Night Cap with the Noras and our Guest Dee Dee Saracco

0:00Hi, thanks for joining us today. It's Nora and Nora and the Sunshine. Yes, Sunshine. But finally, do we think there will be no more snow? I don't know. My guys came today to do spring cleanup. Oh, that was kind of exciting. That is exciting. I mean, I guess when the 21st is at the official first day of spring, I'd say so. But it's going to be warm this weekend, so I'm calling it spring. Ha-za. It'll feel good. I even wore my brightly colored spring sweater. And I'm embracing the coastal grandma. But you know what, at this point, it's really nice. So like that dress. Oh, thank you. My dad called me last week. He was like, Nora, I was about to call you about your podcast, but then you said in the podcast, a little later, listen, so I know he's going to be out here. Oh, yeah, right. We hung out on a little, right?

1:02No, bro, but it's crazy that sort of stuff and it needed to be mentioned. Well, I need to be made aware on a more Nora and Nora type note. I came across a list of the top five most popular dog breeds in the United States. Oh, and now that I'm now that you're a dog owner, dog owner, what did you say, though? You're not a dog owner. Oh, I'm not a dog lady person. I'm not a dog lady. I'm a lady with a dog. But this list kind of surprises me because I thought about our neighborhood and people walking around. And I haven't seen many of these dogs. Okay. So the winner dog is number five. Really? Just buy it. That's my friend's story right now. Good transition. My friend had one growing up. It sounded mine, my friend Jen. And my grandma had a dear doxant named Charlie. That lived a very long time. And then a German shepherd. Oh, but I wondered when I read this. I was like, do you think that was on there? Because so many German shepherds are registered because of work.

2:08Oh, it was a service dog. Yeah. Because Al's cousin, they have a German shepherd who didn't like graduate service dog school. It was a sweet dog. Yeah. But it's a big dog. Then a golden retriever went. I checked it there. Yeah. A Labrador retriever. Should I get rid of the difference? I think golden's are shaggy. Labrador's have like a more wirey fur. Puck, I think. Such a dog X. Your facial expressions are saying, I have no idea. Your words are saying I'm like, basing that off of context clues. Like when I see people with a black lab, it tends to be like, they're not shaggy. They're like short hair and kind of wirey. Maybe they just got a haircut. Maybe that's only ever seen a black lab on a haircut. Fresh from the salon. Markably well groomed a black lab. Very high maintenance. Only secret labs.

3:09Don't let your lab out unless it is. Yes. And then the number one dog is a French bulldog. Bleigh. Yeah. These are the top five in America. According to the American Count Club, well they would know. What's their business? These breeds are all favorite for their companionship. Okay. Trainability, suitability for family life, and love of going to the groomer. Oh no. It's like my God. They're not very fluffy and cuddly those dogs. Well, right? Take it up with the cattle fun. No, no, no, no. I totally believe the cattle club. But that is interesting to me. Because if I were to get a dog, I would want a dog like Wilma who was soft and cuddly. I don't like the wirey hair dog fur. You know what I mean? I think God it's not a video. But for those of you that have one, I love that for you. Yes. I'm very happy for other people to have

4:11if that's what they want. Because then I feel like if I pet it, like it's I'm going against the green. Oh, right. You know? Like this is one pet. It's like a one way straight. Gotta go head to tail. There's no tail there. One direction. One direction. Remember those things when we were kids they were like this tall. Like a foot tall. They're like needles kind of on them. With a little like pin head things. And you can put your hand in it. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Those were kind of one way. That's all I was thinking. Intrate. You know, that's straight. No, I'm just kidding. Oh my lord. Anyways. But really, we're not here to talk about this. No, we're not here to talk about this. Or one way streets. Or one way streets. We're here because we have another long time coming nightcap with the Norris. And you guys are going to love our conversation with Dee Dee and the gravy lady. I'm really excited.

5:11I'm really excited too. I think Settle-in. I'm very excited to talk to Dee Dee. It's been a long time coming. And I can't wait to hear about what she's been up to. Her new event space and all the delicious things. Yeah. So Settle-in is we have a nightcap with the Norris with the gravy lady herself. And here we are with Dee Dee's Serako for another nightcap with the Norris in her fantastic new space. Thank you for having us. Thanks for being here. Oh, cheers. Yes, you would have been a nightcap without it, right? Cheers. She thought was looking forward to this. It had a long time coming. Yeah. We've been at this for a while and trying to get together with you too. Well, you're a busy lady. Oh, my goodness. But tell us. Okay, first talk about the one of the emails we got for you're like, this week's not good for me. I'm catering for the sharks and for the Archdiocese. No, this was the best email I've ever had. No, no, no, no, that is not what it's like. No. No, it said, I'm feeding the sharks. Feeding the sharks. Feeding the sharks in the sea. And you never discussed that. I assumed San Jose sharks.

