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Catering firms team up in Knoxville's Sunsphere
(Knoxville News-Sentinel, The (TN) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jan. 9--A new catering firm is setting up shop in the Sunsphere.
All Occasion Catering has teamed up with Southern Graces Catering and Events in the golden ball's sixth-floor banquet facility, although the exact nature of the partnership is open to interpretation.
In a news release, All Occasion said it has taken over management of the Sunsphere's sixth floor, but in an interview, Southern Graces president Bob Sukenik said that's not the case.
"We're still in charge of what happens at the Sunsphere," he said. "What they are providing for us is food service ... on the sixth floor, the event floor of the Sunsphere."
Built as the theme structure of the 1982 World's Fair, the landmark orb was reopened to the public in 2007, after years of being off-limits. The city of Knoxville leases the building to a partnership between Cardinal Enterprises and Chattanooga-based Kinsey Probasco Hays, and that entity subleases space in the building to Southern Graces, which operates a sixth-floor bar called Skybox at the Sunsphere.
Neal Green, co-owner of All Occasion, said the Sunsphere is "kind of an icon" in Knoxville. "Everybody that I've talked to that's been up there loves the view. ... You can't beat the view of downtown Knoxville," he said.
Green said his firm has picked up some of the staff from Southern Graces and that despite tough times in the restaurant industry, his firm's revenue was essentially flat in 2008, "which in this economy I feel like is a successful year."
Sukenik said All Occasion also will assist his firm with some off-site catering and that the arrangement in the Sunsphere will improve the efficiencies of both companies.
Asked about bringing in All Occasion to provide food service in the Sunsphere, Sukenik said, "We took that step because the food-service business is volume-driven. And in order to ... make money in this business, you have to have volume."
To see more of The Knoxville News Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.knoxnews.com.
Copyright (c) 2009, The Knoxville News Sentinel, Tenn.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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