Daily Morsel
We all start somewhere, sometimes just letting things unfold, allowing opportunities to take their course and making choices along the way. For those unfamiliar with the birth of Something Classic, retelling our story in this our 20th year seems altogether fitting. Karen Bryan Teed and I met through college friends. I had just returned from a year in Italy after graduating from Davidson; Karen moved to Charlotte after college at UNC Chapel Hill. We shared a passion for food and entertaining. We were the ones in our set of friends who actually hosted dinner parties and enjoyed food and great wine. So we moved into a house on Lexington Avenue in Dilworth.
Cooking for friends and family soon turned into culinary experiments on a few corporate clients and Opera Carolina. We knew more about opera than our way around the kitchen! We made desserts for Dilworth Coffee and used our educations in French, political science and business to follow mouth-watering recipes in our favorite cookbooks. Everything was super fresh as there was little room in our fridge for storage. And presentation was always a consideration: We displayed food on unusual props from around the house because we couldn't afford silver trays. Linens were sometimes our Moms' old curtains or tapestry from a yard sale. Flowers were freshly picked...usually from a nearby yard...in the middle of the night!
Small dinner parties grew to larger parties, and then we landed an affair at the Mint Museum. Roxanne Lippart of the Mint made it very clear that insurance and a legal kitchen were musts. She later became our biggest fan. As I said, some things just unfold. In my search for a kitchen that day, I walked across the street from my boyfriend's house on East Blvd to the Sunset Bar & Grill as my Honda (our catering vehicle) reeked of spilled hollandaise. Owner Bob Toler welcomed me with open arms, 10 percent of the revenue, a shelf in the cooler, and a pinch. At last, we were legal!
The next morning Karen and I arrived at 6 a.m. to the stench of stale beer. (Our legal kitchen was also a bar.) I will never forget the bride who shimmied her first dance on the bar and finding our hors d'oeuvres for that night's event on the happy hour buffet. I met my best friend Dorrys at Sunset and my husband who played piano in the band with Beth Chorneau . . . this place will always hold a special place in my heart.
After six months, we moved to our gourmet shop in Myers Park ...also in the middle of the night. Karen and I shared a higher vision for our business, and we didn't mind the few bumps and pinches along the way.
The rest is a history of choices. We learned our way around the kitchen, hired thousands of employees, opened a few cafes and catered some spectacular parties. We have followed our hearts, made some great friends, allowed our fate to unfold, remembering the journey is more important than the destination.
After 20 years, Something Classic is returning to Dilworth and East Boulevard to open a new cafe in the old Dikadee's Deli location... two doors down from the Sunset Bar & Grill (now Cantina 1511). Please join us for some new adventures and sample one of our first creations and still customer favorite, tarragon chicken salad and our latest cookie creation: Chocolate Cherry Kiss. We promise to experiment on you just like old friends.
Jill Marcus
Founder, Green Goddess Alliance
President, Something Classic Catering & Cafés
Community Café at Discovery Place
 
|
