Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this July 15th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mayloff here.
We're welcoming into the studio, two of our new friends,
two hearts LLC.
We're going to talk a little bit about the music benefit
coming up that they have for the Never Forgotten Honor Flight.
We have Peter Elyssa with us.
Good afternoon, you two.
Hi, hello.
Hey.
Doing well.
Thanks so much for joining us, you guys.
You may have noticed I avoided your last name
because I was afraid I was going to muck it up.
Peter, how do I say that?
Sorry.
It's pronounced shweckle, think of Breckle on a shweckle.
That's the best one, Monica, that I can put out there.
That's good.
We are two hearts catering, two hearts LLC.
Two hearts catering is our DBA name.
We have been in business for, oh, probably close to seven
years now.
We started out as a smaller company, event planning,
and real quickly to a catering company.
And we've launched several avenues since then.
Been in a couple of different places,
worked with a variety of different people.
We have a fantastic crew that we work with currently.
Our executive chef, chef Scott Keller,
came over to us from mid-state.
Scott and I have been friends for years.
And he came over and assumed the role and took the helm
of the culinary program that we have with the two hearts.
And we kind of took off as a rocket from there.
We were also joined by Jody Gellerman,
who is a fantastic general manager and sous chef.
So the two of them are a dynamic duel
that pretty hard to beat in the kitchen.
We have a whole host of ancillary staff
and kitchen staff as well as marketing and planners
and front-end back of the house.
I can't say enough about our crew.
They're a fantastic group of people.
And we give them high marks every time we do an event.
Whether it be charity, whether it be wedding or party
or private event, we did a recent private event
for Tom Tiffney, high marks there.
We do everything from little baby showers on up
to three, four hundred person weddings and things like that.
So if you're looking for food and you're looking
for event planning, you're looking for bar service
where the place to come.
I want to send a shout out to Jody.
I don't want to get in trouble if I don't.
No, she's great.
And your team over there is fantastic.
I'm curious, getting into this industry,
what made you both want to start doing this,
what made you want to get into feeding the community,
if you will?
It was an easy transition.
I mean, I'm a nurse by trade.
I worked as an RN.
I did a lot of travel nursing for a number of years.
So kind of caring for people and taking care of people
and meeting their needs is kind of in my blood.
Lisa is a fantastic caring person.
My wife, we've been together 12 years.
I've seen her pour her heart out into the community
helping little kids, elderly, you name it.
We've helped cancer people.
We've helped handicapped.
We've helped lots of people.
So it really is an easy transition
when you have that kind of a heart.
Yeah.
You made me smile with that, Peter.
My Nana was a nurse and she would go on
to work in a couple of restaurants and some things.
And for her, there was such a connection between
what she did as a nurse and what she did feeding people.
And so just hearing that is a really unique connection there.
And that's very cool.
I think mainly because tying that in,
we really push the farm to fork episode.
I know that's kind of an old cliche.
A lot of companies do that and they use that.
But we really mean it.
We search out the best purveyors
of the best product possible.
We use a lot of the local products,
local farms, local products of farms.
We had a CDA.
There's a lot.
Yeah.
A lot of local vendors, bakers, you know,
great potatoes.
All those things.
We try to use those kind of things
just to promote local business as well.
Because we know what it's like to be a small business
in the community.
Lisa, as you have a wonderful menu over there.
Can we give everybody a little bit of an idea
of the kind of things that you guys serve
to arts catering?
It's a tough, that's a tough,
it might be the toughest question I give you today.
Because it's a pretty exciting menu that your guys have.
Yes.
Everything.
Yeah.
Maybe a better question or a better way to word it is.
If you are going to have two arts catering,
can I request certain things?
Yes.
So I will tell you that we are different
from any other catering company.
That's very unique.
We can cater and do something unique,
such as a family recipe.
And heirloom passed down from year to year.
Pass on the recipe.
We'll make it.
We'll adapt it.
Whatever you want.
We can do that.
That is very unique.
We can do an old family Italian meatball recipe for you.
Oh, you can just hit my heart with that one.
Oh, that, yeah, that's a great.
We specialize in Italian American,
but we can do Greek.
We can do farm to tame.
We can do old school recipes, like Lisa said.
Fresh baked breads, you know, pastries pies.
