OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — With many weddings and big events canceled due to COVID-19, Attitude on Food is still open and figuring out other ways to stay in business.
The catering company opened in 2002 and has become popular in Omaha for big events.
"A lot of weddings, a lot of corporate events, I think last year we did about 160 weddings, so yeah - we do a lot of weddings," said chef Donny Rodden. "And that's mostly Friday through Saturday, so you can imagine just how busy that can get."
Due to COVID-19, their sales dropped 95%.
"A lot of corporate events just totally backed out; a lot of weddings did reschedule, which is good - pushing it back to later this year or even next year," said Rodden.
The hours for their nearly 25 employees also dropped for several weeks.
"They were cut hours, but as of right now, we pretty much brought back about 70% of our kitchen staff," Rodden said. "All of our sales staff is still with us, and logistics - about 90% of logistics."
So with basically all of their scheduled events canceled or postponed, the team at AOF had to get creative and started offering food meals to go which consist of items like enchiladas, steak and potatoes which feeds about four people.
"You can order on our website, and you order the day before," Rodden said. "You can either pick up, during a time frame from 9:00 a.m. to noon or 1:00 pm to 4:00 p.m. We also, deliver too."
They are also selling groceries on their website.
"It was kind of a learning curve at the beginning, just something we've never really done before, but in the catering world, you just kind of adapt to your surroundings and kind of what the market is looking for at the time," Rodden said. "So yeah at the beginning it was a little tricky, but I think we got it down now."
They're staying busy too by catering for a few businesses like Omaha Steaks.
"This will be all our third or fourth week in a row where we are feeding their warehouse employees," Rodden said. "It's about four days for about a 1,000 people."
Unlike most food businesses, they don't have a storefront and don't have a ton of business coming in as social gatherings remain limited.
"I mean we're gonna do it as long as we can take," Rodden said. "I don't foresee us being able to last a a month or two longer this way," Rodden said. "I think a lot of it will help if we do slowly start to get small parties, maybe small weddings, maybe some more corporate, that would definitely help."
Attitude on Food
LOCATION: 2405 N St. Omaha, NE 68107
HOURS: For meals to go - Monday - Friday: 9AM - 4PM
CONTACT: 402-341-3663
ADJUSTED SERVICES: Delivery, curbside, AOF Meals to go, catering, grocery items for sale