6:12And then it came up about the San Jose sharks. And I said, come again. And she said, what did you think? I was like, I don't know. I thought maybe she was going to the park. The aquarium. I noticed it. And you didn't think to ask me about that. And you didn't think it was strange. I thought, you're a woman of many talents. Oh, because they do the post-kin meals for Chicago Black Oaks. So it's a lot of times I do the visiting teams. Yeah. Oh, not the sharks. Exactly. And our good friend is the performance director for San Jose. So we met him. I praise you. We met him. He called us for post-kin meal. And his name was Mike Potenza. He's from Providence. Now he lives in San Jose. And he said, okay, your last name is Chicago. Any chance you have Supersata and you make homemade pizzas. And I'm like, yes. And so literally we became friends. And so now when he says she's coming in town next month, we go to dinner and night you ship all kinds of food to his mom in Providence. And to him in San Jose. And then when he comes in to town,

7:14like he goes home with boxes of food. Like he's, because they don't have that kind of food in San Jose. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But how did you get started? Like, what is your background? Well, YouTube being saying, John Moms are going to love this story. So, gosh, 18 years ago, Father Rich Hines, our pastor. I always, like I was on the women's club and I would say, oh, don't buy the food. Just I'll go do it. And I'll give you my recipe and my receipts. Like if we did like a mother's son, a van or a family skate, I would just do like all the food and then just give them our receipts. And so, Father Hines said to me was for the endowment. He said, if I say mass in someone's house, would you like to make dinner for them after? And I said, yes. And so we, our first year we did it. We sold four dinners for $7,000 each. Stop. Yes. And that's how I started my business. So people started asking me, someone my son Jimmy was a freshman in high school. He was my youngest. Yeah. I'm like, okay, I'm just going to do this full time. So I started my business. Yeah. That's how he started. I know. Crazy, right?

8:14So you raised your family in the Westovers then? Yeah, we raised our family here. Yes, in McGregor and Cretcherside, actually. And um, and kids went to St. John. We, they should have went to St. Cletus, but we had so many friends at St. John that we kept them with a lot of our friends. Thank goodness you did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had to meet Father Hines again. Yeah, yeah. We're going, yeah. That's a great story. Yes, that's exactly the story. Yeah, yeah. That's how I started from Father Hines. Oh my god. Well, I think it might have started before that because on your website, it says that you learned from your mom and watching your mom. So were there family and recipes that were passed down or was it more just by feel, like looking and learning and doing? Well, I learned from my mom, but my husband's an amazing cook. So like, that's something we always love to do together. Yeah, he's amazing. He keeps me on my toes. Like, he's always like, looking over my shoulder, tasting things, telling me what doesn't taste right. Like sometimes I want to kill him. Yeah, but he actually, his palate in my son's palate is amazing. But all three of my kids do cook really well. Like my daughter, Tony, makes the best steak ever. Like she's amazing. So that are your recipes?

9:14Did they come from your mom? Not really a lot of them. No, I mean, I don't make my mom's red gravy recipe just because hers is so, it's so tedious and to do mass batches, it's just a lot. So I kind of do it like she does, but we don't do neck bones because a lot of people don't like neck bones. She does a lot more stuff in hers. But she hasn't cooked since my dad passed away like 17 years ago. Like when you were getting your stars. Yeah, she has a cook since my dad's, yeah, my dad passed away. So she was done. Like she made him three meals a day and she cooked for all of us. So she, she barely really cooked. And then yesterday for meatballs on Christmas Eve, she gets mad. Do your kids then have your recipes? I guess they've all found tuned. It's funny when they were in college, my husband and I did this for all three of our kids. And we started my oldest one to Cornell. And she was on the hockey team. And so she couldn't come home from Thanksgiving. And so her two captains who are actually Canadian Olympians this year. Oh my god. The two captains said, Mrs. Racco would you make us Thanksgiving dinner? So my husband and I like packed up two cars full of food

