The Inspiration for Jerke’s Jerky who worked for Durban Meats.
From Sean’s family comes the origins of the Jerke’s Jerky Recipes.
Thomas Jerke: His family emigrated from the town of Meersburg, Germany of the shores of Lake Constance to America in the 1920’s. Having settled in the Dayton, Ohio area, the Jerke Family worked in the dairy industry. Thomas’ father was known in his homeland for creating popular meat snacks (landjager and others). Thomas started working with Durban Food Markets in 1931 as a butcher and eventually became a store manager over time.
The Jerke’s Family of Products: While at Durban Food Markets, Thomas started testing out samples from his family’s recipes to create a line-up of jerky products sold at Durban Meats in three states. Thomas eventually went to the war-front in WWII and was killed in the Philippines. The Durban Family continued selling the jerky products in the stores til they sold off the chain and moved to California.
Jerke’s Jerky Today: The next generation of the Durban Family is launching the first of the Jerke’s family as Pub Jerky (with the mix of alcohol infused jerky products with a line-up of traditional jerky products) ideal for retailers, food service locations, tourist sites, grab-and-go locations, e-commerce, the Military and more.
www.Jerkes.com / www.PubJerky.com
Jerke’s Pub Jerky Founders
Dan Burke (originally from England) has been involved with pubs all of his life (both in the UK and in America). When he moved to America he missed a couple of things that made the UK very unique, it’s English pubs and the London taxi. The popularity of pubs (English, Irish, Scottish, Australian) has grown in America.
British Taxi (www.BritishTaxi.com): While in America Dan decided to create a fleet of London taxis as part of a marketing agency. With London Cabs on both coasts, Dan works with a number of clients nationwide. Our fleet boasts some of the rarest London taxis in existence. Each iconic vehicle has been lovingly restored to bring style, charm and attention to your occasion.
Based in Las Vegas, Dan’s British Taxi business has a number of pub and bar clients (for marketing). Over time Dan and his partners came up with the idea of Jerke’s Pub Jerky.
Sean Vandebrake: Sean is a social media and television personality with a sizeable audience. Sean’s family hails from Ireland where they had a couple pubs in County Cork. During one of Sean’s visits to the Dublin/Galway areas he was very interested in learning more about the Irish Pub model. With a visit to a number of pubs in America and the Nightclub Show in Las Vegas he noticed a lack of quality snack programs for bars.
Sean grew to know Dan (over time) since both of them have their own London taxi (in Las Vegas). From the family Sean inherited a rare fully restored 1967 Austin FX-4 London taxi that was brought over from London in the 1970’s.
Snack Brands (Manufacturing and Brands)
Sean’s family has a long history in the snack business (with facilities and brands in stores natiowide). They have over 30-years of making traditional, natural and organic snacks.
Jerke’s Pub Jerky: Sean and Dan decided to combine their unique backgrounds (London taxis, media, snack production) and launch a series of pub themed snacks (from their English and Irish heritages).
The Jerke’s founding advisors and Sean’s family have a long history in the supermarket, grocery supply and meat supply businesses. The Durban / Eritano Families have been in the meat business for over 100 years starting from their origins in both Russia and Italy.
1910’s to 1920’s
The Durban Family (German Immigrants) were butchers in Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution (October, 1917). They decided to leave the Russian Revolution soon thereafter the family split up into going to two different directions, Ohio, USA and the Patagonia Region in Argentina. The Durban Family furthered their meat business heritage in America.
1930’s to 1950’s
Created a Small Chain of Grocery and Meat Markets in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana (Eventually Opening Up Stores in California) Peter Durban started a small meat and grocery chain (1930’s) called Durban Foods in the Akron, OH area. As a member of the Volunteer Food Stores Coop, Durban Foods grew to a number of locations in Canton, OH, Youngstown, OH and Newcastle, PA. Peter Durban sold the business in the late 1940’s to move his family to Southern California to re-start the business there as Durban Meats. Peter’s sons and daughters (with the in-laws) continued in the food and meat businesses in different variations.