We have a wonderful pastry baker
that we have on contract.
Tori Rikowsky from Treats by Tori.
We use her product all the time, big shout out to her
and her company.
The pies are wonderful.
So, I mean, we get the, we're at the wedding on Saturday.
Exactly.
And we hit all the marks when people smell our food,
because we'd like to cook on site as much as possible,
just to give people that flavor,
because you eat with your eyes and your senses before
you actually taste it.
It's not fact-checking on the grill over there,
and you're hungry.
Yeah, so we kind of present all that,
all the five senses when we bring it,
bring the food to the table.
I had this in my notes, Peter.
You already, you teed me up perfectly.
One of the things that I've heard talked about
with your catering, two hearts catering so much,
is the food being prepared there.
And not only the smells that everybody loves,
but the freshness and the warmth of that food,
being really what people are looking for.
More and more people want that,
and you guys are able to deliver that.
Appreciate it.
Oh, this is a good picture.
We don't, we don't, we don't.
We want to be known as a cookie cutter box catering company.
That's kind of our trademark, if you will,
that we cook fresh, we cook that,
bring that home's taste to your table,
the Italian farm table,
bring that whole persona picture to you,
and people can get that image,
and then they like, okay, we gotta try these people.
I know we're together to talk about the music benefit
coming up, but I did want to take a little time
to talk about your company,
because it's so amazing, it's so great,
and that's a big part of what we do about it around here,
is buying local, supporting local.
We encourage people to reach out to you guys,
and we'll give you the information
of how you can do that before we wrap up today.
But if you don't mind, I want to shift
into the music benefit that is coming up.
The proceeds are going to,
they never forgot an honor flight,
something that's very close to our hearts around here.
Awesome.
Awesome.
I'd love to.
Yes, and this is one of those events
that is not only going to be fun,
and bring so much of our communities,
and I do mean communities, not just one area,
but all of our local communities together
to take in this event,
but also something that while we're enjoying this benefit,
we can also take, you know,
having the back of our heart, the front of our mind,
a good feeling of we're doing some good here.
We're really doing some good here.
Let's talk a little bit of,
we'll talk a little bit about the benefit in the moment,
but I wanted to ask,
I noticed with two arts catering,
with the amount of time that you guys have been around,
you guys, I feel like you're always been attached
to something like this.
It seems as you touched on a little bit already, Peter,
that that's another key part of this company to you all.
It's not just feeding our community,
but also supporting the community.
It seems to be about every other year,
we've done an event, we've done Toys for Tots.
Toys for Tots.
That's where I've had your food.
Yeah, Toys for Tots.
That was an excellent person.
Oh, to be,
or always a talk to truck,
I'm thinking of a touch of truck, I think.
No, it was the Toys for Tots.
We had the Dueling Pianos about five or six years ago
at the PAC.
And then a couple of years ago,
we did the Malcolm,
raised a bunch of money for him and his family.
And this year, we're back with this.
Yeah.
To be honest with full transparency,
the food that was actually at The Toys for Tots
was presented by our good friends from Great Expectations,
Amy and Ryan.
But Amy and Ryan are fantastic friends of ours.
Yeah.
And we've done many events together
as we're just planning.
Yeah, partner catering companies.
So, great company is we don't hold,
we try to lift every other catering company here.
We look at them as competitors,
but we also look at them as friends.
Yeah, you know.
So I think because it's near and dear to our hearts,
we do try to do an event every couple years
or at least once a year.
And this year is the,
never forgotten on our flight.
There are lots of veterans in this community.
There are lots of people that have ties with veterans
in this community.
So, well, and this came up because we're working
out of the VFW.
Very true.
We are working out of the VFW.
You can find us there out there at 2711 Red and Road,
Monday through Friday.
And if you don't find us there,
you can certainly reach us by email, text, Instagram,
or Facebook.
We're all over social media.
The thing is, we have a branch of our company
called Too Hard Strings.
We kind of came up with that,
which I have named,
but it has a lot of meaning to it
because it is touching the heartstrings
of the community reaching out
and providing this music benefit
because so many people have ties to veterans
and it means a lot to support them.
Support the VFW, support veterans
who have done so much
and provided the ultimate sacrifice for us.
