Black-owned business in Utah begins with a carpe-diem mindset and a love of sweets

SALT LAKE CITY — It was a love of banana pudding — and getting laid off from another job — that led Parker Barbee down the road toward winning a $25,000 grant from Shark Tank's Daymond John.

The silky, smooth taste of the pudding with the crunch of vanilla wafers has been a long-time staple in African-American families for decades. And even though his grandmother was allergic to the dessert — meaning it was not often present during Sunday dinners — Barbee always found a way to get his hands on some, enjoying every spoonful.

His love for the pudding never faded, giving Barbee the thought to carpe diem — seize the day — and, after some friends enjoyed his own pudding, open a storefront in Salt Lake City's Sugar House neighborhood. With his layoff, he was given the kick to do what had been at the back of his mind. Last Friday, his shop Parfé Diem was one of four Black-owned businesses in the country that was recognized by John and the NAACP with a $25,000 grant.

"I completed the grant application with a few days left ... I figured I had as good a chance as any," Barbee said. "When they called me, I thought I was doing a finalist interview or something. Then, when I heard we won ... well, it could not have come at a better time."

Since 2000, John has hosted a Black Entrepreneurs Day to celebrate Black business owners and encourage others to go down a business path. The U.S. Congress and U.S. Department of Commerce report just 3% of businesses in the country are Black-owned, and the efforts by John and the NAACP aim to increase those numbers.

Beginning in 2000, John began to supply four Black-owned businesses across the country with a $25,000 grant for the owners to do as they see fit to improve their businesses. Winners also had the opportunity to meet with John for one-on-one mentorship.

Most winners of the grant have been in New York, a number of cities across the South and other well-known areas with a sizable Black population and hundreds, if not thousands, of Black-owned businesses.

A University of Nevada at Las Vegas report focused on Black businesses in the Mountain West region of the country — including Salt Lake City, the Provo-Orem corridor and the Ogden-Clearfield region — reveals that Black-owned businesses account for 0.3% of all businesses in the area. In other words, a Black-owned business in Salt Lake City was not on the expected winner list.

Without his and his partner's move to Salt Lake City in 2022, Barbee would not have been in Salt Lake City to provide a winner from the Mountain West region. He plans to use the money to pay bills, purchase a trailer so they can be more mobile and to challenge those hesitant to try his pudding parfait to give it a taste.

With a texture similar to a mixture of pudding with mousse, the pudding parfait is light, sweet enough to the satisfy a sweet tooth and dangerous enough to eat in a very short sitting. The shop does sell shortbread cookies and a product similar to an ice cream sandwich but with pudding as well. There's certainly something different to ease a sweets craving.

But what allowed Barbee to win John's grant was not the taste of his parfait or the types of flavors the shop offers. His focus on growing his business and turning his product into a sellable hit were. With the grant, he is on his way.

"I feel like now we need to get in people's faces to help us become an attractive choice for people," Barbee said. "I mean, Utah has a big sweet tooth and our regulars think the parfaits taste great. But this has been a great month ... I never thought people would make me part of their day, but they do and I'm always amazed by that."

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