REATA TIPS ITS HAT TO YOU!

At 11:35 p.m. Tuesday evening, the Fort Worth City Council denied an exclusive catering contract to any one company for the Will Rogers Memorial Center.

On behalf of our hundreds of staff and many catering clients, my dad and I thank you for your time and support over the last five days. Your outreach to city council representatives was an instrumental part in helping our voices be heard. We sincerely appreciate the time you gave supporting Reata as well as other local caterers.

The Reata family would also like to sincerely thank Fort Worth’s Mayor Mike Moncrief and our city’s eight city council representatives. On very short notice, these elected officials took the time to truly listen and try to understand the argument of many small business owners, and for that we are extremely grateful.

In addition to the valuable support Reata received during this process, one of the best parts of the past week has been joining forces with other fellow caterers. Representatives from Pulido’s, Coburn’s, Riscky’s, Vance Godbey’s, BK’s Creative Catering and the Renaissance Worthington Hotel banded together with Reata – and many concerned citizens – to promote the goals of small, local business.

However, this was not necessarily a complete victory for Fort Worth caterers, residents or visitors. There is a serious issue still on the table.

A significant deadline is in place to create a quality, viable concessionaire for Will Rogers . . . and as local business owners, we caterers must offer solutions to this important problem. We all know that the impression a family member celebrating a quinceanera or a charitable donor has from a fundraising dinner is just as important as the feeling an out-of-town visitor gets with a simple soda and a sandwich served at the concession stand during a trade show.

It is critical to the future success of Fort Worth that we as small business owners don’t accept a solution for the catering problem and leave the unacceptable concession problem for the City to fix alone.

Many of the caterers mentioned above are coming together to brainstorm a variety of positive resolutions that may assist the City with this challenging concession issue. If you have any ideas as to how an attractive, quality, affordable concession product can be offered as a profitable venture at Will Rogers, please email me at mikem@reata.net. You have my word I will share your thoughts with the catering consortium we are building.

Reata’s been in Fort Worth for nearly 15 years, and we have never once doubted or taken for granted the unwavering commitment we have from this community. Again, my sincere thanks for your support and encouragement.

Mike Micallef – President
Reata Restaurant