History

Brief History

The Butler Did It Catering Co. was founded in 1994 by three young enthusiastic entrepreneurs, Darryl Ray, Jamie and Erin Avantini. Each of us brought different industry knowledge to the partnership. Darryl and Erin were working together at The Brockhouse Restaurant on the West Side of Vancouver and Jamie, Erin's husband, was employed at the Westin Bayshore. Jamie was, and still is, actively involved the B.C. Rugby community, which is where our venture began. We catered some banquets for various teams and received a great response. It was while we were doing some of this freelance off premise catering that we came across a flailing catering/food product business for sale. With our profits, support of friends and family and a minimally equipped 450 sq. foot kitchen, we were off and cooking.

The company that we bought out had a small line of gourmet food products that were sold at the local craft markets and to a few wholesale customers. With Jamie's food knowledge and Darryl and Erin's marketing and legwork we redesigned the entire line and developed some new products. The Butler's Finest Gourmet Culinaries provided the necessary cash flow while we were building a clientele for our catering.

By 1996 we had built a healthy customer base for both catering and the food products and we were outgrowing our starter kitchen. Darryl began the long and exhaustive search for a new location that would hopefully include a caf�. Out of the blue, a brochure arrived in the mail advertising a commercial kitchen with a 16-seat caf� for lease in Kitslano. It was perfect. We moved in to the premises in May of 1997, renovated and opened for business in June. Over the past 2-� years we have nurtured a growing loyal clientele and developed a great rapport with our neighborhood by offering a healthy, consistent and delicious caf�.