Raegan Steinberg and Alex Cohen: Today’s Notable Young Entrepreneurs

Today’s Notable Young Entrepreneurs are Raegan Steinberg and Alex Cohen, who launched Back of House catering to offer their professional cooking and serving skills to dinner parties, weddings, showers, special birthdays and a wide range of corporate events…

Elevator Pitch: Describe your job in a nutshell.
We are a local catering company. We cater for private events – dinner parties, weddings, showers, and special birthdays – as well as a wide range of corporate events. We do holiday parties, daily/weekly lunch plans and larger scale corporate events, such as day-long conferences.

Why did you start working at your company? What was the inspiration for this career route?
We both were successfully working in local restaurant kitchens, but around the time we got married, we felt worn down from the kitchen grind. We’ve always loved cooking and serving intimate crowds and decided to take a risk and embark on the challenge of opening our own catering company with the intention of one day having a restaurant of our own.

What is the best part of what you do on a day-to-day basis? The most challenging part?
The best and most challenging part is working every day in such close quarters with each other. They say the first year of marriage is a challenge for a reason!

What is one sign that you’ve seen over the years to suggest that your work/life balance is off?
Before we ventured out into our own company, and were both working in restaurants, we found our schedules were off and didn’t get to spend much time together. Now we see each other all day, every day (whether we like it or not!) and we get to put all our energy into building something we can be proud of.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
Working our own restaurant counter, a successful business, a harem of kids and puppies running around.

What is one major challenge that you’ve had to overcome in your career? How did you overcome it?
We are still overcoming it! It’s hard to be the new kid on the block and break into the Montreal scene, but we’re confident.

What does success look like to you? Does Money = Happiness?
No, but it certainly helps!

What is the most memorable milestone in your career?
Our requests generally run the gamut from small private events to corporate parties, but so far our biggest milestones have been being the sole caterer of an all-day conference for a world-renowned web company last fall. Just recently we had our first pop-up restaurant at a three-day convention for over 8,000 people. 

Do you have any advice for other young professionals?
Always be true to yourself, work with people you love, and hard work really pays off.

Where is your favourite place to wine/ dine in your city and why?
We’re biased. We always love Joe Beef & Liverpool House. We also happen to love small, virtually unknown, exotic restaurants. Authentic worldwide cuisine is sometimes best in a grungy hole-in-the-wall.

When you’re not working how do you love to spend your “Me” time?
Raegan: When are we not working?
Alex: Movies and video games and spending time with my beautiful wife and our dog.

Where is your favourite place to travel? Why?
Raegan: I haven’t travelled enough to say; I’m dying to go to Italy and France!
Alex: Thailand for sure. Best food, best parties, best beaches

If you had to choose a theme song, what would it be?
Raegan: Meatloaf’s “I would do anything for love.”
Alex: Anything Delta Blues. I like the soul in that genre

If you weren’t doing what you’re doing, what would you be doing?
Raegan : I would have escaped to Costa Rica in my mid-20s and been a beach bum half the year, ski bum in Europe the other half.
Alex: Story boards for videogames. I’m trained in fine arts and I loooooove video games.

Do you support any charities? If so, which one(s) and why is that important to you?
Raegan: First and foremost, the “Arthur Steinberg Foundation for non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.”  I’d like to do a food-related fundraiser in honour of my late father. He would love that!
Alex: Anything my wife tells to me to support.

What to you is notable?
Bringing new tastes to the masses, constantly changing flavours, and updating tried-and-true favourites. Evolution and adaptation, combined with creativity and flair. And, of course, service with a smile.

Blackberry, iPhone, Android, or Other?
Raegan: iPhone (technology for dummies).
Alex: Android for life.

#NOTABLE 

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