Headquarters: St. Anthony
Inception: 1992
Family name: McMerty
What the company does: Catering for weddings, corporate events, social gatherings, and private aviation; commercial baking
Type of ownership: LLC
Principal owners: Jim McMerty, Suzi McMerty Shands, Shawn McMerty
Employees: 178
Family members in the business: 4
Family members on the board: 3

Jim McMerty didn’t intend to create one of Minnesota’s largest caterers when he founded Twin City Catering in 1992. Until then, he was a business turnaround specialist. One of his clients was a caterer. “When I got involved with it, his business was just too far gone,” McMerty recalls. A few months later, that individual told McMerty he had found a storefront catering possibility in North Minneapolis. “He asked me if I’d set up a company and hire him,” he adds. McMerty decided to take on the challenge.

McMerty soon was running the business himself. And thanks to a combination of financial discipline, smart acquisitions, and entrepreneurial creativity, the St. Anthony-based company now known as Mintahoe manages and caters at numerous metro-area venues, including the Nicollet Island Pavilion, the Minnesota Boat Club, and the Van Dusen Mansion. Events include weddings and corporate events, including large outdoor picnics in Las Vegas and Atlanta.

McMerty’s children, Suzi McMerty Shands and Shawn McMerty, now serve as Mintahoe’s co-presidents. Shands joined the business in 1995 while pursuing a graduate degree in psychology. As her responsibilities grew from answering phones to working with clients to directing sales, she back-burnered her plans to go into counseling. “I’ve always been working with culinary and front-of-house operations,” Shands says. “I love coming up with new and creative things to do for our clients.”

Before joining Mintahoe, Shawn McMerty had been working for an investment firm. When the financial crisis of 2008–09 shut down the firm, he jumped at the opportunity to join his family’s more stable business. (A fourth family member, Jim’s brother Pete, oversees maintenance of Mintahoe’s facilities and equipment.)

“We are very opposite people in terms of personality and approach,” Shands says of her relationship with her brother. “He’s very linear. He looks at the bottom line—he takes more of that finance and accounting approach to things. I like to say that I’m cupcakes and rainbows. I look at the more creative end of things. I’ll come to Jim and Shawn and say, ‘We need to do this! I saw this! How do we incorporate this?’ And they pull me back.”

That doesn’t mean that Mintahoe doesn’t take chances and try new things. “We’re always looking for opportunities,” Jim says. “And they do knock on the door. But we’re very cautious.”

In 2008, Twin City Catering acquired Mintahoe, which specialized in weddings. With its distinctive name and well-known brand, Twin City Catering took the Mintahoe name, and weddings have become a major part of the business, Jim says. Since Covid receded, Mintahoe’s wedding business has surged, thanks largely to pent-up demand from couples who’d postponed their nuptials during the social distancing period.

In 2020, Mintahoe acquired Atikis, which provides catering to private aviation clients, when its owner decided to exit the business. Two years later, Mintahoe saw an opportunity to add gourmet breads to its bakery offerings, which until then had focused solely on desserts. The company’s Authentic Gourmet BakeShop unit now supplies numerous local restaurants, working with major food distributors including Sysco and U.S. Foods. According to Shawn McMerty, bakery sales have experienced double-digit growth each of the past three years. The Authentic Gourmet BakeShop business is now looking to expand into other states.

The company’s diverse portfolio kept it afloat when the pandemic hit. In 2020, Mintahoe’s sales were $4.2 million, which was lower than previous years. As Covid faded, Mintahoe’s drop-off catering services and corporate dining business began to bounce back, thanks in part to a partnership with Chicago-based corporate caterer Fooda to serve Best Buy’s Richfield headquarters. In 2024, Mintahoe’s sales hit $15.3 million.

The family had begun to draw up leadership transition plans just before Covid, which “threw a monkey wrench into everything we were doing and planning,” Shawn says. “We were in survival mode, trying to figure out what we could do to keep the lights on.” Post-pandemic, “we’re back in transition mode.” Father and children now are working to determine who will do what going forward. That noted, “I don’t think Jim will ever stop working,” Shawn says of his father, who’s 83.

Jim McMerty certainly sounds like someone still looking to the future. “Our goal is to have one significant change within every two-year period,” he says. “What that next opportunity might be—I don’t know. We’re financially strong, we have good credibility, we have good relationships. So if something comes up, we can get the deal done.”

“We’re always looking for opportunities. And they do knock on the door. But we’re very cautious.”

—Jim McMerty

Back to Main Page >>