Entrepreneur Archive:
Gatherings Cafe

Unique Cape Girardeau Restaurant Combines
New American Cuisine with a Missouri Influence

Gatherings Café—Cape Girardeau, MO
Assisted by:
Larry Cooper, Southeast Missouri State University SBDC

"She has at least a thousand cookbooks containing every cooking idea imaginable," says Christo Chriss of his wife and business partner Terre Chriss.

And that seemingly endless arsenal of cookbooks serves as the core of Terre's inspiration for cuisine creation at the Gatherings Café, a new restaurant, bakery and catering establishment in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Christo and Terre opened their restaurant in January on the first floor of the recently renovated and rejuvenated Marquette Tower. The historic building, constructed in the 1920s as the Marquette Hotel, had been abandoned for nearly three decades. In 2003, a Jefferson City firm specializing in historic building restoration saved the dilapidated structure from the wrecking crew and converted it to an office building with commercial space on the ground floor.

Christo Chriss oversees the kitchen operations during the busy noontime rush at the Gatherings Café.

Open Tuesday through Sunday, the Gatherings' breakfast menu focuses on made-from-scratch pastries, eggs "your way," a variety of meats including breakfast chops and chicken-apple sausage links, pancakes or French toast with maple syrup, and omelets that tickle the imagination and tempt the palette. Lunch offers a range of salads and signature sandwiches such as the shrimp cake club, the stuffed portabella and the inside-out pork burger.

Judging from the constant stream of clientele at its tables, the Gatherings Café lives up to its name. It boasts a bright 1920s-style atmosphere and combines a new American cuisine with a touch of Missouri influence.

The restaurant is an extension of the catering business the two entrepreneurs started in 2001 shortly after they moved to Southeast Missouri from San Francisco, where the couple met more than 10 years ago. Back then she ran a retail flower shop in the Sacramento area and he owned a floral supply operation at the San Francisco Wholesale Flower Market. She did her buying there. They met among the flowers, fell in love and married.

Years later they returned to Terre's Southeast Missouri roots, seeking a slower pace of life. But Terre's creative urges led them to start a catering business based in their Millersville home just north of Cape. She and Christo, her assistant chef, initially concentrated on specialty baking and preparing full meals for a growing list of regular customers.

Gradually business progressed and they considered opening a restaurant. They first explored a possible location in nearby Jackson, but that fell through. With the bug still biting, they ventured to Cape to check out the Market Tower project, then a raw work-in-progress. Terre saw the potential and convinced Christo this was the site for their future restaurant.

As a next step Christo and Terre began exploring financing possibilities. At the urging of their banker, they sought advice from the local Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Southeast Missouri State University. Larry Cooper, the senior business consultant at the SBDC, guided them along the steps necessary to secure backing through the Small Business Administration (SBA) for a federally guaranteed loan to start their restaurant.

Beaming from behind the counter after completing another bustling day at the restaurant, head chef Terre Chriss (center) is flanked by her husband and assistant chef Christo (right) and Scott Hammond (left), general manager of the Gatherings.

Cooper helped them with numerous forms and the creation of a business plan – all necessary elements to secure a loan. With the formalities completed, the SBA guaranteed the loan request and the local bank provided the money. Much of that loan was used to install an expensive but highly effective ventilation system for the Gatherings' compact yet efficiently arranged kitchen.

The exhaust system – which uses state-of-the-art equipment – snakes its way over the ceiling to a wall, travels down to and through the basement where it finally starts its climb through the six-story building to an outlet on the roof. The convoluted design could have been avoided if the renovation firm had heeded Christo's initial appeal to incorporate the exhaust system into the overall building reconstruction. Unfortunately renovation progress outpaced the kitchen installation forcing a fourfold increase in ventilation costs. Ultimately the unique exhaust system passed inspection and the restaurant opened on time.

"Business is growing every month and we're having no trouble meeting our revenue projections, though expenses are running a bit more than we anticipated," says Christo.

"We plan to expand our hours as soon as we get a license to serve wine and beer to attract the evening crowd. It's just a matter of completing the forms and paying the (state license) fees."

On the catering side, business is going gangbusters. A recent week saw the catering crew tackling events on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday – "... a slow week," according to Terre.

The Chriss' catering reputation is building among the area's social and cultural leaders. In contrast to the restaurant's focused straightforward menu, the catering effort is designed to meet virtually any demand presented by a potential client, says Christo.

The Gatherings Café is located in the southwest corner of the Marquette Tower in downtown Cape Girardeau.

"A few months ago we catered an event for visiting members from the German Society of St. Louis. Those attending the occasion said they'd never had such quality German fare."

Additional events have included a Tuscan-themed party in honor of one of the area's favorite sons, Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, and a regional French cuisine gathering connected with the University of Missouri Extension office in Jackson. Other notable satisfied customers are Congresswoman Joanne Emerson, various offices from Southeast Missouri State University, and a local radio station. Receptions and large parties serve as the backbone of the catering schedule.

"There is no place like us in this area," says Christo. "We can meet any request because we do everything ourselves from scratch, and the people in town who need an unusual approach to their catering needs know we can deliver a quality experience at a price they can afford."

Christo and Terre's SBDC business adviser, Larry Cooper, offers yet another analysis: "The catered and restaurant offerings taste truly superb, as the SBDC director and counselor can attest to personally."

Gatherings Café
Christo & Terre Chriss, Owners
338 Broadway
Marquette Tower
Cape Girardeau, MO 63701
Phone: 573-651-0050

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