Thony and Carl
Carl Loeffel and Thony "Mango Man" Clarke are the ones who will be feeding my wedding guests. Here is a little info on how we chose our baker and caterer.
We found Carl of Carl's Cakes first, at last year's Madison wedding show. For those of you who have never been to one of these events, they're basically hundreds of vendors there for a meet-and-greet with potential clients. And there's tons of free cake--most of the bakers bring along samples for you to try.
Before I went to that first show, I read tips for attending them and for choosing a baker. I was warned to watch out for bakeries that use a lot of filling to compensate for a flavorless and/or dry cake, and to remember fondant looks nice, but buttercream tastes nicer.
So I walked around with Lance, gorging myself on cake, but I could not find anything that really jumpd out at me. I did find several bakeries who really did pull that "extra filling" trick, so it's a good thing to watch out for. Finally, I realized I'd overlooked a bakery booth, so we went to check it out. As soon as I tried my first piece (hazelnut apricot, our tier cake choice), and Lance tried his (dark chocolate raspberry, his groom's cake), we just looked at each other and nodded. The cakes he had on display (which turned out to be real, not dummy cakes) were lovely, too. "This is exquisite," I gushed to the man in the booth, who looked charmingly out-of-place in his white tux (he looked like he'd be more comfortable in some jeans). He thanked me, and I knew I had my baker. The next day, I brought along my MOH (who is now planning her own wedding), and made her try the cake, too. Carl remembered me, so I asked if there was any way for me to set up a tasting then and there. He explained that he didn't have his appointment book, so I called the next day.
Our tasting went fine, and we decided on the hazelnut for the 3-tier display cake, the dark chocolate for Lance's cake (last I asked, he wanted it decorated to display Spiderman riding a surfboard), and white chocolate raspberry for the full sheet. I guess that's their most popular flavor. Now, this is enough cake for something like 250 people (we wanted to allow everyone to have a couple slices), and our bill, including delivery and setup, was about $300. That is CHEAP, and I really believe Carl's is the best cake in Madison.
This year, I went back with Kathy (MOH) so she could check out some vendors and I could buy a few things on the cheap (I got my ring bearer's pillow and my cake serving set). Also, I was craving some more of Carl's cake! Sure enough, he was there, and I asked him if there was any way I could buy a piece of cake from him at the end of the show. He told me to just come back, and he would just give me some. So I showed up at the end of the day, and to my surprise, he meant to give me an entire tier! Neither of us had a box, but I had an empty vendor's bag, so he was just going to set it in there. Well, it fell on the table, so we just scraped it into the bag. "It's already a mess in there, right?" he asked, to which I laughingly responded in the affirmative. In reply, he threw a second tier in there, too! I thanked him profusely, insisted on giving him a few bucks (he would only take $10), hugged him, and told him I thought he was very nice. He actually teared up a little, which just cemented my opinion that I have the best local baker I could have chosen.
Check him out for yourself!
Now, as for the food...
Thony, who owns Cafe Costa Rica, is a regular customer of Lance's--my fiance manages a convenience store near our house. He asked Lance a few months ago if we had a caterer yet, and Lance said we didn't. At the time, we thought our budget would be much, much smaller than it is, so we were actually planning to order about 50 pizzas from one of the local, well-reviewed pizza shops (Ian's or Roman Candle, probably). Thony invited us to come visit his restaurant and see what we thought of it--if we decided it was right for us, he'd give us a nice deal (Lance is on a friendly basis with him).
My father was coming up for a visit around the time Lance talked to Thony, so we thought Costa Rican food might be a nice, original thing to feed my dad, and we'd also get another opinion on the food. We all LOVED it. The restaurant is quite small, but not in a cramped way. It's just cozy. And Thony himself is wonderful. He's friendly and charming, and I knew quite quickly that I would love to involve him in the wedding. We set up a tasting with me, Lance, and Lance's best man, Kyle, during which we were served full portions of at least a dozen different items. Thony would only allow us to pay for our drinks, but we're sneaky, so we put a nice tip on that check. :)
This is the menu:
Appetizers:
Curried tilapia on baguette (better than it sounds--Thony's name for it was The Yummy-Yummy or something like that)
Plantains, of course
Empanadas (pork and potato, spinach and cheese)
Main Course:
A make-your-own taco/burrito bar (Tico steak or chicken) which includes the meat, lettuce, cilantro, seasoned rice and beans, and I forget what else--nice, because this can easily be made vegetarian, or even vegan, so nobody is left out.
A ton of rice and beans--seriously, they're to die for, and I hate beans.
