Central Falls caterer specializes in old-style New England favorites
EMERY’S CATERING SERVICE INC.
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Catering company
LOCATION: 24 Central St., Central Falls
OWNERS: Richard and Florence Emery and their children Rob Emery, Dave Emery and Donna Rowey
EMPLOYEES: 12 full-time, about 15 part-time
YEAR FOUNDED: 1970
ANNUAL REVENUE: WND
Emery’s Catering can do fancy – whatever a client desires, whatever the occasion calls for. But the company’s specialty is homey, old-fashioned favorites like Mom would cook if she had the time, the energy and a really big kitchen.
For weddings, there’s prime rib, chicken Cordon Bleu, baked ham with pineapple, seafood Newburg, Yankee-style pot roast, along with a few trendier offerings – but you don’t call Emery’s when you’re looking for the latest fusion cuisine.
For more casual social gatherings – senior center dinners and such – the menu may feature roast chicken, pork loin with homemade applesauce, corned beef and cabbage, homemade chicken pies, or true to the Emerys’ roots, tourtières, the French-Canadian meat pies.
Of course, the offerings have changed over the years. The menus are updated annually, said Matt Rowey, the operations supervisor and a grandson of founders Richard and Florence Emery. But the truth of the matter is, many clients come to Emery’s for their old favorites.
“We’ve been doing the same customers for, I don’t know … the mother and the father and then the kids,” Mrs. Emery said.
Emery’s grew out of a world that has all but disappeared.
“We started off in a little place in a mill,” Mrs. Emery recalled. “People used to come down for their food, and they liked it, so they said, ‘Can you do a buffet?’ And soon the phone was ringing off the hook.”
Within three years of its founding, Emery’s had outgrown the small mill cafeteria on Pine Street in Pawtucket, so the family moved the business to a much larger building on Lonsdale Avenue.
Then, in 1991, it moved to its current location in Central Falls, in a building that formerly housed the August Bakery – where Richard and Florence Emery had met as young employees.
Since then, Mr. Emery, who used to run the kitchen, and whose recipes are still in use, has retired; his son Rob, a Johnson & Wales University graduate, has taken over.
Daughter Donna Rowey (Matt’s mom) is the business manager; son Dave Emery runs Le Foyer, the Pawtucket banquet hall the family bought in 1994, after catering countless events there over the years.
Donna Rowey also oversees a third operation, in Warwick: Emery’s provides the food for airliners flying out of T.F. Green Airport as well as for private charters and for special guests who fly in, such as pop stars playing at the big Providence venues.
“A lot of what they do now is corporate jets,” Matt Rowey said. “They do all the Patriots charters … they had Mariah Carey once. That’s always fun.”
Though old-fashioned is the norm at most of Emery’s social events, at T.F. Green, everything goes. The caterer not only will prepare as exotic a meal as the client requests, Mrs. Emery said, but it will also supply high-end wines – even go find an extra pillow, or whatever else the guest needs.
“You’re like their private shopper,” she said.
Emery’s got into the airport business in 1997, starting with Delta and gradually winning over the other airlines that stop at T.F. Green. But while that business still accounts for about 30 percent of Emery’s revenue, the airlines’ post-Sept. 11 woes took their toll on the caterer as well.
Nevertheless, Emery’s has survived while most of its peers have shut down.
“I think it’s the family part,” Mrs. Emery said. Not only is the business family-run, she explained, but it treats its clientele like family, too. Emery’s is a favorite of senior centers from Pawtucket to Woonsocket, and its friendly service and crowd-pleasing food earn it plenty of repeat business and referrals.
“Word of mouth is big,” Matt Rowey said, “because we’re not doing one or two people at a time – we’re doing like 300. So if they like the food, you’ve got 300 referrals right there.”
The company also has a loyal staff – except for one hire last year, all the employees have been with Emery’s for at least four years, Rowey said.
The strong kitchen team makes it possible for the company to handle 30 to 50 events per week, seamlessly. For New Year’s Eve alone, they catered 16 events.
Looking ahead, Rowey said he’s considering several ways to grow the company. Emery’s recently added coffee service for small to mid-sized businesses, he said, and there’s untapped potential at T.F. Green.
Meanwhile, it may also be time to relocate. “We’re looking at a bigger building, because we’re kind of busting out of the walls here,” Rowey said.
