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Wenger takes flight when business is bustling
By Molly Parker
Staff Writer
When a chef working for Steven Wenger’s catering company accidentally spilled oil on the well-manicured lawn of a client’s home, Wenger made a personal trip out to Rockville carrying just the right ingredients for an apology: a healthy plate of shrimp and grits, a bottle of Maker’s Mark, a shovel and some sod.
Wenger had heard about the soiled lawn from the wedding planner hired by their mutual client to stage his daughter’s wedding in his back yard.
“I think it probably got their attention and left a clean trail,” he said of his excursion.
“Turning a negative into a positive is an art. We’re not perfect and we take responsibility when we’re not.”
The company known for putting the pizzazz in parties is celebrating a 30-year anniversary this year, claiming responsibility for pulling off some 12,000 special events, largely in the Charleston region but also in areas as far away as Washington, D.C., mostly without a hitch.
Wenger plans to kick off the next three decades with the launch of a new Web site and a complete company rebranding, including a new name: Duvall Catering & Event Design. Since its inception, the business had been called Stephen Duvall Catering.
The new name underscores the company’s emphasis on event design, meaning Wenger’s staff brings not only the food but the entire party (minus the guests—that’s still your responsibility).
If you have the right budget, Duvall can spruce up any party stage, whether a parking lot or a back yard.
The company can also create just the right mood for your event, be it professional, funky or awe-inspiring. And it will take care of the flowers, music, videography and anything else your gathering needs.
“People are wanting to get away from the traditional tables, chairs and linens at every event now,” he said, standing in his West Ashley showroom filled with pieces as diverse as a wicker couch topped with plush white cushions to a space-age leather chair comprised of bright red circles. “Décor is the new hot thing to do.”
Being able to pull off an event is “kind of a magical mix of things,” said Wenger, whose own interest in the food industry started when he was in his early 20s.
This interest was driven more by his search for a means to sustain his skiing hobby than by a passion for the service industry.
After graduating from the University of Miami in Ohio, Wenger headed west to Colorado, where he hit the slopes by day and cleaned plates by night at a local restaurant in Dillion.
“Food, of course, is important, but all of the sensory components have to be clicking for a good event. The light has to be right, the music has to be right, the logistics of people getting around in a party and being able to feel like they’re receiving individualized attention and service” must be addressed, he said.
Wenger must ascertain “that their needs and wants are met without (their) having to wait in line, and that they truly feel like an honored guest.”
It’s no fun, he said, for the host if he or she has to stress about everything clicking at a company function or a daughter’s wedding.
“We attribute a lot of our success to the fact that there is concern on the host’s part, and there are so many details to cover in a catered event and so many things that can go wrong,”
Wenger said. “We feel like we’re an insurance policy, having done over 12,000 events that we hit over 99 percent of the time.”
Wenger’s own insurance policy is his vast experience in the restaurant business. After his humble beginnings, Wenger went on to work in 12 more restaurants, doing jobs from the front to the back. He managed five of them. He purchased Stephen Duvall Catering 17 years ago and bought out his “semi-silent” business partner this year.
But when his team flubs—and it’s inevitable that mistakes will happen—expect Wenger to come knocking with a bottle of excellent whiskey, or some other variation of an apology.
Part of that has to do with the fact that reputation is so important in the catering business. He secures new clients through word of mouth, but also when guests at a party are impressed and ask the host how he or she made it happen.
Building on that reputation, Wenger has been invited to throw some really cool parties from the Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island in 1991, to the gathering Google sponsored after the recent CNN/YouTube showdown for the Democratic presidential primary at The Citadel, along with thousands of corporate and sporting events and weddings in between.
His staff of 70 employees, including about a dozen chefs, can be dispatched to as many as six events in a single night. One recent day at his corporate headquarters, Wenger apologized for the helter-skelter manner of his kitchen before being interviewed.
“We had a monster party Friday night, six parties on Saturday, two weddings on Sunday, and now we’re preparing for another,” he said, swinging open the doors where half a dozen chefs were preparing for various parties. One was curing salmon to be cold-smoked at a later date; another was preparing food that would be deep-fried on the scene of a party later that night.
“It’s been nonstop,” Wenger said.
But he’s not complaining. The hustle-bustle gives him a charge.
“The most exciting thing for me is if we do an event out in a field and it’s over the top and the food is hot and the food is good and everything is clicking,” he said. “I want people to say,
‘How the hell did they do that?’ That’s where I get my satisfaction.”
Molly Parker is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her directly at mparker@setcommedia.com.
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