Tara and Travis Smith are the founder and owners of Uncommon Catering & Eatery, a boutique catering service that offers customized menus created for the individual needs of each customer’s event style. In 2020, they relocated their kitchen to 2942 Curry Ford Road and opened Uncommon Catering & Eatery, which is open to the public Tuesday-Saturday from 11 am to 4 pm. They are a great and savory addition to the HD47 small business family!
What do you love most about having a small business in House District 47?
As an Orlando native (my father worked at Disney for 35 years before he passed away in 2009), I always said that I couldn’t wait to move out of Orlando. Tara was born in PA, and her family moved down when she was 10 years old. After the Main Street program really started to help shape the different areas around Downtown, we really fell in love with our home and raising our daughter here. We proudly live in the Conway area, and our business is based out of Curry Ford West! House District 47 has so many diverse businesses, and we’re proud to be a part of that.
What inspired you to begin when you did and what keeps you going now?
Tara and I spent our lives from high school working in the hospitality industry. It’s a really tough industry, but there’s a lot of reward in doing it for yourself, and being your own boss. As hard as it is, we absolutely love providing our clients and guests with great food and great service. Luckily for us, most of our business is weddings, so we are working with people on one of the best days of their lives. At the end of a long weekend of events, we live off of the enjoyment that we know we provided to others! We’ve been in business since 2015, starting in the commissary kitchen at East End Market. We moved into our own kitchen at the end of 2019 and opened a lunch Eatery aspect on February 20th, 2020. Pretty horrible timing! The pandemic caused some major growing pains, but what keeps us going now is growing the business into something that supports our family, and hopefully more staff. Our major motivation is being able to step away more to enjoy life after such a crazy past two years.
What advice would you give to someone else wanting to open a small business?
Be prepared to live it 24/7…and not an ounce of exaggeration in that. We even dream about crazy events and stress points in our job. There is no getting away from it. Find a mentor in the field of the business that you are opening. It will save you so much time and money to learn from someone that has already done what you are trying to do. We have met so many awesome people in the almost 7 years now that we have been in business, and it’s always camaraderie, not competition. Having a great business partner is a huge plus! Luckily, Tara is a very talented chef. While I am often mistaken as the chef because I am usually the first point of contact, I can’t cook my way out of a wet paper bag! I’m pretty good at the other parts of the business though.
What are some of your customer’s favorite items from your business?
We started doing pop-up brunches, wine dinners, etc. with some other great businesses in town (HD47). We also quickly realized that we were able to offer great offsite food for private events and weddings. We quickly became known (and popular by word-of-mouth) as who to hire if you want memorable food for your guests, especially on your wedding day! Opening the Eatery has now given us an outlet to the public again, and we have gained notoriety for having an awesome and eclectic lunch menu that Tara gets to flex her creative muscle and change around seasonally. It’s actually become difficult to take items off our menu! We offer some really great salads, a roast pork sandwich that is an homage to Tara’s PA roots, and currently have an amazing version of a classic Rueben on our menu that we keep hearing is, “the best I’ve ever had!” Ultimately, our lunch guests now know to expect a great menu that has something for everyone on it!
How can readers stay up to date with your business or show support in 2022?
We are almost embarrassed at our lack of social media skills, but try to really focus on our Eatery via Facebook and Instagram. You can find us @uncommoncatering on Insta, and facebook.com/uncommoncatering.