The People Behind the Plate - STACS Fine Food
“I came up for the weekend and haven’t gone home yet.”
“I came up for the weekend and haven’t gone home yet,” Steve Niehaus said, reflecting on 22 years in Fort McMurray.
“I was working as a chef for a hotel group that owned the old Mackenzie Park Inn,” he said. Its restaurant was short-handed, so Steve came up to help. Staying on with the hotel, he built a wealth of experience running his own kitchen. In time, when the opportunity emerged, Steve invested himself in ownership of Mitchell’s Cafe -- which he went on to operate for 11 years alongside his wife, Cathy.
After Mitchell’s, they moved on to the Legion kitchen, where they kept hard at work for their hungry patrons until the 2016 wildfire roared through the region.
“We got through the fire situation, settled back in and just kept getting phone calls and demand for catering services.”
When space opened up at the Unifor building downtown,
Steve and Cathy sprang on their latest vision for food service with
Chef2you catering and STACS Fine Food restaurant, now in its third year.
And what a third year it’s been! Steve said that while they weren’t directly affected by the spring flood, “we’re a part of this community and wanted to give back.”
“We basically came down here, emptied out STACS and took what we could. We were able to jump in and get our food out to people that could use it.”
Steve and Cathy spent the next week at the Radisson hotel, making food and helping out wherever they could. “It was a massive project. In the time that they [the evacuees] were there, about 30,000 meals went out of that place.”
Of course it doesn’t take a once-in-a-century natural disaster to get the culinary couple in a charitable mood. They also maintain their own donation program in the form of the 10X Project.
In a given month, sales of a featured product are donated to a chosen local charity/non-profit organization. Only the cost of the goods are factored into the price, not the labour or profit.
“The idea is to spend a dollar on something and turn it into 10 dollars worth of good for a charity.”
They’re always looking to help, and encourage any interested group or organization to submit an application through their website, here.
Non-profit, for-profit, 2020 has been a tough year and no one’s been spared its challenges.
“Covid is the biggest stress as it’s limiting what we can and can’t do," Steve said. His Chef2you catering service has taken the brunt of the damage due to event cancellations, and therefore lost business, caused by the ongoing pandemic.
“We’ve had some good karma come back our way, though. We’ve managed to do some work with St. Aiden’s Society, and AirCon [Technologies] reached out to purchase meals from us for some of the less fortunate in town.”
“The philosophy [with STACS] is to keep the doors swinging open, give people a good reason to keep coming in. We're trying to be creative, as far as that goes.”
And indeed there are plenty of good reasons to keep those doors swinging open. In addition to their savoury selection of sandwiches, soups and salads, STACS offers a wide assortment of ever-changing, ready-made meals for pick-up. They also take bulk orders for meats, baking supplies and other staples, too. Their partnering with Bulldog Delivery means easy home delivery for all menu items, as well.
STACS, via Chef2you, is also looking forward to offering an “office party at home” experience this winter. Employers wishing to gift their staff a delicious holiday dinner can contact Chef2you to arrange for home deliveries of classic Christmas cooking!
For more information on STACS and Chef2you, please visit their website here. You'll also want to keep an eye on their Facebook page for daily specials and calls for bulk orders throughout the week.
And finally, thank you for taking time to sample our first serving of The People Behind the Plate! Please stay tuned to the Explore Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo Facebook page for news on our next offering!
Until then, have a great day and a great life!
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About the Author:
Hey there, I'm Devon.
I'm a content writer and web coordinator for Explore Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo.
Originally from Friendly Manitoba, I've lived here since 2006. I came for the hills and a bit less humidity, but stayed for the people.
In writing this series, I'll strive to showcase those great people, their passion, and the good work they do here. I'm focused squarely on folks in the food sector for this series, but hope to explore others from all walks in later projects, too.
If you are a restaurant owner and would like to be featured in this series, please let me know! If you're not, but have someone in mind, let me know that, too!
You'll find me at devon@explorewoodbuffalo.ca. I look forward to hearing from you!