Catering to Simpler Tastes

After spending two years in a tiny rented kitchen in Dinkytown, Brown and Andermack moved last year to a larger, customized kitchen in Northeast Minneapolis. They currently employ a mixed full- and part-time staff of 20, plus a roster of part-time servers. “We needed a bigger, more efficient workspace for what we had in mind: expanding our business and lunch services,” Andermack says. This part of the business has grown 70 percent since they moved.

Chowgirls owners Heidi Andermack (left) and Amy Brown specialize in green-minded comfort food. Weddings and small parties are their sweet spot. Photo by Craig Bares.

That’s not to say they haven’t been hit by the downturn. Andermack noticed a slowdown “around the holiday season. We were doing more deliveries instead of full-staffed events . . . . We weren’t doing $5,000 parties. We were doing $2,000 parties.”

“And we were hearing a lot of things like, ‘I don’t want your staff to wear black ties,’” Brown says. “Some caterers present themselves as the optimal—you know, orchids placed perfectly on the plate. We are into abundance and value and good quality.”

Like the Tastebud Tart, Chowgirls seeks to source as much food locally as possible. Andermack and Brown also say they recycle 95 percent of their firm’s kitchen waste. Chowgirls catered for The Daily Show and The Jim Lehrer News Hour during the Republican National Convention, and provided the food at local LEED building workshops for the U.S. Green Building Council.

“We expanded our business lunches because people are still having meetings,” Brown says. “And people are conscious of healthful choices. That’s an anchor for our business.”