CITRUS HEIGHTS, Calif. — An Amador County barbeque caterer is coming to two ghost kitchens in September in Citrus Heights.
The Ranch Girl Friday is a catering business owned and operated by single mother Delana Treadway. The locations are 5800 Madison Avenue and 7800 Sunrise Boulevard and will be open Monday through Wednesday to start.
Specializing in local farm to fork gourmet barbecue, Treadway wants to bring Citrus Heights something it hasn't seen before.
“I want to bring something different and more gourmet and affordable than going into the big cities,” Treadway said. “I haven't seen my style of food around here... I want to bring gourmet-level food to a delivery system.”
Some menu items currently in the works are things like smoked cornbread, pickled peaches and a pecan, bourbon barbeque sauce.
“Once I learned the basics of smoking a brisket, pork belly and pork butt, we came up with this thing called a BBQ taco,” Treadway said, going on to describe the parmesan-crusted corn tortilla taco filled with meat, coleslaw and BBQ sauce. “It lit like fire. I couldn't slow down the catering gig.”
Treadway says she goes to the Sunrise Farmers Market every Saturday to pick up fresh produce and goods to use for herself and her business.
“I try to source as local as possible,” she said. “I plan on growing and hope to bring something good to the Citrus Heights area.”
She is currently in talks with local farms in the Wilton and Rio Linda areas to get meat for her business once it’s running out of Citrus Heights.
Residents can order food from The Ranch Girl Friday through DoorDash, GrubHub and her website. These ghost kitchens allow customers to pick up or order for delivery, but do not have sit-down or eat-in services.
A ghost kitchen is a professional food preparation and cooking facility set up for the preparation of delivery-only meals. Guy Fieri and DJ Khaled have recently taken to these businesses, only amplifying their popularity.
Treadway was confident that this was something she could pursue to teach her kids about work ethic and work-life balance, even in the aftermath of a pandemic.
“With COVID, food trucks became really popular, really fast,” she said. “If it’s gonna work during COVID, it's gonna work after COVID.”
Treadway started smoking, barbecuing and grilling in 2020, long after she owned a farm and was self-sustaining. She owned 5 acres of land with a multitude of animals and her two children.
After having fresh eggs, fresh milk and meat from her own farm animals, she had a new definition of what gourmet food was.
Treadway wanted to be more available for her now 9-year-old son. She was split between working as a manager at Tractor Supply, homeschooling her child and monitoring her farm. She eventually found the best time to work with her catering business was on the weekends when her son could spend time with other family members.
She is booked and busy through the rest of the summer with things only beginning to calm down late October.
So what does The Ranch Girl Friday mean? Well, Treadway says because “a girl Friday” used to be a derogatory term for women who work, she wanted to bring new meaning to the phrase.
“It's fun and witty and not too many businesses out there have what I have,” said Treadway. “I'm gonna change that term into something fun and sexy.”
She kept the name after calling herself “the ranch girl” when she would offer help and services to local farms.
Treadway found her interest in food-based customer service after helping her friend with her oyster bar. She found passion in feeding people, interacting with customers and having conversations about food.
Restaurants in Plymouth needed a catering business that was “more stable than someone from Sacramento coming in every day,” according to Treadway.
So she decided to purchase a BBQ, some tables and the rest is history.
Now The Ranch Girl Friday is in demand in local communities. Treadway is being requested and booked for multiple events and wineries for catering.
Treadway aims to be open at least six days a week including weekends starting November.
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