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From stuffed Firecracker meatloaf and chicken fried steak, Love at First Bite has plenty of dishes to love.
“It was actually my oldest daughter, Sabrina, who came up with the name, Love at First Bite,” owner Denay Tellez said. “I was like, “Are you sure?” It wasn’t warm to me at all at first. Then she said “Mom, that's what everyone says when we cater.”
Love at First bite has primarily been a catering business, but a couple of years ago Denay Tellez and her daughter opened a cafe in the American Legion Center in Jarell and have since moved to their new location on Town Center Boulevard.
Love at First Bite is known for their chicken “fried” steak, made on a flat top grill, “fried” cabbage, and homemade cream corn. Another popular dish is the Firecracker meatloaf, which is wrapped in bacon and stuffed with jalapeños and cheese. “We serve all the southern foods but they’re truly cooked how you would cook it at home,” Ms. Tellez explained.
“People don’t deep fry things at home, they pan fry them.
“When I first opened up here in Jarell, there was a gentleman from Sun City who came and ate. When I passed by him, he waved me down and he was all teared up. I was like, “Sir? Are you OK?” Because I thought he was sick or something and it scared me. But he just started crying and he said, “This is the closest thing that I have had to my Mom’s cooking that I’ve had in years.” And that actually happened again the other day too … To me that’s just the biggest honor. I love to make people smile.”
Ms. Tellez said that she has tried to recreate old family recipes for her catering clients. She is very open to her clients’ ideas when it comes to her catering menus.
“I do not have a catering menu; I will never have a catering menu,” Ms. Tellez said. “Each person is different.”
Love at First Bite caters for Georgetown Chamber of Commerce meetings and other formal events such as weddings. There are charcuterie spreads, custom-baked goods, and Southern delicacies like mac ’n cheese bowls. The Mac ’n Cheese bowl is either topped with Ms. Tellez’s pulled pork or with brisket from Hello Sweetie BBQ in Georgetown.
Ms. Tellez sponsors the Jarrell football team; she gives the school a discount when she feeds the 75 boys on the team every Friday. She graduated from Jarell High School and her connection to the school has come full circle. Ms. Tellez has given many JHS students their first jobs and does her best to be a positive mentor figure in their life.
“There are so many fundamental things that I can teach them, that they won’t even realize that they’re being taught. It’s so much more than just a cafe, and washing dishes or serving. Because if this is the first job they ever have, I want to give them the skills that they need for their future career.”
Ms. Tellez said she hopes to work with the culinary teacher at the high school to help teach students restaurant entrepreneurship. Ms. Tellez didn’t intend to go into the catering industry and said she had to learn many business lessons the hard way.
However, Ms. Tellez said she chose the path that she did because running her catering business has enabled her to be present in her daughters’ lives. All three of Ms. Tellez’s daughters — Sabrina Olson, Izabela Tellez and Mariana Tellez — have worked at Love at First Bite. In fact, Izabela and Mariana still work there.
Izabela manages the front of the house while Mariana helps Ms. Tellez with preparing the food.
Ms. Tellez said she has always cherished the time she spends around the dinner table with her family.
“The [dinner table is the] place where we have the most conversation with people, beyond cell phones. Most interactions happen when you’re sitting at the table. I love when I’m cooking, when I can hear the clatter of the dishes and people laughing.
“I just ordered a sign that says, ‘We don’t cook fast food, we cook good food as fast as we can.’ “
We’re in a society of rush rush rush. When I used to go to cafes as a kid like L&M in Georgetown, you sat there and you waited and you talked to your family. Our food [in the cafe] is truly cooked here in my kitchen as I would cook it at home.”
Thanksgiving is a big time for catering for Love at First Bite, which offers full Thanksgiving dinners and pies. Last year, Ms. Tellez baked 400 pies and is hoping to double that this year.
Love at First Bite has a menu with 35 pie flavors, including old-time favorites like strawberry rhubarb and buttermilk. There will be a pie tasting on October 29.