Bringing food to the masses
Texas caterer serving up for a sixth year
Picture a line of hotdogs stretching from the first green to the 18th at the Canyon Meadows Golf & Country Club.
That’s about how many of those fan food favourites will be chomped on by 40,000-plus attendees at this year’s Shaw Charity Classic, says the head of Spectrum Catering Concessions and Events, which will be the food provider at the event for a sixth straight year.
Dave Smalley, founder and chief executive officer of Spectrum, says they will roll into Calgary about a week before the Aug. 29-Sept. 2 PGA Tour Champions tournament.
Smalley, who launched his catering enterprise in a Texas garage after 12 years in the restaurant business, started serving the PGA Tour in 1984 at the Shell Houston Open. His team now prepares the food at 20 professional golf tournaments across North America, including the recent PGA RBC Canadian Men’s Open.
Other Spectrum clients include the NFL’s Super Bowl, Cirque du Soleil performances throughout North America and Major League Baseball’s AllStar Game.
Upon arrival in Calgary his team will build a large kitchen, followed by all the concession and hosting tents. Then they will move in all the equipment and furnishings.
Six hundred workers will be involved in setting up and running Spectrum’s on-site services, including putting up the eight or nine general admission concessions, skybox tents and corporate hosting tents.
Volunteers from local charities will work in the public concessions, raising money for their organizations, while locally hired hospitality workers will staff hosting tents.
Smalley describes Calgary’s family-friendly Shaw Charity Classic as similar to the PGA Tour’s Houston Open.
“There is that can-do spirit and, in terms of food, attendees want value-priced items in a larger size,” says Smalley, a former competitive swimmer at the University of Houston who lived in the same dormitory as golf legend Fred Couples.