ARTIST INTERVIEW | MANNY & CARLY CASTILLO OF BRICK AND MORTAR CATERING COMPANY
Brick and Mortar's vibrant crew and fresh food bring the party to YOUR party! They pride themselves on best-in-class hospitality and VIP catering service. They believe that the most special moments make the most delicious memories! Beyond the delicious food and beautiful presentation, Brick and Mortar's team of highly trained staff includes CDR credentialed dietetics professionals, a licensed sanitarian, and a Certified Food Manager. They strive to create delicious memories for you and that is why they go out of their way to make sure all the ingredients are fresh, clean, and safe.
How did you get started doing what you do?
We met on the job - catering for an amazing company that continues to inspire us to this day. We also both have a background in high volume catering. Manny spent years catering at music festivals and raves, and Carly has catered to firefighters and personnel for major forest fires.
We had always talked about starting our own catering company - in the years leading up to our official first event we spent countless hours on R&D: Networking, testing techniques, experimenting with ingredients, learning about equipment, following trends...
There will always be gratitude in our hearts to those early clients - really to all our clients. We were so fortunate that when we started catering we already had gigs booked! There was just this outpouring of support and we have felt really grateful and have had so many "pinch me" moments through out this whole thing.
Who or what continues to inspires you?
With us, it always comes down to people. Our clients, our staff, our friends, other business owners... We are constantly humbled by the awesome people we meet and know. We try to "meet them where they're at," so to speak. So we do everything we can to rise up to meet them, to reflect what we see in them. Also, while we're on the subject of people I just want to take a moment to praise our awesome crew! Our staff are just the best people. We get so many compliments on our staff from other vendors, from the venue owners, from our clients. They just have such a great vibe!
What makes your business unique?
We really push the envelope on our flavor profiles, presentation, and ingredients. For example - we were catering an event and we had some really bougie cheese. We invited one of us wanted one of our servers to try it so she could see what it was all about. She was really surprised and intrigued by its flavor so Carly started coaxing more flavors out of it. The server was really blown away by not just the fullness of flavor but also how this one single cheese had so many different expressions in a matter of minutes.
Why do you do what you do?
We just have to do it. Event work is like... you either get it or you don't, you either love it or hate it. Catering chose us, really.
What question do you always ask the Bride & Groom?
We always ask what their vision is for their party.
What would you say is your greatest accomplishment?
We found each other. We love each other.
What do you enjoy doing on your day off?
We love doing fun stuff! Hiking, biking, body surfing, boogie boarding, climbing at The Pad. We love spending time with our family, love going to Big Sur.
Tell us one thing few people know about you?
The first movie we ever watched together was Blood In Blood Out.
Favorite quote?
Always show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels without knowing.
Wedding trend that you're loving right now?
Loving the return of the Black Tie Affair! Part of what makes catering magical is that we can be as over the top as we want, but it still seems normal - we love it!
Wedding trend that will hopefully be out next year?
No mason jars please.
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