10:17and we drove to Cornell. And we made the kids, we started cooking it for like one o'clock in the afternoon until 10 o'clock at night was like Italian. Like we did four different meals. And so we did it. We did it then with all three of our kids. Every spring and fall, we went to one of those schools and we made the kids dinner like all day Saturday from like lunch to dinner. And like we would do it. Jimi and his parents ever. Well, we did, yeah, we're like our crush tree neighbors are cooks too. And their, our kids went to date together. Oh, all right. So we did. Oh god. No, did you cook it one of those crusty ghetto houses? Yes. Okay, houses. That was the best meal the house has ever seen. Disgusting. So we would blaze would bring a, I like a, a flat top and you would just start tock was at like 11 till five. And then we would take a break. And then at like seven, we did like two eight foot tables of Italian food. And then at midnight, I think at 10 o'clock, we stepped by in Tito's. And one of the times I got some little tiny girls walk around and handle Tito's. And we're like, we have some Tito's

11:18because she was hammered and we're like, you cannot have anymore. And she's like, no, no. And so when it did, it's like, how about for a hundred bucks? So you gave her a hundred bucks and she took it. You've like dumped it down the same. You're like, no more Tito's. You're a hundred bucks to see. Disgusting. Keep getting better and better. I'm a die-hard Arizona girl. But yeah, date is a blast. Date is a blast. It's called Jimmy. Good time Jimmy. Don't achieve. Yeah, I knew I liked it. Yeah, yeah. Everyone I've ever met from date is a good time. Yeah, end of story. Yeah, I agree. If one of my kids ends up there, how lucky I would be. I'll tell you who visit them. We always say the date and family. We always say we're family. Like we always say like, like honestly, one of my first people that walked in was my date and family from Libertyville. They drove all the way here the first day open to come and, I mean, truthfully, we all say we're family. Yeah, do we say this? I mean, my date and friends are really special. We can do it all on a podcast too. No, and I feel like whenever I, like I have a date and frame around my license plate at the time that one of my branches is like, did you go to date? No, it's like I did. So when did you go?

12:18My sister went there as well. Jimmy wanted to go there for a minute. First time he visited. Yeah, yeah. So you had a Cornell date and then Michigan State. Oh, Michigan State. Yeah. She did hospitality. Both the girls did. Okay, I have them under the final four. Oh, do you? I have Arizona. I know the Arizona wedding. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to know how you got your name. Oh, great lady. So gravy, we call red sauce gravy. Oh, you guys are in love with this story. So we call red sauce gravy. So I was going to gravy girl and thank I googled it because it's a porn site. Oh, no. Yes. So I just, oh my god, it is a porn site. I had to do gravy lady. It's a good thing. They googled it. They googled it. Thank God. Was you major? My son's friends Google and get Gary girl. You tell me what about your mom? Yay. And then, okay, then one time it was a Sunday and I woke up and I told my husband so much left me a message at four o'clock in the morning. And he's like, who, who? And I go, listen to my message. It was this man that said, hey,

13:19dude, I'm at the countryside motel. I'm lonely. I'm getting divorced where I come and keep. He thought I was a hooker. Oh. So my husband had it because of gravy is porn, I guess. He didn't know that. You know what, I really, I've got to brush up on my porn. Yeah, it's so gross, right? Right. Yeah. So yeah, it is porn site. Oh, so thank God for lady. And that's very big. Five. Yes. So did you always find catering or was it just cooking or like how? Because you were over on in the green. Yes, started. Oh, you did. Yeah, I remember. Right by that. And that goes now. OK. And that was, was it a similar concept of catering or? It was hard. It was a lot of people shared. It's not fun. The share kitchen. It was a share kitchen. It was a share kitchen. You know, you come in and all your olive oil is gone or something like that. So it's like, it wasn't fun. Yeah. So then imagine you're particular about your olive oil. Yeah, yeah, it would bug me because people would just use your stuff and never replace it. And you can't, there was nowhere to lock it up.

