There’s a new name in the catering game, and it’s one you likely know. Gavin Kaysen has launched a new catering arm to his expanding Soigné Hospitality collection of ventures: Spoon and Stable, Demi, Mara and Socca with the Four Seasons Hotel Minneapolis, Bellecour Bakery with Cook’s, GK at Home, and KZ Provisioning with Andrew Zimmern. Now adding, Spoon Thief Catering.
They’re not going head to head with the big caterers like D’amico or Lancer, Spoon Thief will cater smaller events from 2 to 16 people, and up to 250 people upon special request. This is more aimed at special dinners inside your home or larger buffet-style events with bar service, small weddings, and business events. I get a lot of calls looking for a chef to help make a 50th birthday party special, fancy in-home dinners to impress clients, or small weddings that just want the best snacks and drinks without all the traditional formalities. I think those will be their sweet spots.
“You know, we’ve been doing small special dinners for people for a long time, under the brand, but the reality is that we have KZ Pro as a sports catering business and that’s been great, but it’s very specific to the athletes we work with,” Kaysen told me over the phone. “As we’ve been getting more requests for in-home events, it just made sense.” The name Spoon Thief, of course, hints at the chef’s predilection for nabbing table spoons from other restaurants as keepsakes.
Kaysen notes that he was the last of his team to come around to this. “It stretches the bandwidth. When you start to cater, it’s different, there are different obstacles. So it took me a while to say yes to it, but I talked myself into it by seeing how we could start smaller, and cater out of Spoon, keep it boutique and do the smaller events.”
Peter Ireland, a veteran local chef formerly of Harriet Brasserie and the long-lost Lynn on Bryant, is on board to help make things easier. He’d been working with Andrew Zimmern, and done some time with D’amico, so Kaysen called him up to help build Spoon Thief from the ground up.
For in-home dinners, they’ll have a basic structure. It all starts with canapés during a reception and then moves to a seasonal four-course meal (appetizer, mid-course, entrée, and dessert). Of course you can customize, but some of the menu options include chorizo and date meatballs, dandelion gnocchi and mushrooms, smoked pork chop with warm potato salad, even Dorothy’s Pot Roast can now be served direct from your kitchen. There are wine pairings and batched cocktail options for you to choose as well. Pricing, of course, varies by head count, but there is a $1,500 food and beverage minimum for in-home dinners.
“It’s been a fun process, something a little bit different,” Kaysen admitted. “This gives people a new way to experience us. And it helps strengthen the business, if we ever have to close the restaurants again we’ll be ready to do something different.”
Stephanie March
Food and Dining editor Stephanie March writes and edits Mpls.St.Paul Magazine’s Eat + Drink section. She can also be heard Saturdays on her myTalk107.1 radio show, Weekly Dish, where she talks about the Twin Cities food scene.
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July 28, 2022
9:52 AM
