Journey of a Caterer, by Crystal Provance
I met my husband when we were both studying food and beverage at college in Pennsylvania. This began a thirty-year love affair and a shared love of the food and beverage industry. We had so many exciting years as we developed our talents and skills in large hotels, country clubs, and restaurants; to the point that we decided to go out on our own. I actually opened one of the first Coffee Cafes’ in Charlotte in 1995 that featured coffee in the morning and jazz into the night. Every jazz musician around played in my place at some point. But despite having a manager and employees, it was exhausting so around 1999, I decided to leave retail and go into catering. Within a few years, we found ourselves back in retail and opening Southern Gourmet with another catering couple, but the partnership only lasted six months because they had a young family and the hours were too demanding for them. Our dream was to build a little empire and then sell and have a nice retirement. Suddenly, in Decemb