Food is personal—its flavors and textures evoke memories and comfort, and a bill of fare can tell a special story. For more than 16 years, Peter and Molly Skinner have created culinary yarns that highlight the everyday experiences and familial events that weave through their customers’ lives. As owners of Skinner’s Pub and Eatery and Skinner’s Catering, the Saint Paul natives relish their seats at the table of some of their clients’ most important events, celebrating memories large and small and even tending to them during more poignant occasions.
“I like the idea that our place is personable, and people know who we are,” Molly Skinner says. “I think it’s because Saint Paul is ‘Saint Small,’ and we get to know everyone. It’s a home away from home for a lot of people.” The duo opened the pub and restaurant in 2000. Before then, Peter worked as a cook in several local establishments. “Peter was just ready to have his own place,” Skinner says. The restaurant business can be unpredictable, but Skinner said it wasn’t too large a leap of faith for the couple. “I was really confident in Peter’s abilities,” she says. “I knew he’d do what was needed to make it successful.”
The pub’s fare proved so successful with customers that they began to ask for larger takeout and catering services, which the eatery provided. In 2015, the couple bought Campion Rose Burns Catering to enhance their restaurant’s catering profile. “There was a demand for it,” Skinner says. “People were wanting us to do more.” The transition into catering “was fairly seamless,” she adds, attributing much of the ease to the staff, which includes 16-year Campion Rose Burns veteran chef Ed Walsh. “Because he’s had so much experience in catering, he knows how to cook to customers’ specifications,” Skinner says.
Jennifer Cleveland, who is Skinner’s catering sales and event manager, also worked at Campion Rose Burns and for Wolfgang Puck Catering at the Walker Art Center and at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. With years of catering experience, Cleveland has seen it all. Creating a unique party experience is the top card in her deck. “What I love about my job and working for a small family-owned catering company is that I can bring all that I have learned along the way to the average everyday bride or family,” she says. “I am able to be more flexible and work with their budget, and I am also able to give more personal attention and offer more services that [other caterers] don’t.”
Skinner’s catering is able to provide a host of options, including pick-up or delivery food service, service and/or clean-up staff, plated meals, butler-passed hors d’oeuvres or elegant buffets. Cleveland can also serve as a party planner (assist with vendors, including bakeries, florists and table/chair rentals, for example) and as a day-of-event coordinator.
Whether the summer party is indoors or outside (“Be mindful of the weather, and always have a Plan B.,” Cleveland cautions), Skinner’s is able to tend to the event, including providing a grill and grill master. “There is nothing like the smell of food on the grill, and you can grill just about anything,” she says, including fruits and veggies. “You don’t have to worry about keeping them hot or cold because they taste great at any temperature.”
