Thomas finds his niche with Salt & PepperCatering

The commitment Dave Thomas makes to his cateringbusiness literally knows no bounds. Take the popular Wednesday Open Kitchen Lunch he offered over a six-year period. One time he developed the menu and emailed itto customers while on vacation in Egypt.

“The pyramids were right outside my hotel window and Iwas trying to come up with new sandwich and salad ideas fornext week!” Dave says.

Having started Salt & Pepper Catering 14 years ago, Davehas met many people and made many friends along the way.

“There is always a new challenge around the corner and Ilove to take them as they come,” he says.

Rolling with the punches is what he does.

The plan was never to be a caterer in Thunder Bay. Originally from the Toronto area, Dave lived in Australia for two years and was planning to move back home when hestopped in the Lakehead to assist in the start-up of arestaurant. Spotting an ad in The Chronicle Journal for acatering kitchen available for rent, he was intrigued.

“I decided to give it a shot,” Dave says. “If it didn’t workout, I would stick to my original plan and go back to Toronto.”

He had just enough money for the first and last month’s rent,and to purchase signs for the building, fire extinguishers,dishwasher chemicals, and print 1,000 brochures.

Now he just needed the customers.

(By the way, “Salt & Pepper” was inspired by the name on aline of dishes he noticed while walking through a mall inSydney. “I immediately said ‘that’s it!’ I had been thinkingforever of what to call my future catering business,” heexplains.)

To get his name out there, he launched “Wednesday OpenKitchen Lunch,” featuring a new menu each week, which wasemailed to a growing distribution list.

And the crowds came. So many that people couldn’t get aseat. Sometimes they turned over milk crates in the back to sitor customers took their plates outside and ate in a pickuptruck.

“We had so many people each week that we set up tablesand chairs in our storage room at the back of the kitchen,”Dave recalls. “No one cared. They loved it!”

The question then arose of how he could make a profit ona $10-with-tax lunch meal. Dave would laugh and reply, “I’mhere to make friends, not money.”

The fact is, he didn’t make money.

“That wasn’t the idea,” he says. “It was a form of advertisingthat paid itself back each week.

“It’s simple. Do something different that makes peopletalk.”

All that effort and hard work has paid off. Salt & PepperCatering is an award-winning business that now employs 10people and caters a variety of events. The majority of businessduring the winter is lunches, moving into parties in Decemberand weddings virtually every weekend in the summer. Theyalso offer pasta takeout the first Friday of every month and theyare the exclusive caterer for the Stepstone wedding centre.

“I would like to thank the people of Thunder Bay for beingso supportive and appreciative of my business here,” Davesays.