Sweet Merry Berry may have picked the oddest time to begin its life as a caterer on Signal Mountain, but it has still managed to establish a foothold despite opening in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has done so by constantly adjusting and changing, with manager Drew Brandenburg highlighting one of the caterer’s most-recent additions.
“As of this week, we’re known for our breakfast, because there are no breakfast places on Signal Mountain,” Mr.
Brandenburg said. “So everybody is really excited we’re up here for breakfast. Hot breakfast and hot lunches are our go-to, and now that people are learning about our indoor with the takeout dinners, that’s big too.”
Originally, SMB was intended to only do catering events. However, COVID-19 eliminated most events requiring catering, and so Mr. Brandenburg and Chef Brock Berry had to adjust.
“Chef Brock Berry is the owner of the business, and I am the restaurant manager. He was my culinary teacher in school, and he called me and said he had a business opportunity for me and I jumped on it.”
“We started with catering, so during coronavirus there was no establishment who needed catering,” Mr. Brandenburg said. “We did our best to do sales out of the store, but nobody knew we were here because we were so new. But we ended up getting through it.”
In order to spread the word about the new business, SMB has used social media, and especially Facebook to raise awareness of their existence.
“When people would pull up, they’d say ,“We heard these great things on Facebook, so we’re here to try it.”
Sweet Merry Berry’s customers can also rely on receiving fresh food. Mr. Brandenburg emphasized the point that SMB does not use frozen products when making their meals.
“They can find fresh products because everything is made from scratch,” Mr. Brandenburg said. “We don’t use anything frozen. For lunch, we have a pork sandwich, and we smoke it from start to finish, we patty out our own hamburgers and season them ourselves. Nothing is frozen.”
Sweet Merry Berry is at 1309 Taft Highway, and its phone number is 423 414-2623.