Dupree Catering has joined culinary forces with the catering arm of Azur Food Group, the restaurant company that owns Azur Restaurant and Patio in Beaumont Centre and Brasabana Cuban Cuisine on Lane Allen Road.
The merged catering company, which operates under the name of Dupree Catering and Events, is headed up jointly by Azur Catering’s general manager, Tom Evans, and Dupree’s founder, Harriet Dupree Bradley.
The new catering company will maintain Dupree Catering’s Delaware Avenue facilities, and the partnership will open new opportunities to combine the experience and creativity of both organizations, said Evans, who spent three decades with a catering company in Washington, D.C. before joining Azur.
Evans said that Dupree and Azur share similar culinary philosophies, with a mutual emphasis on the thoughtful selection of quality ingredients and high standards for customer service.
“It seemed like a natural merger,” Evans said. “It’s kind of a fresh start for all of us, even though we all come to it with a lot of experience.”
Dupree Bradley, who has operated Dupree Catering for more than 28 years, said she has great respect for the cooking talent at Azur, and the merger has brought with it access to Azur’s strong business team and the financial resources needed for growth.
She said Dupree Catering’s business has been split evenly in the past between social events, including weddings, and corporate functions, including business entertaining and employee events for large companies. Dupree's clients have run the gamut from Amazon.com to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, she said.
“We are going to be expanding into even more of the corporate catering,” Dupree Bradley said. “That’s going to be a focus for growth.”
She added that the company has kept its entire staff, including Eileen McCormick, who has worked for Dupree Catering for more than two decades. McCormick will serve as the merged company’s director of events.
Dupree Bradley said she has been working with Evans and others from Azur since May 2014, attending each others’ events and learning their practices, and the transition since the merger, which officially took place in December, has been a smooth one. Evans, whose catering company in Washington, D.C., was family-owned, said the new Dupree Catering and Events carries a similar familial vibe.
“This just feels like an extension of a family business,” Evans said.
Evans said that Azur Food Group, which was started in 2004, had been looking to expand the catering aspect of its business, and Dupree’s long-standing reputation and connections in the catering community are expected to provide a solid boost in that effort.
“We think there is a lot of potential in the marketplace, and we wanted to grow our business,” Evans said. “Now we can grow it a lot faster.”