MAYBE coconut-curry tilapia, depending on cost
Dessert:
Flan
(and cake, of course)
Just so you know, Cafe Costa Rica also delivers!
We found Carl of Carl's Cakes first, at last year's Madison wedding show. For those of you who have never been to one of these events, they're basically hundreds of vendors there for a meet-and-greet with potential clients. And there's tons of free cake--most of the bakers bring along samples for you to try.
Before I went to that first show, I read tips for attending them and for choosing a baker. I was warned to watch out for bakeries that use a lot of filling to compensate for a flavorless and/or dry cake, and to remember fondant looks nice, but buttercream tastes nicer.
So I walked around with Lance, gorging myself on cake, but I could not find anything that really jumpd out at me. I did find several bakeries who really did pull that "extra filling" trick, so it's a good thing to watch out for. Finally, I realized I'd overlooked a bakery booth, so we went to check it out. As soon as I tried my first piece (hazelnut apricot, our tier cake choice), and Lance tried his (dark chocolate raspberry, his groom's cake), we just looked at each other and nodded. The cakes he had on display (which turned out to be real, not dummy cakes) were lovely, too. "This is exquisite," I gushed to the man in the booth, who looked charmingly out-of-place in his white tux (he looked like he'd be more comfortable in some jeans). He thanked me, and I knew I had my baker. The next day, I brought along my MOH (who is now planning her own wedding), and made her try the cake, too. Carl remembered me, so I asked if there was any way for me to set up a tasting then and there. He explained that he didn't have his appointment book, so I called the next day.
Our tasting went fine, and we decided on the hazelnut for the 3-tier display cake, the dark chocolate for Lance's cake (last I asked, he wanted it decorated to display Spiderman riding a surfboard), and white chocolate raspberry for the full sheet. I guess that's their most popular flavor. Now, this is enough cake for something like 250 people (we wanted to allow everyone to have a couple slices), and our bill, including delivery and setup, was about $300. That is CHEAP, and I really believe Carl's is the best cake in Madison.
This year, I went back with Kathy (MOH) so she could check out some vendors and I could buy a few things on the cheap (I got my ring bearer's pillow and my cake serving set). Also, I was craving some more of Carl's cake! Sure enough, he was there, and I asked him if there was any way I could buy a piece of cake from him at the end of the show. He told me to just come back, and he would just give me some. So I showed up at the end of the day, and to my surprise, he meant to give me an entire tier! Neither of us had a box, but I had an empty vendor's bag, so he was just going to set it in there. Well, it fell on the table, so we just scraped it into the bag. "It's already a mess in there, right?" he asked, to which I laughingly responded in the affirmative. In reply, he threw a second tier in there, too! I thanked him profusely, insisted on giving him a few bucks (he would only take $10), hugged him, and told him I thought he was very nice. He actually teared up a little, which just cemented my opinion that I have the best local baker I could have chosen.
Check him out for yourself!
Now, as for the food...
Thony, who owns Cafe Costa Rica, is a regular customer of Lance's--my fiance manages a convenience store near our house. He asked Lance a few months ago if we had a caterer yet, and Lance said we didn't. At the time, we thought our budget would be much, much smaller than it is, so we were actually planning to order about 50 pizzas from one of the local, well-reviewed pizza shops (Ian's or Roman Candle, probably). Thony invited us to come visit his restaurant and see what we thought of it--if we decided it was right for us, he'd give us a nice deal (Lance is on a friendly basis with him).
My father was coming up for a visit around the time Lance talked to Thony, so we thought Costa Rican food might be a nice, original thing to feed my dad, and we'd also get another opinion on the food. We all LOVED it. The restaurant is quite small, but not in a cramped way. It's just cozy. And Thony himself is wonderful. He's friendly and charming, and I knew quite quickly that I would love to involve him in the wedding. We set up a tasting with me, Lance, and Lance's best man, Kyle, during which we were served full portions of at least a dozen different items. Thony would only allow us to pay for our drinks, but we're sneaky, so we put a nice tip on that check. :)
This is the menu:
Appetizers:
Curried tilapia on baguette (better than it sounds--Thony's name for it was The Yummy-Yummy or something like that)
Plantains, of course
Empanadas (pork and potato, spinach and cheese)
Main Course:
A make-your-own taco/burrito bar (Tico steak or chicken) which includes the meat, lettuce, cilantro, seasoned rice and beans, and I forget what else--nice, because this can easily be made vegetarian, or even vegan, so nobody is left out.
A ton of rice and beans--seriously, they're to die for, and I hate beans.
MAYBE coconut-curry tilapia, depending on cost
Dessert:
Flan
(and cake, of course)
Just so you know, Cafe Costa Rica also delivers!
