My Biz: Cooking, with interest

Name: Brad and Charlotte Nielson

Title: Co-Owner

Company: Charlotte's and Catered by Charlotte

Address: 745 Community Dr., North Liberty

Phone: (319) 626-2295

Website: http://www.eatatcharlottes.net/ and http://www.cateredbycharlotte.com/

Elevator speech: A catering business, with a restaurant inside

NORTH LIBERTY - Brad Nielson has learned to take a day off on holidays.

He enjoyed his day off on Easter Sunday, for example, and is looking forward to another short break over Memorial Day.

When you work in the catering business, he said, you take what you can get.

Nielson and his wife, Charlotte, own Catered by Charlotte, a full-service catering company based in North Liberty. The couple started their catering business 10 years ago when Charlotte decided to take her restaurant management experience and interest in cooking out on her own.

“It was only 3 or 4 months before she got so busy that I had to start helping her,” Brad Nielson recalled.

Two years ago, the couple expanded their operation to include a retail component and their restaurant, Charlotte's, was born.

“Now it's really a catering business with a restaurant inside of it,” Nielsen explained. “We are actually catering, and we just have people in here eating while we do it.”

Fresh, “shortcut-free” food is also vital, he said, as well as an acceptable price point for consumers.

“It's hard to make a living in a business like this because the margins aren't great,” he admitted.

“Customer can't just come once. We need them to come 50 times and tell everyone they know to come here because of the quality of the product and the experience.”

While customers eat lunch and dinner at Charlotte's, another part of the staff of 30 to 35 employees is at work preparing catering orders. Catered by Charlotte handles an average of 30 events per week - from large wedding receptions to small office lunches.

They take on events within a 75-mile radius from their home base.

The work day goes by quickly for Nielson - among catering schedules and prep, a busy lunch crowd and all the back-office work. But being a restaurateur and caterer takes a huge time commitment, he explained.

“When we just did catering, we'd have customers email or call us to tell us everything was great,” he said. “But here at Charlotte's, it's a completely different dynamic.

“To have people here and then have them come up and tell us about their experience - that the food was delicious or the atmosphere was great - that's everything. Even when you've worked 40 or 50 days in a row, there's energy in that positive affirmation you get from everybody.”

The restaurant space will expand - along with the menu - to an additional 40 to 50 seats later this summer. They also are considering an expansion to another Corridor location.

“It's not an event. It's a work in progress,” he said. “It's a long journey to be successful, so you really have to love it.”

Know a business owner or manager who should be considered for “My Biz” or an entrepreneur who might be good for our soon-to-debut “From the Ground Up” feature? Contact business editor Michael Chevy Castranova at michael.castranova@sourcemedia.net.