HARVEY AND JACOB

BROTHERS OF HJ CATERING

It all started in 2005 when one of two brothers had a great idea to open a restaurant, he thought it would be fun and easy, that nearly became a total failure with in 6 months but he didn’t accept that outcome. With a little fight and persistence he became #1 in the nation in sales out of 50+ stores.

In 2015 came the brother partnership and restaurant #2.

Now here we are 13 years later, two full restaurants that seat over 600 people combined and the same two brothers decided a catering company is a great idea.

With the assistance of Tyler Olson, an employee since day one, we launched HJ Catering. We started off catering for non-profits and grew to working with school districts through our two restaurants and now we are doing corporate events and weddings. What we have learned is the key to success is organization and a smile.

Here is what we believe:
Family. Hard work. Doing right.

These form the foundation upon which we are building a legacy — not only for our families, but for the area we grew up in.

We lost our father when we were teenagers. His death left the family with no life insurance or savings.

Our father spent a lot of time talking to us about right from wrong and respecting our mom and elders. He would talk to us about real life people and he would tell us to dream. Life was tough when tragedy struck, but it made us stronger and want to fight harder. No excuses. Our fate was our choice.

Our mom, Karen, quit her job at Colonial Bakery and started an in-home daycare so she could be around us and and our younger brother, Josh, more. Every summer, she would take us camping at Neal’s Lodges. Five to six days, tents, Coleman stoves. Every summer.

We learned to appreciate hard work by building farm structures with our grandparents and we both took jobs at an early age. We both worked at Lone Oak Grocery store in Adkins, where we worked as apprentice butchers for a number of years.

It was our early experience in the meat market business that eventually led to our passion of the restaurant and catering business.

Giving back to the communities is something we take a great deal of pride in. We have both adopted the idea that giving as much as we can has rewarded us many times over in many ways. To be greedy or selfish creates heartaches and headaches. Do what’s right for others before yourself and no one can ever point a finger at you that you are unworthy of blessings or happiness.