Catering still down

FAIRFIELD – The catering industry relies on large groups of people willing to gather for a meal.

But since large groups are being discouraged during the pandemic, caterers are taking a hit.

Tony Baker, owner of the barbecue restaurant Sweet ‘n Saucy in Fairfield, said the catering side of his business hasn't dried up completely, but it is down considerably from past years.

Baker said catering for a large wedding would normally mean preparing food for 200-300 people, but this year the size of weddings is down, closer to 50-150 people. Not only that, but many other events are being scaled back or canceled altogether.

'We've started to do some catering again, but the events have been few and far between,” Baker said. 'Some people are ready to get out and do things, but others are not.”

In addition to its catering and restaurant businesses, Sweet ‘n Saucy runs a food truck. The food truck is a fixture at summer art walks and outdoor festivals, but just like the decline in weddings, those events have been canceled or curtailed.

'We've lost the majority of our catering and trailer business,” Baker said. 'We have done a couple of county fairs in the past month, at Van Buren and Monroe counties.”

Baker estimates that catering revenue is down 40 percent from a year ago. For those willing to hold events and have them catered, Baker has to change his serving procedures. Self-service lines have morphed into school cafeteria-style lines where a server puts the food on your plate. This is either volunteers from the host site or employees of Sweet ‘n Saucy.

Baker said he has had to send extra employees to events to act as servers.

Baker said his restaurant has rebounded to 'normal-ish” revenue, which is helping to compensate for the drop off in catering. He said the public spent four months at home, and were discouraged from going out. Now that the weather is nice, many are opting to grill at home instead of ordering from a restaurant.

One service is up compared to last year, and that's delivery and take-out.

Baker has a contract with Ghost Vape in Fairfield, which runs a delivery service for local restaurants. Baker said he started using the service last year before the coronavirus arrived, and he's grateful for it because it's allowed him to outsource delivery without having to devote one of his employees to the task.

Though the state of Iowa has lifted the 50 percent capacity limit on restaurants, they still must seat customers 6 feet apart, so Baker said he's still limited in how many people can be in his restaurant at any one time.

Suzan Kessel, who manages the Fairfield Golf & Country Club, said her golf course caters lunches for weekly Rotary meetings, events at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center, for business lunches with firms such as Cambridge Investment Research, and for a few weddings every year.

Kessel said the business from hosting those events is down because so many meetings have migrated online, so there's no need for lunch. The golf course has hosted golfing events where it has put together bag lunches so the golfers could eat on the patio outside.

Kessel said the dip in catering for events has come while the course is doing very well in cart rentals and green fees, which has helped to keep it going.

'The course is busier than ever,” she said. 'We've had quite a few people from out of town come.”

Kessel said there's a program which subsidizes the green fees for youth, so they can play at a variety of courses throughout the region without breaking the bank. She hadn't seen that program in several years, but she's seen a lot of youth golfers take advantage of it this year, and they've kept the course busy.