Fredericton Catering Company Helps Open New Event Space
FREDERICTON – A Fredericton catering business and the Fredericton Intercultural Centre (FIC) have opened a new event space that can accommodate celebrations during the Covid-19 pandemic.
LJW Catering and the FIC officially opened the venue on Monday, November 23rd. The venue is nearly 5000-square-feet that seats 450 people in ordinary circumstances. The event space accommodates 100 guests with Covid-19 yellow phase restrictions, including social distancing.
The new venue on Saunders Street sits next to LJW’s industrial kitchen in the Fredericton Cultural Centre. The space features free parking, free wifi, wheelchair access and other amenities. LJW Catering now offers a discount on their services if the event is held in the new space.
The event space was a multipurpose room, but chef and owner of LJW Catering, Leanne Wiens, knew the space wasn’t meeting its potential. Jeff Foster, CEO of Fredericton Intercultural Center, saw the opportunity to increase the space’s value and worked with Wiens on the project.
“We’re in collaboration getting this space to the public at a reasonable price,” said Wiens.
Wiens says she wants to offer the space at a price everyone can afford, as opposed to more expensive venues in the city.
“We are being very conscious that people don’t have a lot of money, but also trying to create employment and work for our staff and for the building,” she says.
Wiens obtained the event space before COVID struck, so when her employees were left without work over the summer, she decided they could renovate themselves. Wiens and her three employees painted, cleaned and hung lights throughout the space. Since the pandemic began, Wiens stopped paying herself in order to keep the business afloat.
“I stopped paying myself so I can pay my staff because they have families to feed,” she said.
Wiens started the catering business in 2012 with the goal of bringing people together through food. Years ago, Wiens became a refugee in Canada after fleeing the Vietnam war. Wiens said she grew up in an orphanage, and though she was eventually adopted by a Canadian family, the hunger she felt during childhood taught her the value of food. This lesson served as a driver years later to start her business.
“At a very young age, I knew what starvation was. I knew what it was like to go for weeks without eating, so I was very fascinated by food,” said Wiens. “I was always intrigued at how we would all gravitate to food and why we would always want to celebrate around food.”
Wiens’s specialty is Thai and Vietnamese cuisine as well as accommodating dietary restrictions. Throughout the pandemic, LJW Catering rapidly evolved, as the lack of social gatherings meant there were few catering opportunities in the typically busy event season. Besides opening a venue, the company got creative in other ways.
“We were creating Keto meals. We did box holiday turkey dinners, and because they were such a success, we’re going to do it again for the Christmas season,” said Wiens.
Wiens said despite competition in the Fredericton area, all caterers worked together through the pandemic.
When the Northside Market closed, Wiens opened her doors to vendors who needed kitchen space. LJW Catering rented out portions of their industrial kitchen which in turn helped Wiens pay rent.
Wiens said many vendors still had products they hoped to sell, but no space to store or prepare them. She wanted to help fellow businesses as best she could, so with the sudden availability of kitchen space, Wiens saw an opportunity.
“One of my favourite sayings is, ‘There are no problems in my world, only solutions,’” said Wiens.