We were lucky to catch up with Suzanne Johnson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Suzanne, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

At the time when I was changing careers due to relocating to San Diego CA as a newly married woman, I had a thriving career in the music industry but in NYC. I was accustomed to managing artists to grow their careers but had not do so for myself in many years. My husband being in the military learned that any military spouse at the time could get complimentary schooling for any industry in need. I always had enjoyed entertaining and cooking so going to culinary school was a welcome solution. By 2003 I had completed schooling and we chose to settle in the Temecula Valley area. My market research of the area did not show much competition at the time for fine dining catering services in the wine country area so I felt like I found my home.

We relocated to Temecula by the end of 2004 and I was the main caterer for the movie production, “Cosmic Radio”. The following year I was the main caterer for “Here Comes the Newlyweds” that aired on ABC.

The whirlwind of weddings and events to follow from these two productions have only increased each year. By 2018 we were approached by Ali Nilforushan to assist him with his newly acquired contract to open the Galway Downs equestrian center for his Grand Opening ceremonies. We received a 5 stars review in the New Yorker for that one. Couple years later we opened the CRC Ranch with their new owner, Bob Brown for their western rodeo, Outback Cuttings.

We re close to twenty years now serving the Temecula Valley wine country and Southern California. We have consulted for new wineries and venues with their event efforts. We greatly enjoy being apart for this thriving community of horse ranchers, wine producers, and the tourist lovers alike. We love to assist in any type of celebration and feel greatly blessed to be doing what we love each and every day.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have been planning large scale specialty events since I was 13 years old in a program where I was hand picked by the supervisors to represent them. I was their main Liason for guest speakers, out of town guests, and patrons visiting the Burlington, Vermont area. The program was called Paradise Project. Later Dan Rather on the NBC news, reviewed our program as ‘an explanatory educational program” The goal for each child in the program was to develop the ‘whole child’ not merely the ‘book smart’ child. Some of the events I participated with at that time were,; the opening of the Northern Connector expressway including tours of the Ethan Allen Homestead, organizing the preschool and education program at the local YMCA, plus the Pedestrian Safety program initiated by our Mayor of our town at the time, Bernie Sanders.

Fast forward to my college years where I chose to reestablish in California and San Diego. I trained in photography and utilized my skills in both the events and photography industries to create my first partnership to form, Fresh Grooves Promotions. We became one of the first hip hop music promoters in San Diego with sold out shows with the artists Hieroglyphics including Del the funky homosapien, Souls of Mischief, and Casual as well as Jurassic 5, Group Home, DJ Honda, and Aceyalone. To name a few. My music industry career led me to NYC where I worked under Peter Kang. Mr Kang at the time was known to recognize up and coming talents such as with Common from Chicago. After promoting DJ Honda with his west coast tour starting in SD and LA, Mr Kang relocated me to NYC to assist him with his company, Ill Tongue. Although I found the work thrilling, I was planning and assisting promoters worldwide with their efforts to create quality shows in their local areas. I placed and arranged for our artists to be taken care everywhere they went and made sure they were treated appropriately with regards to their contracts. I still like to help the artists from then with their endeavors today even but I was not fond of the NY lifestyle and returned to CA within the year. Met my husband shortly to follow and we were married also within the year. I left Ill Tongue in 1999 and Johnson Catering Events was formed by 2003.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Events and catering services almost felt like my side hustle because my main focus was always to raise my daughter in the best manner possible. My career as a Chef and Events coordinator has modeled well for her throughout all these years. My daughter claims to be following in my footsteps while in college at Cal State LA with artist management and events. She is majoring in business with an emphasis this area.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

The main marketing experience that I believe was most impactful with my reputation here in the industry was most likely the production of Here comes the Newlyweds. The show in itself was created to assist with the wedding industry here in wine country. Every year since then I have only had bigger, more weddings and specialty events being offered to us to participate in. Documenting each of our events is one of my highest priorities as I know it is because of this that most clients are able to find us online. Currently we have more than 8,000 pics and videos of our past events and weddings on Google.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.johnsoncateringevents.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/Johnsoncatering
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/johnsoncaterevents
• Linkedin: www.LinkedIn.com/suzannejohnsonknickerbocker
• Twitter: www.twitter..com/Johnsoncatering

Image Credits
All pics are owned by Suzanne Johnson and Johnson Catering of our past events