When Tony is asked to describe the process of his average catering day, he smiles and has a hard time actually putting together a starting point and finishing through to the end.
“It’s not possible to really describe a typical day because there is no typical day. Every day is different. Every meal is prepared in different order according to how the day is scheduled,” says Tony while deciding instead to talk about how his food is prepared. For starters, the sauces for his meals are prepared fresh for each day’s catering job. The salads are started together but they finish differently according to the type of salad that was ordered. The chicken is always pounded out to ensure even and perfect cooking and special requests are handled with care and attention to certify the dish tastes perfectly.
Cooking and preparing food is an ingrained process for Tony, age 48, and he most enjoys the process of creating a product that people will truly love and remember. Looking around his back kitchen area, where the cooking and prepping is done, one can see a setup of a double convection oven for baking, two 15″ burners and 18″ griddle, a walk-in cooler and several other pieces of equipment that allow for preparing and cooking of several meals at once. He delivers food in his “Dogfather Mobile” a decorated Chevy HHR that is recognized instantly wherever it drives. He is equipped with large warmers to keep food fresh and piping hot (or cold, for that matter) and provides sternos and serving utensils with all orders. Tony sets up the delivered food for no extra cost. Weddings, dinners, birthday and social parties, funerals, pharamceutical and doctors’ office catering are just a few of the events Tony has successfully catered.
Asking Tony directly to what he attributes his success, he instantly responds with, “the good people who love my food and their word of mouth.” It’s true, actually. In the past two years, Tony states his catering business has grown 1000% (that’s one thousand percent or ten times as much as when he first started). Those are astonishing numbers for a small-town, privately-owned business. The city of Bartlett has reason to love Tony’s food and support him so much. He invovles himself in fundraising, sponsorships, community efforts and functions and is loved by children and parents for providing fun, delicious and affordable food that everyone comes back for, time and again. He also gives a nod of recognition to his quality of food and service, the great pricing and his restaurant and marketing staff. He reveals a central piece of his success and why he has been able to keep costs so low. “Employees are cross-trained. Line cooks are trained by me to understand the process of preparing more complex dishes and this allows me to keep staffing costs lower and in turn charge fair prices for my food.”
Today, Tony’s goal for even further success is to establish a larger corporate catering clientele. Those businesses with office meetings, lunches and company catered dinners are welcome to try Dogfather’s talents and find out for themselves how convenient and delicious Tony’s cooking is.
To place your order for catering, please use the form on the side or call Tony directly at (847) 529-dogs (3647) or you can email him at catering@www.dogfathercatering.com We look forward to hearing from you and answering any questions you might have!