14:19We all had our own shelves. But I had to log everything to him from. And then from there, I went to five seasons, which is now lifetime. And it was there for like five or six years. And then when lifetime bought it, they didn't renew my lease. And so we found this and we built this out. And then while this was getting built out, we moved to Downers Grove to another shared kitchen. Wasn't bad though. People were very nice. And the people that used it were respectful. So it was OK. It was just two other people. And so we moved there for like five months till this was done. This, do you just feel like you're like, it's my forever home? Yeah. And then we had another bench coming and that end there. So this all sit like 15. You know, we have another table listeners. You have to come and check out the space. It is so beautiful. Yeah. It really feels. My girlfriend's dead. It comes warm. I feel like the natural light coming in. My girlfriend had just let her get her dead owns a Bellevue. So her husband and I gave us all these tables. Like wine, the wine cooler, the beer cooler, a dough cheater, a microwave, you give us all kinds of stuff.

15:20So our friends really stepped up with us saying, like, how many of your friends have like, you know, given or donated, I would think that just speaks to the type of person you are. I try. I'm so generous and so lovely and so warm that people just want to help you. Yeah. So and I wonder if that's why the vibe in here is so lovely is because so many people have come. Oh, yeah, it's all the coals, doesn't it? It's been nice. And I'll be honest with you, most of the people that call on that my friends, like, there's a lot of people that have just heard about it, which is awesome. Yeah, you're like, those girls came today. But I mean, yeah, I mean, we're open two weeks now. So it's not like the beginning is all the things that people have given you all have a story. Yeah. And so your space now, yeah, all has a little bit of a story. Well, like that billion dollar construction company, FH Passion, they built our bar for us. It's a court. Yes. How nice. So they actually, they're awesome. They built me a kitchen in their building. So I do all their private events.

16:22Yeah, actually was there today. So yeah. So they built me like actually like a huge kitchen there. And then the guys are like, well, build the bar for you. Dee Dee, don't worry. So they built it for us, which is great. And then we got all this art is David Gista. He's a beautiful, he lives in Paris. He had all over the city, Lake Forest. He's like, go here and pick it up. Go here and pick it up. So he just gave us all the start to put on the walls. And then Ann, my business partner was in Paris last week. She went to see her son and he met her from Barcelona. But Ann went and picked out like 15 more paintings and shipped them back. Oh my gosh. Yeah. You nailed it. But designed in here. Well, this is my girlfriend, Margaret Nicholson and Sulaki. They picked all the colors and helped. They did? Yeah. Everything we picked, we asked them. They said yes or no, but yeah. That's a good friend to have. Yeah. I know. And they feel the same about you. I'm sure. You're a good friend. I do for them and they do for me. That's the question. And then of course, we had was, what is a common mistake people make when they place their kids? Yes.

17:22Because I get a lot of make a lot of changes and drive me crazy. Oh, okay. Change change. Change out for town. That's the only thing that tries me now. It's because it's, and not that I don't want to give customer service. It's not that it's the mistakes that happen when there's so many changes. Every time I make a mistake on Sundays, because the person has changed his order a thousand times. So how, like, how do you place the ideal order as a customer? You start with them on a people. Yeah. And then Monica, people, day, time, and then you take it from there. Well, they'll say what they want. And I'll give send them money ideas and then I'll come back. But usually some people will know exactly what they want. So then now's our easy. Yeah. Because there's not a lot of back and forth. But when there's a lot of back and forth and changes, that's where it's, it's a lot because we do kitchen reports and we do packing slips and we do stickers. And there's a lot involved in running a kitchen. And so if I don't have every detail down and give it to Anne, then the kitchen reports wrong. And that's when you make mistakes. So Anne's like behind the scenes. She does all the operations. She's amazing. And how did you meet Anne? Oh my god, you're in love with this story too.

18:23So my next tour neighbor Anne owned and she's a badass. She's really smart. But she owned an Instant Tea Company. And she was on Peepads Next Best. It was called Tenth Avenue Teeds. And she was on Peepads Next Best. And she was set to win. But somehow they gave it to like a barbecue company. A barbecue sauce company. But Alpana Singh was one of the judges. And Alpana had told Anne that she won. But anyhow, Anne was going through a competition and she had, she had to make a savory drink out of her tea. And so my next tour neighbor Tracy, Beauregard called me at like 11 o'clock at night and said, you got to help my friend. I don't know. I don't know how she's in the hot, she can't come up with a savory drink. Yeah. So Anne came over and I made her blueberry memory out of her blueberry tea. Oh, yeah. So that's how we met. And then she's, she's at my down table. We're doing this recipe. And I set this high of like invoices that I had sent and it was all on paper and anring. She was, what's this? So then lo and behold, the her tea company, she closed a door. She was in like 1,500 retail spaces.

