What's for Dinner?

The Corner Chef Pampers Harried Food-Lovers

By Victoria Scott

At the Corner Chef, Tracey and Ray Samlow have built on years of successful catering with a business that offers fresh meals requiring only minutes in the oven. Photo courtesy of Corner Chef.

To Do List: Conference call – Staff meeting - Brochure to printer – Carpool – Dinner??

The question mark of food preparation could become an exclamation point of enjoyment if the proprietors of The Corner Chef, a new "meal replacement" business at 533 Davis St., have their way.

Targeting "busy people who don't have time to cook but are not happy with takeout," husband/wife owners Ray and Tracey Samlow offer fresh food that is ready to serve after just a few minutes in the microwave or conventional oven.

The Corner Chef opened just over a month ago with a Mardi Gras bash for Chamber of Commerce members. But the Samlows have been prepping for their retail debut for years.

Mr. Samlow says he was "born into the restaurant and banquet business [and] did a stint with Lettuce Entertain You [Rich Melman's Chicago food empire] learning to ‘count peas.'"

But bean counting was not his dream. "I was dissatisfied with the corporate mentality," he says. Ms. Samlow, too, worked in corporate America, specializing in turnaround tactics as a business consultant to troubled companies.

Four years ago the couple purchased Evanston event caterer MJ Catering. They were attracted by the advantages of the catering business, he says – its relatively consistent, somewhat recession-proof sales and its minimal need for advertising. Reputation, he adds, tends to travel – appropriately – by "word of mouth."

Like the caterer's former owners, the Samlows have focused on university events. Feeding hundreds of guests at a time has given them not only invaluable experience with service but also a massive database of menus, says Mr. Samlow. The recipes' common denominator is that they are built around "items that keep their integrity when reheated," he says.

The building that houses the new Corner Chef store has been home to MJ Catering for a decade. But the 12-burner stove, multiple preparation tables and convection ovens were in a kitchen in the building's interior, out of public view.

The Samlows knew they had a "jewel" of a location when the multi-windowed corner space in front became available. Formerly home to a florist, the space even boasts a walk-in refrigerator. They have held the property for a year, polishing their business model before opening The Corner Chef.

Among other things, the Samlows say adding the retail component should ameliorate one of their long-term problems.

"Keeping good people is difficult," says Mr. Samlow. "This should help us balance our business – keep people working" in slow seasons like late winter. At present they employ seven people in the kitchen "on a semi-regular basis," says Mr. Samlow. They also have three "sandwich people," a business manager and office staff of four and an operations manager. Their field staff consists of a core group of supervisors and servers, supplemented when necessary with temporary help.

Years of catering have given the Samlows a bird's-eye view of changing tastes. "We took over [the business] during the Atkins phase," says Mr. Samlow. The high-protein diet was "an expensive trend for caterers," he says. At their first barbecue the first customer grabbed five burgers – and the caterers ran out of food.

Nowadays the company is featuring some organic food. "We have approved vendors," says Mr. Samlow, who emphasizes the importance of "knowing and inspecting where your food comes from." He also sees customers "looking for more whole wheat options" – for instance, bulgur and wild rice instead of white rice – a trend he expects to continue.

A two-week daily meals menu appears on the Internet at www.cornerchef.com. It proposes two entrée choices a day (for instance, Szechwan chicken, fruited pork loin), as well as three sides (two starches and a fresh vegetable), two salads (chef, Tijuana Caesar), sandwiches (blackened chicken, black bean wrap), soup (gumbo, creamy asparagus) and dessert.

With all those options, customers could go months without repeating, say the Samlows. Given the fresh ingredients and daily preparation, they see their prices - $11 for an entrée with two sides, $5.50 for a sandwich – as "a real value."

The Samlows encourage pre-orders, though walk-ins are welcome. More than half their business is from repeat customers who come in more than once a week. And "two or three days a week we run out of our entrèes," they say.

They have designs on franchising The Corner Chef and in the future hope to offer diet-restrictive meals and healthy options – perhaps by pairing with diets like Weight-Watchers.

"We offer quality of life," say the Samlows. The best Corner Chef customer, in their estimation, "is a person who understands food and can say, ‘You did it right.'"