I haven’t done a favorite places post in awhile, and I thought it would be a good fit to talk about Brad Gates Catering again. Brad has catered a couple of events for me in the last month or two and he is certainly my go to person for this kind of need. Most recently, he catered my birthday and did a great job. I’ll just tell you a couple of highlights, mainly because there was a lot of wine consumed on this particular night, and some of my recollections of particular details are somewhat foggy (also explains the lack of pictures). We had a smallish group, but Brad still provided us with lots of different small tastes to enjoy and the food was great.
I helped to choose the menu somewhat, but also let Brad come up with most of the ideas. There were a couple of things I have had before and a lot of new stuff. It was all good. Really good. One of the the things I loved was the chilied salmon nachos. They were chips with some nicely seasoned salmon, pico de gallo and avocado crème fraiche. They were easy to eat which meant I ate a lot of them. And I loved that most everything we had was finger food-ish so we all just sort of munched and hung out. We also had lamp chops Milanese that surprised me—I was a little skeptical because they were breaded and I worried they might be tough or overcooked. But they weren’t. They were super tender and perfectly medium rare. There was also a great pork wonton soup-- he did little individual spoons with a wonton in each. Those wontons were amazing. Such tender pork.
Anyway, if you are ever in the market for a caterer, I would heartily recommend Brad Gates. He also recently did the food for an anniversary party for my parents and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it as well (including me). The menu was completely different, and maybe slightly more traditional (per my request), but just as good. He is also a really nice guy whom you don’t mind having in your house for several hours (there are some I have met I would not say this about).
And, I wanted to get this posted because I just saw on facebook that Brad is continuing one of my personal favorite traditions—delivery Valentine’s Day dinners. He creates a menu and you can tell him how many dinners you want and it is delivered to your house in a cute basket. This is a perfect scenario for me because a) I hate going out on Valentine’s Day and b) I love Brad’s food. So check it out—last year’s pork shoulder was extremely memorable. It is a great way to get a great meal prepared for you by one of my favorite local chefs without having to have a party to cater. You can also check out his food locally at the Ball & Biscuit.
Brad Gates Catering & Events
317-292-4259
