Caterer expands into food sales at former restaurant location

Perfectly Prepared Gourmet to Go will open by end of August

CHESHIRE — A Haddam-based catering firm that has been using the old Cugino’s restaurant as a satellite location for the past three years is now getting ready to offer pre-cooked meals at the same Highland Avenue spot.

Riverhouse Hospitality expects to open its Cheshirebased pre-cooked meal business, which will be called Perfectly Prepared Gourmet to Go, by the end of August, said Trevor Furrrer, one of the firm’s managing partners. The new business will be located at 1410 Highland Ave., across the street from Richard Chevrolet.

“This is a way to get our great food out to the public,” Furrer said. “Catering is something of a seasonal business and this provides us with a year-round opportunity.”

Meals that just need to be reheated and served have long been popular with time-starved two-income families. Furrer cited Pasta Vita in Old Saybrook as an example of a New Havenarea business that has been very successful with that concept.

“Their food is very good and they have lines out the door, no matter what time of day you go there,” he said. “We feel the Cheshire location, along with the communities that surround it, give us a strong demographic at this location.”

Furrer and his partners found their way to Cheshire when one of Riverhouse’s competitors, Jordan Caterers Design Event Planners, went out of business abruptly in February 2014.

“They came to us because they wanted to make sure some of their longtime customers were taken care of,” Furrer said of the Rapoport family, which owned Jordan Caterers. “We ended up taking over for them running the cafe at the New Britain Museum of American Art.”

Furrer and his partners even briefly considered

taking over Jordan

Caterers’ 12,000-square-foot headquarters at 1718 Highland Ave. But Furrer said he and his partners ultimately determined it was more space than they needed, and the building was ultimately sold to Powerstation Events.

Jerry Sitko, Cheshire’s economic development coordinator, said he is pleased Riverhouse Hospitality is expanding its presence in town.

“The more offerings up at that end of Cheshire, the better,” Siko said..

Riverhouse Hospitality runs such event venues as Riverhouse in Haddam and The Society Room in Hartford.