2 minute read
Tri-States Grain Conditioning
“One day I had a lady ask me if I’d cater her son’s wedding. We did and business just spread by word of mouth. We’ve never advertised.” Eventually there was enough catering business, she gave up running the cafes at the sale barns. What is Beyer Catering’s secret ingredient to success? “Hot food is really the key. We love to hear from folks that the food is just as hot for the last person going through the line as the first person who went through,” Melissa said. “We take everything in electric roasters and get them plugged in as soon as we arrive there ahead of time. We’ll switch things over to candle warmers right before we serve.” Jeff said, “Sometimes when we’ve catered at a farm where outlets might be limited outside, I’ll even bring a little generator along.” Beyer Catering isn’t the place to call if you’re looking for a gourmet meal – instead, the company specializes in “home cooking” to please the meat and potatoes crowd. Melissa prepares a lot of meals for small business meetings at places like Demco, Agropur, the REC or area co-ops. “Once a month, I do a meal for residents at The Homestead retirement community in Hull,” she said. Jeff continued: “We’ve done quite a few events at the school for fundraisers or whatnot, and that will spur people to hire us for their family reunion or whatever.” She makes everything from cupcakes, buns and ham balls to individual casseroles to full-on buffet meals for weddings and family reunions up to 300 people. “We always make plenty of food so people can come back for seconds. I don’t ever want to run out of food.”
For the big catering jobs, Jeff works side-by-side with Melissa. He has two or three smokers, plus a big grill which they use to grill chicken, burgers or pork chops on-site. He does a lot of reading and research on grilling and smoking meat. Melissa said, “Jeff smokes brisket and that’s one of the things we’re known for.”
Advertisement
Prior to the first time of serving brisket, he ran out of time to do some testing. “So my trial run was for 300 people at a wedding. Then we got to the wedding and found out the groom’s family was from Texas. I thought ‘uh, oh.’ But they liked it and I’ve stuck with my recipe and technique ever since.” Melissa added, “He makes all his own rubs, so it’s pretty cool. He gets to play around with all that.” People who have served the Beyer brisket at a wedding will often call later and want to purchase it in bulk for holidays or other family gatherings. Jeff said the fact that he and Melissa are making the deliveries and doing the set-ups is important. “People don’t like it when a company sends a high school kid out to drop off their food who doesn’t really care about the business.” Melissa added, “Our customers like to see familiar faces and they’re always happy to see us, so that always makes us feel really good.” Their daughter, Caitlyn, loves to help when she’s home from the University of Northern Iowa. Son Colton is a junior at
Age Media Qtr Page Color 1-8-20.pdf 1 1/8/2020 11:21:34 AM
Caitlyn and Colton Beyer.
