Employee spotlight

By Staff
Backstreet Deli &Catering to offer breakfast
Kim West
Names: Sarah and Greg Willis
Hometown: Russellville
High School: Russellville
Birthdays: Dec. 27 (Sarah) &Dec. 17 (Greg)
Position/Employer: Owners, Backstreet Deli &Catering
Family: Two sons and four grandchildren
FCT: What do you enjoy most about owning your own business?
GW: We've been doing catering for about eight years now and we've had this restaurant for 15 months. I guess we enjoy the independence of it.
SW: It's also been a good way to meet people and make new friends.
FCT: What are your most popular lunch menu items?
GW: Our homemade chicken salad, potato soup, chili and cobblers, which are all made-from-scratch. We have a variety of sandwich breads that are also popular, especially the Cuban bread and the croissants.
FCT: When did you decide to offer breakfast on Saturdays?
SW: We just came up with it a couple of weeks ago because ever since we had opened the restaurant, people had been asking us to serve breakfast. We're going to have everything from eggs and country ham to pancakes and chocolate gravy with biscuits.
FCT: How important is catering to your business?
GW: It's a big part of it – we actually bought this (restaurant) building for the kitchen so we could use it for catering.
SW: We cater anything from finger foods to full-plate meals. Last December we catered 29 events – it was very busy but you don't want to turn down a customer. With catering, it always stays busy from June until December.
FCT: What has been the largest event your business has catered? How many events per week are usually booked?
GW: We did a wedding five years ago that had 500 people. There was also an event in January where I cooked 442 8-ounce ribeyes.
SW: I'm the director of the A.W. Todd Centre, and we cater a lot of full-size events there. We probably cater one to two events each week throughout the year, and we can do on or off-site catering.
FCT: Where do you enjoy eating out?
SW: We don't eat out a lot but we like The Apple Barn in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. They bring you an orange julep made of fruit juices, apple fritters and fresh apple butter while you wait for your food.
GW: They have just about everything there at the restaurant, including apple orchids, a winery, ice cream shop and a store.
FCT: What kind of activities do you enjoy in your spare time?
GW: We like to ride motorcycles, and we actually ride a trike. We've been riding them for a year now, and it's a new adventure for us.