So giving back to them is our way of saying thank you.
Mm-hmm.
It's impressive to me,
because when I see, to be honest,
especially with anything involving our vets,
I have my sucker for that.
It hits my military heart as well.
But I will say that it's one thing
for a big conglomerate to do something like this.
Yeah, credit to you, good job and everything.
With a company that is doing well,
but still working to get bigger and stronger and everything,
you don't see that that often,
but you guys, from your inception,
you've pretty much been doing this.
As you mentioned, Lisa,
you guys every year have been doing something
along these lines.
So it truly does decedent to be,
is almost as important to you as that menu
in feeding this community?
It is because I think mind, body, and spirit,
going back to the whole nursing thing.
I think if you take care of the entire person,
you're taking care of that person.
You're reaching out to them.
And this is a great morale booster to the community.
Even as busy and, and, and music and food.
Yeah, we've got the fans coming out.
We've got chatterbox catering coming out with Kathy.
You can go.
And we've got cheesy ways bringing out the ice cream truck.
And we've got taco social joining.
Let's get into the event.
Let's get into the details of this.
Again, the two arts LLC music benefit coming up
July 20th, 10 to 6 over at 2711 Red and Road right here
with Wisconsin's Rabbits at the VFW.
Can't miss it.
Who's going to be performing at this one, guys?
That would be leading off with a chase, couldn't chase.
I probably murdered his name, but no, actually much better
than I would have done.
So Chase has been on the air with us a couple of times.
I've messed it up in front of them.
He's a personal friend of ours.
And we love his music.
And he brings in a lot of different people
in different musicians' community.
He does open mic sessions and various places that he really
promotes the music end of what we're talking about in this
community.
We also have Jerry Schmidt Trio coming out.
And Jerry is well known in the community.
He is a very big supporter of veterans.
And so he was really busy this coming weekend.
But he made time.
He said, let me come out there for two, three hours
and play for you guys.
And that's what he's going to do with the next.
He'll be in the middle of the afternoon.
Excellent.
Part of his group.
And then we'll end up the day.
And then we have Country Legends, which
is an old time country band that plays a lot of the old time
music that people are very fond of.
I have fond memories with my stepdad Bob just going
and writing and catching Sam and up in Elgoma
and listening to the big old box radios
and listening to the old country music.
And that a lot of people have memories tied to that kind of stuff.
And so we wanted to kind of close out today
bringing that piece to the event as well.
Because, again, people have memories
that are tied to all these things.
Food and music and fellowship and family and friends.
That all means a lot to somebody.
It's, you know, you guys know this better than I do.
It can be tough to, OK, well, what do I have a food that
all these different types of people will like?
So usually, that's why we're trying
to be basic or social.
You have a little bit of covered.
We've got some ice cream covered, because it's going
to be July.
Yes, you have a little bit of everything covered.
And you kind of do that with the music as well,
where you're kind of covering your bases here.
And very family oriented, very family friendly.
There'll be a photo booth there.
There'll be a raffle process.
We've been hold up with Lifeline Entertainment.
We've got a 5050 raffle that the VFW is doing.
There'll be a beer tent for those who want to partake of that.
Sean will be covering the bar.
Scott is preparing some ribs and chicken with his world
renowned barbecue recipe.
And that's the mouthwatering in itself, just smelling that
on the grill.
It'll be wafering through the whole VFW site.
So Kathy, like Lisa, will you do too?
Kathy Roberts with chatterbox.
She'll be coming out for chatterbox.
She's very well-known in the community
as a fellow veteran herself.
As I am, I've been, was in the Navy for 17 years.
So I think we're kind of covering all our bases,
and reaching out to our friends.
And they, in the community, and our community as a whole,
have really poured out and donated and committed themselves
to giving raffle baskets or cash donations.
I want to give a big shout out to US Bank and to.
Herko Worldwide.
Herko Worldwide.
They've donated a nice cash donation.
I've also reached out to a lot of other businesses.
And they're looking at donating as well.
There's a whole bunch that was close on ground.
I think there's just too many to name.
There were going to be putting out a big thank you
on social media as well as putting it on a tag board
at the event that day.
So people can just look and see the community
really came out.
And we are a small community.
And that's what Wisconsin Rapids does.