19:23But retail is really hard. It's, it's a hard market. So yeah, she was in 1,500 stores. And so she closed her doors and she called me. She goes, you want to go to breakfast and want to talk to you about something? She said, would you ever want help growing your business? And I said, yes. She goes, because you cannot stay on paper. Like it's got to go digital. You're getting too big. So that's what she did. Like the cappy cartoon, you know, like where she had like all the papers in her dinner desk. Yeah. Yeah, so that's how Anne, so then we went to my computer and it's been growing since. That's a nice show. She's a Russian history. Yeah, she's been a lot of help. She's amazing. Yeah, she does all the, oh, she does all the reports. She does everything. So that also gives you the time. Yeah, it gives me time. Should cook into create. Why don't really cook anymore? And she said, you're never going to grow if you don't get out of the kitchen. So I'd barely cook. I cook lunch. That's about it. What's your favorite thing to cook? We give you, it gives you hand to pick one thing. God, what do I love to cook? I don't know. I love to bake like a cheesecake or something.

20:24Oh, yeah. We just actually came up with a strawberry shortcake cheesecake. It's amazing. Yeah, we should, I should pull it. There's one there. So are you always just kind of trying to do that? Yeah, I do. Yeah, that's what all those books for our board. Like I take my recipes, like I take like three recipes and then make one out of it. Like I could read it and then adjust it. And that's usually what I'm good at. That is such a gift. Because yeah, I can't add so a button. If I sell a button, it falls off. But you can look at something and be like, this could work. Yeah, and say add something to it. I'm really good at that. I'll say that about myself. I'm really good at that. That's. And how did your husband cook? Does he cook from a? No, no, no, he's throw stuff. Yeah, yeah, you can read the recipe. He's really good though. Like everybody loves an Anthony makes lunch. Like his shrimp and broccoli would pass us so good. Like no one can make it as good as him. Yeah, he's really, I need his mac and cheese. It sounds like your whole family is a whizzing. Yeah, Jimmy's really good. He's starting to run the kitchen. So it's good. Like I've been stepping back a little bit. Well, more so I handle the phones and emails and the creative side and you know, getting things going.

21:26Yeah, yeah. There's so much involved. There's a lot. It's a lot because we're busy. And I would imagine people who want to come and run to out the space, you're taking them around. Yeah. Yeah, when will that all happen? Like when you start, we don't have full occupancy yet. We only have for retail and not kitchen because the sprinkler heads failed. So they actually replaced them yesterday. So we're gonna work on that. Yeah, we just have to, it's like one final inspection and then we'll get a lot to do. How many people did your space hold? 49. Give her a day to get a beautiful place for a shower. Yeah. And we can do all this for a selection. Yeah, we can work, we're actually yesterday we were shocked for all the five tables and chairs and dishes and forks and all that. So somebody did that yesterday. Yeah, it's fun. Yeah, yeah. It is the fun. Yeah. And then my girlfriend, Sue Lackie, she did that little, what was it called? Succulents? That's from Shaft Vagabond. But those are from Sue's yard. And then she did all the other flowers.

22:27Yeah. They were nice. And then that, oh, you know, when your friends are like the Avengers, it was like a vanilla symbol. And it was all created this magical, beautiful space. That's really cool. So then my, my customer is Lauren Smentana. Do you know Lauren? Her husband is Dave Smentana, S-M-E-T-A-N-A. Well, they own an auto-visual company. So the first Saturday we were open. It was like five, 15 and Ann said, why don't you go home and I said, no, we're open till six. Like I don't want to piss people off. Well, Dave Smentana comes in because they're having last minute people and I said, well, come in the kitchen. Why? Because he went to stuff shelves and it was still warm. I said, come in the kitchen because there was only place, there was a TV. And he said, he goes, where's your other TV? He said, we don't buy him yet. He goes, well, donate him. And I said, you will. He said, yeah, he is an auto-visual company called 257 Digital Lamps. So he gave me the 98 inch TV for free. It's an LG. It's a sample he can't do anything with. Can't sell it. 55 inch, 43 inch, and 83 inch. This is the power of food.

