alaska. His contact pointed him to a popcorn store that had closed in Frisco Texas that had all the equipment he needed. The leasing company had possession of the building and everything in it at that time but was legally restricted to sell the equipment. He was asked by the leasing company if he would be interested in opening a location in Frisco, his first reaction was absolutely not. The next day he had reconsidered and called to find out information about the location. He flew down to check out the area and was floored by what it looked like. He was so impressed by what he saw that he totally forgot about the third location in Anchorage. This turned out to be such a blessing and was offered a deal that he could not refuse. He signed the next day and started making arrangements to open his third location in Frisco Texas. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Frisco, TX location closed in April 2020.
Today, Jazzy Gourmet Popcorn has over 100 different popcorn recipes in its book. Roland rotates some flavors seasonally, but has at least 50 varieties in the store at all times. He can prep special flavor orders and specialized colors for school fund-raisers and weddings. When visiting his store you are greeted with amazing smells, fresh flavors, along with classic favorites. You can see the passion in what Mr Roland does and his love of his customers as he completes each order with his slogan “Have a Jazzy Day”.