chuckography

Thinking outside of the (pizza) box...

 Joan Perry, a longtime friend - and fellow blogger - notified me about a new catering service being introduced by Mellow Mushroom.

She and I both were going to a "preview" at the Mellow's Avondale store to see what new food treats they would be offering along with their famed pizzas.

This store was converted a few years ago from a community movie theater. It's long and narrow and there still is a balcony upstairs above the entrance.

The balcony has comfortable table seating and a semi-circle table had been set up with a tasty array of the new catering menu.

Salads to the left and sandwiches to the right. I happened to be standing near the table as Karen Tassinari, Director of Catering, came over to open the neatly arranged covered boxes of samples.

She smiled and said, "You are at the front of the line."

I picked up a plate and followed her as she opened and described the contents of soups, signature salads, and sandwiches.

Karen's card says she oversees catering there, King Street, North Charleston and Summerville.

Joan arrived as I sat at the table, looking over my choices.

She picked her favorites and came back to sit next to me and we compared our plates. We each chose a glass of the house red wine.

I said the baby kale, mixed with young spinach salad was tasty.

Joan said she had won a raffle recently and Mellow Mushroom provided a diverse catered lunch for 25 of her hospital volunteers at Roper-St. Francis.

Joan made it a first-come group because she had many more volunteers.

I was pleased she had notified me of this preview in Avondale.

I noticed a gentleman seated nearby who seemed to be answering questions about the foods. When I introduced myself, I found he was Todd LeBlanc, the chef who had designed the foods, in from Mellow Mushrooms's corporate headquarters in Atlanta.

Joan told Todd about the 25-person lunch that was catered and how pleased she was to have won the drawing. He thanked her for her interest in doing a follow-up to the source.

We all agreed this was a much better week to have such event rather than earlier during our ice and snow storm.

Labels: assorted trays, Chef Todd LeBlanc, client lunches, Dir. Catering Karen Tassinari, kale and baby spinach salad, Mellow Mushroom in Avondale, signature salads and sandwiches

posted by chuckography @ 12:53 PM