23:27I mean, this is the power of food. I just love your village. He's like, you're sitting in my garage and my wife yells at me all the time. So you'd be doing me a favor. He literally brought me that 98 inch TV. I know that's crazy. Yeah, don't put that one in there. But that's just, I mean, people don't do that for someone unless they really love and care about that. And I would imagine for all the people that you have told a sweet kind, generous story about, they have the same stories to tell about you. Like I showed up at 5.30 and wanted stuff shelves. But if you mess with me, it's another story. I know. They're amazing. No, it ain't. So Bob Ross, the painter, would talk about happy little accidents and painting. Have you ever had any happy little accidents and cooking where you're like, whoopsie, but then it turned out really well. I do, but I can't think of him right now. There are. We just had one. We just had one literally. It was a mistake and it turned out better. And I got it. That's what it was. Yeah, we didn't do it. And I wish Curlis was here because he did it. I could probably have like 10 and I can't think of him right now.

24:28It's amazing. Yeah. I'm going to think of it because it just happened last week. Yeah. Oh, I know what I know what we did. Curlis used to put the pork tacos and short rib tacos in the pressure cooker. And I'm like, I just don't like them. And then we didn't have room because we had too much to make to fit in a pressure cooker. And we put it in the oven and like never using a pressure cooker for again. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, yeah. That was one of them. But there's another way he has to do a taste. I can't remember what it was. Curlis did something that wasn't supposed to be a taste better. Because I like to bake because I like to follow directions. Yeah, because baking is a science to be very exact. So I appreciate that. But cooking cooking could be reckless. Oh, I get nervous. I just know how to make something once and she sent me. I was like, this is not a recipe. These are ingredients. And I said, this is all I got. I was like, I don't know what to do with this. But then my husband made it because he's good at it. Baking is a science. So you can't improvise. Like we're cooking you can. You can improvise. You could be reckless. You can do all that with cooking. But baking, no way, it's never going to come out. Which is why I think I appreciate baking a little more.

25:29I know exactly what I'm going to get. I just want to know what piece of advice do you give people who are catering a party or an event? I always tell people make it a party and then relax. So we always insist that we try and push servers. Because why are you going to spend all this money? Clean your house, do all this stuff, and not relax. Why not enjoy it? We always say we have a server com. We have to pick up the food, heat the food, serve the food, clean up, and you relax. And people, I can't tell you how many people have said, I never enjoyed my house as this much. Because I forced them to get a server. And it's true, why? And take your time with it. Everybody's, don't you have a timeline? Just let it flow. Don't say, oh, an upset six dinner at seven. Don't say that, just let it be. You don't know who's going to be late. The timelines are what sometimes are a pain. And that's how it takes the pressure off the host. Yeah, it's not even, why wouldn't you relax? And I've been, can you, I've had doctors, wives tell me, I've never enjoyed my house so much.

26:29Because they never had a server where they have one. I've not. I get very stressed like beforehand, like setting everything up and getting it going. But then usually once it starts, I'm like, it's in God's hands. You know, like, I'm able to kind of relax, but then my husband gets real stressed about clean up, where he is like cleaning up in front of our guests and it drives me. Why don't you have a server? Yes, where I'm like, can you please stop because people feel like they have to leave? Well, then I clean you up. It isn't easy. I don't want him to be there. I mean, it's great the next day, but in the moment, it's like, that's rude stop. Well, remember, one of my customers, Genoa Quate lives in Elmharson. Her husband has a group for Northwestern Mutual. So they had the whole group at her house. And she has four little boys. Now they're actually, now they're in college, which is such a long time ago. But I remember she kind of pushed me. I kind of nudged her into servers. And so I at 10 o'clock that night was like a Sunday, at 10 o'clock at night, she goes, I'm in my pajamas, I'm under my covers, and I don't have to clean one thing. I go, I told you, she goes, I cannot believe.

