We recently connected with Alyssa Fay and have shared our conversation below.

Alyssa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

I started Gather & Graze because I completely fell in love with the atmosphere that a charcuterie board brings. I grew up always gathering around the table and grazing on our AntiPasto, as my mother would still call it! It is the feeling of relaxing, grazing on delicious food, and gathering with those you love most, that is what I wanted to cultivate and bring into peoples every day life. Gather & Graze is much more than just tasty food on a nice cutting board – it is the entire feeling of the enjoying the people you are with, the leasiure behind a Sunday afternoon charcuterie board, and the all around joy those things bring you!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Gather & Graze was born out of a passionate hobby. I grew up in an Italian American family where charcuterie was a typical Sunday evening, Christmas dinner, or just afternoon snack. When Charcuterie came into the spotlight a circa 2019 I had a thought of “Where have you people been? This stuff has always been delicious!” My fiance and I are always hosting so I naturally always made a charcuterie spread for all of our gatherings. Things got a bit more serious and I eventually started selling boards to friends & family.
As things began to rapidly grow, I saw an oppurtunity to make a business out of something I was so passionate about. Gather & Graze Charcuterie LLC was offically born in February of 2022 and I have absolutely loved every single moment!
We cater weddings, baby showers, graduation parties, you name it! We are known for our “WOW Factor” grazing tables, our largest one spanning 14 feet long!
We also offer our classic charcuterie boards, and in house fudge. A key element of Gather & Graze are our charcuterie board curating workshops that we host with different wineries, breweries, and distilleries all over the TriState area. We host 2 – 3 times per week and this truly is our favorite thing to do! We also do these workshops privately in home – a super fun addition to any gathering!
The thing that I am most proud of from Gather & Graze is knowing that I am a part of so many big moments of peoples lives. It hit me after the first wedding I catered – I pulled away after setting up an 8 foot table and thought “this is the most special day of these peoples lives and they chose us to be a part of it”. Gathering & Grazing is not only for delicious food, it is for creating memories, good conversation, and enjoying every little moment!

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Gather & Graze started with less intention that a side hustle – it was just a hobby! I knew things were scaling up but I almost couldn’t beleive it. Once we got everything squared away to begin offically selling, I knew it was going to be the equivilent to a part time job and I was happy with that. At the time I was the Youth Programming Coordinator for the Greater Valley YMCA. Working 50+ hours per week on top of figuring out how to own a small business is not for the faint of heart – but it was worth it! I realized that Gather & Graze was self sustainable as a full time job in Fall of 2022. At that point, I was taking PTO from my job at the YMCA to book gig’s for Gather & Graze. That’s when I decided it was time. I took the terrifying leap and left my full time job in March of 2023 (about 14 months into business for Gather & Graze) and it has been SO worth it. Having the ability to focus all of my time on my business was the push that it needed.
My advice for aspiring small business owners – be paitent! The time will come at its own pace. If you are passionate it will show and be SO worth it in the end!

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Be personable with every single customer you encounter! If I have a customer that I know I have seen before wether it be at a workshop or from a previous order, I point it out! If there is somebody who was reffered to me from a past customer, I reach out and thank them. Small businesses thrive on relationships and community. People want to support good people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gatherandgrazechar.wixsite.com/gather
• Instagram: @gatherandgraze_charcuterie
• Facebook: @gather & graze charcuterie