by Bob McClain
9-9-09
A La Carte story

Any food business is a tough business. Your inventory can go bad in a matter of days (or hours), there are over 3,000 restaurants (read competitors) in the Twin Cities alone, and your profit margins are razor thin. Then throw in the fact that you have to move your restaurant to a new location every day. That’s called catering. And that’s what A La Carte Catering does all week (and weekend) long.

I dragged the two owners of A La Carte catering away from their food preparation for a few minutes to learn more about their business. The owners are Mark and Jorie Heder. But first a little background…

The business was actually started in 1973 by Jorie’s mom and Mark & Jorie bought the business from her in 1996. Mark has a degree in Hotel & Restaurant Management and was a salesperson for Kraft Foods for 15 years. With Jorie, it was “on the job training.” She grew up in the business. They currently operate out of a former storefront in Bloomington, right next to the Eagles Club where they often serve parties and functions. Now let’s talk a bit about the food…

They have some very popular items on their menu. Some of the most popular are the Honey-Dijon Marinated Chicken, the Yankee Pot Roast, the Champaign Chicken and Mark’s Ribs. They also have a Hawaiian Chicken Salad that’s popular at bridal functions. But they can usually whip together just about anything a client requests. However, many of their long-time customers just say, “surprise us,” because they’ve never been disappointed with anything these two have served.

Two impressive things about them are that they can guide new clients through the process of arranging a party or function and can usually help them save money and cut costs. They also do a lot of wedding consulting because after so many years, they have an impressive list of reliable and cost effective service providers.