I mean, if nothing else, we are a blue color come community.
But it doesn't matter how rich and poor people are.
They pour their heart out into this community.
And I have seen it time and time again.
My family's been here for well over 100 years.
And I've seen it year after year after year after year.
You know, something comes up in this community.
Somebody needs help and the community pulls together.
Yeah, there's no being a part of this community.
I maintain.
I say it all the time.
There is no community like this one anywhere.
You're not going to find a community anywhere in the area,
anywhere in the state, anywhere in the country
like this one right here.
Lisa, you were mentioning that there's going
to be raffles, some silent auctions.
One of the remind people of that too.
You got 50, 50 raffles.
You can't have an event without raffles.
That is one thing.
Such a Wisconsin will demand.
We need raffles as a part of our events.
You guys got raffles.
We've got raffles.
I'm picking up things every day this week.
Yeah, I was going to say you're a little bit tired,
but also a little excitement in your voice.
You're still excited about it.
That's great.
Well, I still work at Home Depot early in the morning.
Oh, that's a long day.
That's really.
I'm usually up at 3 a.m.
Well, and to mention that as well,
it's a credit to anybody being able to,
especially with what you guys have done
in these last couple of years of growing this business.
It'd be one thing if you were able to.
Well, this is all I have to focus on all day.
But there's usually another gig that you have to do
or just life in general that goes on.
I've gone from Veroque, what a nurse,
and I drive to and from Home Depot.
Luckily, we live down the street.
That is lucky.
But that does speak to what it takes
to make something like this go on.
And the heart that it takes, no pun intended,
to be able to make a business like this.
So you do all of that, and then you get to the end of the day.
And what do you guys decide to do?
How can we give back?
How can we put back into our community?
After all of that, and you're still wondering
and still looking for ways to put back into our community,
it's part of the reason we have your back so much
and we want to support what you're doing.
Well, when we started this company,
we lived by four tenants.
And I've kind of carried that through,
and we supported me in that avenue.
It's our community first, our staff, and then our vendors,
and then the bottom line last.
We love and care for our staff like their family.
We look out for our staff, we look out for our customers,
and we look out for our vendors.
And then the bottom line, you know,
that is just part of running the business.
I think that's kind of where we came up with the name,
two hearts were giving, two hearts just hurt Lisa and I.
When we started the company, it was just us.
And then we had a couple more close friends,
became part of the company.
And we're still ties with them.
They've moved on to other things, but they have ties.
My brother was our first original chef, and we have family
business truly, a family business.
Whether we're family by blood or we're family by heart,
all our staff, we feel like a family.
And we kind of fight like a family at times too,
but I think that's just part of the name of the game.
Yeah, you know, when the end of the day comes,
we come together and we get the job done,
and our customers have praised us up one side down the other.
And I'm not just tuning our hornets,
is because we stand by our work, we stand by what we do.
And we cook with love.
And it shows, it shows because it really does.
The two hearts LLC music benefit with the proceeds going
to the never forgotten honor flight is coming up to like 20th,
10 to 6, over at the VFW at 2711 Red and Road,
right here in Wisconsin Rapids, enjoy some great music,
some great raffles, and of course, amazing food.
Be down there for that and check that out.
And guys, if people want to sample your catering,
they want to find out more about two hearts catering,
how can they do that?
Well, I think a message is on our website.
There is a spot that they can message if they want to inquire
about other catering.
If they, like I said, parties big and small, we covered all.
Two hearts LLC one.com is our website.
Again, two hearts LLC one.com, the number one, you can't remember.
Remember anything else?
Number one is right at the end, where the number one catering company
in this community, I believe, just because we bring something different.
And then you can also find us on social media through Facebook,
through Instagram, through Twitter.
You can stop by the VW.
We love to see you and meet with you and sit down and talk food.
Yeah, yeah.
I cannot thank you all enough, not only for your company,
but for what you're doing for our community.
Keep up the great work and the door is open, OK?
We want you guys to buy more.
You did too good here.
This is your first time on the air.
You did too good of a job.
You're going to have to come back now, OK?
That sounds like a plan.
OK, thank you, Peter Lisa.
Thank you very much.
Appreciate you.
Thank you.
Good for having us.
We'll have more Midday Magazine for you coming up right here
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