If you think you’re busy, could you imagine catering 600 events a year or feeding upwards of 2,000 people a week during your busiest season?
For Tall Guy and a Grill, a local catering company under the Brazen Standard Hospitality group, that’s their reality for almost half the year!
With their commitment to locally sourced products and sustainable internal practices, Dan Nowak and his team are redefining what a catering company looks like while whipping up delicious meals, desserts, and drinks for their event-goers.
Let’s learn more!
How did Tall Guy and a Grill get its start? What is your background?
I originally started Tall Guy as a part-time business back in 2009 before eventually going full-time with this business in 2013. I worked in various restaurants and bars in downtown Milwaukee throughout college while going to UW-Milwaukee for a Finance degree. Even after graduating college and starting a career in finance (working with 401(k) plans), I kept working in restaurants part-time for additional income.
I started planning a lot of special events/parties at my office job, and eventually, that led to the idea of creating Tall Guy and a Grill. I originally wanted to just do picnics and tailgates, and that’s how this started. Now, we’re a full-service caterer doing 600 events a year, including almost 150 full-service weddings.
How long have you been in business? Have you faced any major challenges with growing your business or any triumph stories?
I started this part time in 2009 and eventually went full time with the business in July 2013 when we opened up our first brick and mortar location in East Tosa. In 2017, we purchased and renovated our current location in West Allis. in 2024 we expanded into a an additional warehouse location as we continue to grow.
Like many small businesses, we have faced our share of challenges ranging from finding qualified team members, bank loans/cash to fund our expansion, and the ever-changing economic environment that we work in. Growing from a team of just myself and my wife, Amanda (helping part-time), to a team of roughly 100 combined full- and part time staff is a journey in itself, haha.
Like everyone in hospitality, COVID was hard on us. On top of that, in 2021, we experienced a fire in our building. Those are 2 back to back events that many businesses wouldn’t make it through. In hindsight, these were transformational not only for me on a personal level, but for the business.
Out of these events, we pivoted how we run our operations. We established our parent company, Brazen Standard Hospitality. We also added 2 additional business lines – The Crafted Tavern (our mobile bar services) and The Dessert Cart (our mobile dessert service). Combined with Tall Guy, Brazen Standard Hospitality can now service all culinary aspects of any event.
We’ve also recently launched our own internal training program which we’re really proud of, called Brazen Standard University. Unlike many of our peers in the event world, we do not use any staffing agencies. Each person working an event for us is a trained employee on payroll that we put through our internal program. We still have a ways to go to fine tune this, but we believe this is a key part of the future of our business as we continue to grow.
What is Tall Guy and a Grill, and why did you feel it would be a good fit in Milwaukee?
We’re the first and only Certified Green Caterer in the State of Wisconsin, and that is something we are really proud of. We compost all food scraps, have implemented many internal facility improvements, and source over 50% of our menu ingredients from the State of Wisconsin, just to name a few of our green practices. It’s a start, but we (and everyone!) can always push to be better.
Sourcing that much of our menu ingredients from the State of Wisconsin is especially challenging to do on a large scale like us when you’re feeding thousands of people at offsite events each week. Unlike a restaurant where you can source weekly specials from the farmers market or a farm, we need to ensure all our farmer partners are sourcing quality, consistent products that look and taste the same for the upwards of 2,000 people we feed each week in our peak season of June through October.
I chose to start this business and stay here in Milwaukee because it just feels like home to me. I’ve had the opportunity to travel abroad and visit almost all 50 states. No matter where I go, I come back to Milwaukee. Growing up here, it’s amazing to see where this city is now versus where it was 25 years ago.
We have world-class museums, sports teams, restaurants, and entertainment venues that I never thought could be possible when I was a kid. There is so much happening around the city and a vibrancy that is really something special.
What’s the mission behind Tall Guy and a Grill?
Our mission is to create lasting memories through heartfelt hospitality, local partnerships, and commitment to sustainability.
We proudly support our community by sourcing ingredients from local farmers, vendors, and artisans, ensuring our menu reflects the freshest and most seasonal offerings. We strive to reduce our environmental impact while celebrating Wisconsin’s unique flavors and traditions. This commitment connects us to our community, sustains the planet, and helps us tell the story of where our food comes from and why it matters.
What is it like being a small business in MKE?
I feel fortunate to be a part of this small business community. On the catering and event side of things, it is very collaborative. It feels great to be able to have relationships with your peers and to be able to bounce ideas off each other. Collaboration over competition – there’s plenty of business for everyone, so if we feel a certain event or client isn’t the best fit for us, we’re happy to refer them to one of our other local business friends. Overall, we feel like Milwaukee is the perfect market for us.
What do you like about being in Milwaukee?
The sense of community we have here – a lot of vendors and customers of ours over the years haven’t only become friends, but have become huge advocates of our business. I don’t think that happens everywhere. I also love the city’s lack of pretension, and that matches up really well with our brand- white-glove service without being overly formal or stuffy. We’ve also steered our menus to lean more and more into Milwaukee & Wisconsin staples – you’ll find a lot of supper club, tailgate, and elevated rustic dishes on our menu that help celebrate the best of the city & state.
On a personal note, I’m a huge sports fan it’s been amazing to be around the City for the recent run the Bucks had and the current run the Brewers are on. We are able to do a lot of sports catering and I think if we were in a larger market like Chicago, we wouldn’t have all the opporuntites that we have here in Milwaukee.
What’s your favorite part about what you’re doing?
Being able to make people smile by serving them a great meal. In a way, our business is kind of silly – we throw parties for a living. But, in a world where we’re all stressed out every time we look at a news headline and we see AI being pushed at us, there is a real shift happening towards connecting in person.
I would argue that what we do is more important now than ever before. If we’re able to provide a memorable experience for you and are able to take your mind off of the daily stresses of life, then I think that’s worth doing. Even after doing this all these years, my favorite part of my job is still seeing the great reviews and smiles on people’s faces at the myriad of events we’re able to be a part of each year.
What can people expect when catering with Tall Guy and a Grill?
Really great, scratch-made food (we are a 90% scratch kitchen), genuine, unpretentious Wisconsin hospitality, and a team that gives each client reassurance that we’ll take care of everything for you. Planning any event can be stressful, and we’re here to provide our expertise and to make your life easier.