27:30I mean, maybe jammas and I'm under my covers and my house is immaculate. I'm like, I told you, I'll always remember that because she was like, you know, she thought it was, she don't want to waste the money because it was for four hours. You know, you're like, I don't know. If you're, I'm getting dull. People say like it's like, do whatever you want to look like, like no, it's for you to relax and enjoy yourself. Yeah, you're party. And we, our servers are really trained really well. I'm very, very good. So you have servers that work for you that you would write our tenders. Sorry, we have a raster of 38. So if we were, if we were to use you as our catering, you would be able to walk us through everything from like menu planning, to quality, to drop off, to servers, to bartenders, to your flowers, to balloons, to desserts. Everything. Yeah, to rentals, like one stop, to balloons, yep, everything. Everything. We have to do all that for us. Yeah, we have a whole staff and we, we have tablescapes. We have somebody that does, they'll come and set your table. I mean, we have everything. Yeah, we have, we use margarit lots

28:32from my handsale table. So you can't, we have, I don't know if you, yeah. She has to lay off. Yeah, she has a baby. Oh, she did. Yeah, she's here to baby. And she has such beautiful things. She has a great, like origin story. Yeah, yeah. To COVID. Well, she kind of just, when she had like a size, just like a passion project to select China. Yeah, she has a warehouse. Now she does, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I love that you guys found each other. Oh, yeah, we've been, I always, I mean, I've known her for a few years now, but she's going to be my go-to girl here. I love looking at her Instagram because the tables are so beautiful. So if you did, is it Molly or journey? Molly, she, Molly's daughter just got married and, she did Molly's table for a year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I bet it was journey. Yeah, it was beautiful. You can have pink and orange. Oh, yeah. It was just summer. That's a cool bet. Yeah. How can our listeners get in touch with you? That's the way the website. The website or my cell phone or my email, D-D-E-E-D-E-E, at gravylady.com or my cell phones, my work form was 708, 715-9544.

29:33You can text me, email me, call. You can also email Ann, ANN, and at gravylady. She'll help. Either one of us, they say call now. They didn't know. We've totally booked out the space. We already have done some dates book. So it's been great. It makes you want to have like 20, I'm like, what am I afraid of? We've booked, we're about to. Book club, put it. Book club, we have, first communion, book club, baby showers, bridal showers, ready books. We have like a shopping night, like girlfriend of mine, Katie, DeGrazia. She sells Jay Hilburn, men's clothes. I don't know the woman company yet, but she's gonna have like just like a half hour, or a half hour hour things for her customers to come and look at the clothes and then she's gonna use this. She's a little office, like if it's only like a hundred square feet, so she's gonna spread out and do that. Yeah. Have you ever done a shardy party? What's a shardy party? Every. So my husband and Nora share a love of Shardney. Oh yeah. I care for Shardney. I love Shardney. I love Shardney.

30:34I love Shardney. You're in for the shardy party. So every summer we host this will be our seventh annual shardy party where we celebrate Shardney. And we invite all, well, it started out that we invite all of our like near and dear Shardney lovers, and it's just expanded to like sharing Shardney with everyone we love. What's your favorite shard? I love a brown bowler. I'll meet you. I love you. I love you. That's my favorite as well. I love Sonoma Couture whenever I do a rap hour. Yes. Yeah. Last year we had a brown bowler. I love brown. We did. I love brown bowler. Who was five leaders? It was huge, whatever it was. It took two of us to hold it. Really? But yeah. We were chicken dania from a friend of ours. Oh, that is awesome. That is our spur galo. Oh yeah. My daughter works for Reyes. Okay. Yeah. It's so lucky to do the farthest her husband's vice president of Midwest for galo. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I think that was her friend. Yeah. Yeah. Who's the listener of the past? Oh. Yeah. Oh wow.

31:34Oh wow. Oh, this is parties. So there is no pause. Wait, Paul is my far most loyal listener, which we really do. Oh my gosh. I just got her graduated with our kids at St. John's and Liz helped me with them. I do the musical at St. John's. Oh, they do. They'll help me with that. I just did a party for her bonus. I just think of it. Yeah. And I took their Christmas party. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yes, it was all of your listening. Thank you for all the support and for the Rambler. Yeah. Paul's good friends. He's good friends with his wife. What do you like? They lived in Bridgeport for a while. Oh, they did? They lived in Bridgeport for they lived in London. Were they living in Bridgeport? Yeah. Their kids went to BCA. I don't know exactly. Oh, really? Your girl is a hamster. Because they know my aunt's friend who is the principal of his name now. I'm forgetting. Yeah, it's a small. It's a small world. It's a small world. And I know you're a busy lady. Should we get to our rapid? Yeah, let's do a rapid fire. Okay. Okay. So it's just this or this. Okay. So coffee or tea? Coffee. Great. Early bird or night owl?

