Interview with Joel Dondis, owner of New Orleans catering and

New Orleans CityBusiness, May 8, 2006 by Craig Guillot

By January 2007, Joel Dondis plans to have five catering and restaurant businesses operating in New Orleans. Pre-Katrina, Dondis operated independent catering service, Joel, and La Petite Grocery, a restaurant on Magazine Street. After Katrina flooded Joel's Euphrosine Street catering building with 6 feet of water, the catering service moved inside the Hampton Inn on Convention Center Boulevard. In addition to his off-site catering, Dondis started Joel at the Hampton, a hotel catering service. In August, Dondis plans to open Sucre, an ice cream and dessert shop on Magazine Street. That venture will be followed in January by Grand Isle, a restaurant in Harrah's Fulton Street complex.In 2005, Joel's catering service handled 360 events and generated $5.4 million in revenue compared with $2.8 million in 2004. In the first four months of 2006, Dondis has catered 75 events with $1.8 million in revenue.

How has business been since the storm?Business has been incredible. I got back around mid-September and felt it was crucial to get back right away and try to take a part in the rebuilding. By getting in early, I got two significant jobs. One was a government job out of Lake Charles where we did about 3,000 meals a day; the other we were the food and beverage operator at Domino Sugar where we built a semi-permanent food facility for them so they could rebuild their plant. That took us into the early part of this year and around Christmas time, the regular catering really started to pick up. Our business at the Hampton Inn was very strong as well. We are down in numbers off-premises catering slightly but both operations together are running very strong. Wedding business has been very strong. We do business with some universities locally, some companies and some individuals. I think the wedding market looks good for the near and long term. I don't think that's going away. We're being conservative and with the combination have been able to downsize some operating expenses but sales are brisk and our restaurant volume has been very good. Business looks very good through June but I'd say it's going to be a very rough summer.

Some caterers have done big business feeding contractors and evacuees after Katrina. Tell us about your contract to feed people in Lake Charles.I registered on a governmental Web site to provide that service. We worked up a very detailed proposal and won the bid ($1.89 million). They wanted us to start up within a week. I think we started up in 10 days. It was a pretty massive job. The equipment had to come from California. We set up a full, self-contained food facility to prepare 3,000 meals a day. We had our own water, power and served people who had evacuated to Lake Charles.

What happened to your office and facility on Euphrosine Street?That was our main office that flooded with about 6 feet of water. We're planning on rebuilding there but I'm thinking about raising the building and looking at other options. Because our catering operation flooded, we moved and merged into our hotel operation. Both work out of the same office now.

How is your Magazine Street restaurant La Petite Grocery doing?It's doing very well. We've had some of our biggest numbers ever. Right after the first of the year, they trailed off a little bit but I would say that it's been very good. In any given month there could be 5 percent less than what they were pre-Katrina but we're generally sold out every week. From what I understand, Gordon Biersch restaurant is right next to its pre-Katrina levels and many restaurants are doing well. We're going to be right next to them with Grand Isle and I wouldn't be doing that if I didn't think business was going to be good.Many restaurants and retailers are battling staffing problems. Has that been a concern for your businesses?We ended up networking and pulling people from other places like the Audubon Zoo. Those guys were out of work so we offered them temporary work that we needed for those big jobs. We offered them really great pay and it allowed them to stay here and not have to move away. As of lately, it's been OK. It isn't great but it's still an issue. We definitely have to pay more and we've unfortunately had to pass it on to our customers.

What do you see for the future for the catering industry in New Orleans?A large portion of the business has always been corporate events. If I'm correct, I think our 2007 convention levels are at our 2004 levels, which were pretty low. But to be back at those levels is pretty good. I understand 2008 is going to be good. I think the most important thing that could happen out there for our entire community is that we need to stop talking about what happened and start talking about what's going to happen - how we are going to make this whole. The reason people are going to come here is for our city, music, food and hospitality. If we want the convention and catering business to be good, we need to focus on that message and the task of making that happen.