• Beyond Catering to Personal Connections

    Janet,

    It was wonderful!! A houseful of people--LOTS of leftover food...the cookies/cupcakes
    were a HUGE hit--Cooper really loved them. The book was such a great
    idea--little Esteban made it his job to take it around to everyone to sign it
    in different colors. I sent some of the Texas caviar home with folks and still
    have some--I didn't even get to try it until the party was winding down ( I love it!)

    Question-how does it work to freeze the mac and cheese? I am going to have 'dinnertime hangout'
    at my house during the run of June camp and thought it would be great to fee
    kids with but that's 9 days from now. Can't thank you enough for all the
    goodies and the great ideas and pep talks. I was really went from panic to
    excitement about the party because of you--You did so much to make it memorable
    for Cooper. : )

    ~Becky W.

    Becky,

    The mac n cheese should freeze without a problem, just let it defrost and then pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it up. Enjoy!"

    ~Janet Z.

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  • Celebrating Employees

    Z's Cafe sends out Happy 21 st Birthday wishes to our sous chef Tracey!
    Enjoy your birthday.  We are so proud of all your accomplishments this year.
    We love you!

    Tracey's 21st Birthday

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  • Incredible Interns

    Chef Janet is always looking for new ideas and creative energy for the Z's menu.  So we are thrilled to feature two outstanding interns from the Culinary School of Fort Worth, who will be joining us for the month of June.  Chefs in training, Karen and Katherine, will be not only learning from Janet's experience but will hopefully bring their own fresh ideas and energy to our kitchen.  Karen and Katherine will of course compliment our fabulous staff of Chef Janet, Sous Chef Tracy and Assistant Chef David.

    Janet hopes to inspire newcomers to the field.  "Cooking for the community gives you a sense of purpose. "  she says.

    Chef Extern, Katherine

    Chef Extern, Karen

    Sous-chef Tracy, Chef Janet, Assistant Chef David
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  • Memorial Cuisine

    organic meals from Z's CafeOut of Z's kitchen today, a spinach, chicken, berry and almond salad for our Cuisine for Healing friends.
    Although we do not stop cooking, this doesn't mean we don't remember.  Today is about remembering too.

    "Proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free.
    And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
    To the military......
    For all you have done and the sacrifices you have made.
    I honor you today.
    God Bless America."

    ~Janet Z.

    A fabulous holiday to all!

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  • Brit Grand Opening

    Botanical Research Institute of TexasZ's Cafe was on hand to cater BBQ for the grand opening of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas last weekend.  They offered several education stations in located in different parts of campus. The herbarium, library, and education wings were open for touring and it was a wonderful celebration all the way around. Fort Worth is lucky to have an organization like BRIT bringing eco-friendly inspiration to all of us...and over a million plants!

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  • Amuse-bouche for the Fort Worth Opera from Z's Cafe

    Z's Cafe treats for the Fort Worth Opera

    Enjoy these tiny treats of delicate pastry, chocolate, caramel and fresh raspberry.

    More importantly..... enjoy the performance!

    We just finished 10 1/2 hours of opera treats...Feeling surprisingly fruit flavored.  :)  It has been a fabulous week.

    ~Janet Z.

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  • Feeding 6,000 People

    Our little Cafe is feeding over 6,000 people this week.
    " Who would have thunk it"
    I certainly hope they are hungry!
    Thank you God for your support, wisdom and guidance.
    Hang with me.
    I follow.

    ~Janet

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  • Place your order with us!

    We just received our first order via facebook...we hope there will be lots more where that came from!  We appreciate all of our fans so much their encouraging words motivate us to continue on when we are tired and remind us that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves.

    We'd be happy to take your order anytime, just give Carlo a quick email or call (214) 908.5452, but be sure to download our latest catering menu first to see our delicious choices including Chipotle Pork Tenderloin, Parmesan Chicken, Portabella Mushrooms and many other mouth-watering options, including yummy vegetarian lasagna.  (gluten-free dishes available upon request!)

    Z's Catering Cheese & Fruit Platter

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  • Step #1 – Setting up a business for success

    Oh, how I wish I could start my family business all over again. There are some things I’d change…but we did manage to get a few key things right. Here are our golden stars:

    • Setting my business up as an LLC, which enables me to pass profits and losses to my personal tax return.
    • Getting a business loan, which enabled us to buy enough basic things to give a good 1st impression from Day 1.
    • Using Craig’s List for equipment purchases, which saved me thousands of dollars on 2nd-hand stuff.
    • Finding a competent handyman to fix up our Craig’s List purchases.
    • Schedule our staff members in short shifts. This enabled us to quickly ID each person’s strengths and fit them into appropriate roles, and to let go of the weakest ones.
    • Asking a business owner friend for advice and tips, which yielded the next two points.
    • Not accepting Discover, as they charge the highest rates of all. Actually, I’m signed up to accept Discover (in case of emergencies), but I always ask people to politely use another card when possible.
    • Buying my credit card processing machine. It was a few hundred dollars up front, but leasing it would have cost me 4-fold by now. As convenient as a wireless machine would be, we don’t really need it.
    • Getting a catchy telephone number. We are 817-989-CAFE (2233), which helps people remember easily. The phone company wouldn’t give us many options – we lucked into 2233.
    • Offering wireless internet, and promoting that everywhere. We’ve had plenty of people find us on random websites like http://www.ilovefreewifi.com/.
    • Partnering with a nonprofit, www.samaritanhouse.org. This social entrepreneurship venture has been helpful in getting media coverage.
    • Recruiting a friend to design a webpage, let’s face it, nobody uses the yellow pages anymore.

    Without a doubt, the smartest thing we did was spending time researching and revising our business plan. This was crucial to getting our loan and giving us direction as we grew.

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  • Harnessing the power of interns (and paying them with mac 'n cheese)

    We'd like to take a moment to recognize the contributions of our lovely and talented Ashly Bixel, nutritional sciences major at TCU.  She is interning at Z's this semester and has been instrumental in developing our newest customer resource...a list of nearby venues for events and parties.  Watch for the venue link on our website coming soon.


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