From restaurant to catering, Edible Events by Tavola still serving delicious food

THE WOODLANDS, Texas - Tavola, an Italian restaurant loved by many Woodlands residents, recently decided to focus full-time on catering. The business, now named Edible Events by Tavola, is new, but owner and founder, Lee Ann Dansby, is no stranger to the catering business.

“I actually started the catering business in 1985 with my mom down in the south part of Houston,” Dansby said. “Then my nephew came on board with me about 19 years ago and somewhere in that process, we decided that we wanted to do a restaurant.”

Rather than building a restaurant that followed the typical paradigm, they decided to follow a model that specialized in chef-prepared meals to go.

“The demographics and everything fit The Woodlands so well that we chose The Woodlands area to come and build,” Dansby said. “We purchased and built the land back in 2003, and then in 2008, we converted the front to a restaurant because of client request and that’s when the bistro was born”

Despite its popular reputation and loyal customer base, Dansby decided to transition over to catering once again.

“It just kind of worked out that that was the best decision to make at the time,” Dansby said. “Our builder development business was back full-force from the recession and that was what built us to begin with, catering for builders and developers, and my nephew, Joshua was my partner. The restaurant business is unstable and is also a 60-80 hour workweek and we loved it, but we knew that something needed to give. We were being stretched too thin. Josh moved forward with his existing Dine on Demand business and we came in and went back full-time to catering, which has always been my first love.”

While Tavola only offered Italian cuisine, Edible Events has an eclectic selection of dishes to offer their clients.

“The reason that the bistro is Italian food is that I have family members that are first-generation Italians, and my family really wanted the restaurant to be Italian because I usually only made that food on special occasions,” Dansby said. “We always did all types of food for the catering business because you have to be well-rounded and to be able to offer a really varied menu, so it was easy when we moved back to the catering to pick back up where we trickled. We do lots of different types of food; basically anything you want, we can make.”

Tavola’s most popular dishes are still available for catering.

“Catering-wise, we do a very wide range of finger foods which are really popular,” Dansby said. “With the restaurant, our spaghetti and meatballs is very well-known, our lasagna, our chicken gouda, lobster bisque, our chicken salad, and we are also well-known for the Tavola house salad. We do a lot of the restaurant food and menu in our catering also because it’s so well-known in the area and people really love it.”

For those long-time Tavola customers who miss the food but don’t have an event that needs catering, Edible Events is launching a new program next month that will surely satisfy some of their most faithful clients.

“Because we’ve had so much response from our loyal customers, we’re starting a new program on September 5. Every Friday, we’ll be offering some of our restaurant foods for pick-up,” Dansby said. “People can call ahead and order, and then they can come in and pick it up. We’re going to send out a monthly calendar letting them know what options we’ll have each week.”

There are no plans of Tavola reopening soon, however Dansby assures her clients that she remains open to the idea.

“We may move back, we may move forward, we don’t know, we’re completely open to doing a bistro concept again in the future or maybe a small place with a wine bar, but right now we’re just focusing on regrouping the catering business and looking for the right people,” Dansby said. “It takes a team to do that kind of work and we didn’t want our work to suffer while we’re in this transition period.”

Edible Events prides itself on not only providing amazing food, but also food that fits the sophisticated aesthetic that most clients are searching for.

“One of our trademarks is that it’s always very visual,” Dansby said. “It has to be pleasing to the eye to be pleasing to the palate. We really are event people and foodies at the same time, so it’s always very beautiful. We don’t just slap food out on the table; it’s always a presentation.”

Edible Events is located at 6606 FM 1488 rd #148-350. For more information about Edible events, visit the website link provided below or call 281-252-9099