32:35Text or talking? Talking. Glock or salsa? Glock. Pre-party or after-party? Pre-party? And you can say both. Yeah. What? I mean, our last pre-party and after-party, like pre-party before we go out or after-party, after- Oh, pre-party, yeah. I like the whole thing. Yeah. And we can't end the podcast without asking what's your favorite podcast? No, but the few of me said it. Yeah, yeah. That's funny. All of our guests have said that so far. Well, thank you. We're sharing some of your day with us and listeners. Now you know where to go for all your party-planning needs and a good bite in the neighborhood. Yeah. Thanks, TV. All righty. Thank you. Nora, can you believe that it's already March Madness? March Madness. More like March Markdowns. Oh, tell me more. If you had over to 93rd in Cicero, Mike Hagerney, be with GMC. Well, of course. You'll find plenty of March Markdowns on all their new cars.

33:38The new cars? The new cars. I mean, they have bargain cars for under $20,000, but we're talking Buick Envision's GMC Cicero's, the GMC Terrain, wow. They've got something for everybody. Oh my gosh. Well, it's like they say right on the corner, right on the price. So head on over to HagerneyCars.com to take a look at all their inventory or give them a call. Sounds like a plan. 708-423-5000. And there's nothing mad about that. And now back to the show. Oh my goodness. She exceeded expectations. What a doll. Amazing. What a treat. Yes, indeed. And just I appreciate her taking the time. She's so busy right now, but just delightful. And everyone go to her website and check out her new event space and the food that she has available that you can get for your own events, your hosting in your home. Or if you just need a little something. Yes, she did a terrific job of bringing something

34:40to the community that I think we all need. A hundred percent. Which is good, old-fashioned, home cooking, right? An event space. She really checked all the boxes at bar. And she's just a lovely, lovely woman. Yeah, so thank you to Dee Dee for taking some time out of her busy day to chat with us. And hopefully, if you are in the neighborhood, you have a chance to check her out yourself. Absolutely. Yeah, she would launch into highs and lows. It's to do it. All right, my low is that my ceiling is still looking. Still in the kitchen and Ryan's closet. So they mentioned maybe replacing the whole part of the roof over there, which is frustrating, but hopefully it will get rectified sooner or later. So we're praying for no rain. Yeah, I was trying to come up with another low, but I mean, that's a pretty significant one. Yeah. How about you, my geez? My low is continuing to have eye problems. I remember I had my red eyes for three months.

35:41That was the same thing for that. That's gone. And then for the first time in my whole life, I got a style. I can't see it. It's almost gone now, but it's been about two weeks. But the good news is my eye doctor, that side manner is myth, but she's smart lady. She recommended a better eye makeup remover. Oh, she recommended it. I don't know what it's called. I can't pronounce the name, but I have to share. Okay. Did you buy it off team or is she in? It's pink thinner. I thought it off Amazon. Okay, but it's great. It's almost just like, oh, I think it's like a micellular water kind of thing. And it's, I just put it on one of those cotton rounds and it works amazing. Oh, great. Well, and it's not harmful. And I feel like I'm at, because I've even had that, like you take your makeup off and then you wash your face and you're like, wait, my makeup. Oh, yeah. Like your makeup is still there. And I guess that's how you get a style is if you have like clogged eye pores.

36:42Well, you're not really one to wear a lot of makeup. I know. So whatever. But anyways, yeah, a style is no fun, but the eye makeup remover is great. That's not my real high. My real high was Irish dancing, watching Rose Irish Dance this past weekend. You guys, she was a trooper. These girls, these Irish dancers work their tails off. Like, giggling around all weekend. And having the best time. Yeah, she was exhausted. She and I were both in bed at 8.45. I'm so excited. Sign up for good weekend. Sign up for good weekend. And now does she have a little break? Yes, she does. We were both like, I was like, Rose and I are going to bed. And I like brought her in my bed with me. And we're just like, oh, it's so fun, so fast. Yeah, it was fun. And I was very proud of her. She did a great job. And there we go. Love it. My high is, we've had a lot of positive sports stuff go down at our house, which is always awesome for the girls. The boys do, but soccer season isn't full swing. So a couple of big celebrations for Elle and for Catherine Grace.

37:46We did. Yeah. So I was happy that all their hard work paid off. That's awesome. Yeah, so trending in the right direction. And yeah, that's fun. Only. Well, thanks for joining us. Yeah, catch us next week. And go visit Deedie again. Catch us next week. And go check out Deedie's website and her new space. Bye.