Catering firm to bring other eateries to Belgium

A Belgium-based business is embarking on a new endeavor that would add to the dining options in the village.

Boots BBQ and Catering is renting the entire strip mall at 139 Main St. that houses the home kitchen for its food truck, and it’s inviting friends offering varying foods to join in.

Ricardo Pavon, owner of Cocina Mi Familia on Union Avenue in Sheboygan, will use part of the building to make Mexican food.

The two entities use different kitchen equipment to prepare their food and would not get in each other’s way, Kris Raymond, who owns and operates Boots BBQ and Catering with her husband Peter, said.

The hope, she said, is to also invite a pizza maker and a baker to use the building.

Different foods would be available for takeout on different nights, and dine-in options, including service on an outdoor patio, are in the long-term plans, Raymond said.

“I live in Belgium so I’m ecstatic,” she said. “We’ve been talking about this for a while.”

The timing is coincidental but fortuitous. Area business ventures, namely the data center being built just south of Belgium in Port Washington, will likely boost business.

“It doesn’t hurt that there’s about 6,000 people (expected) to roll into town,” Raymond said, adding, “That’s not the reason we’re doing this.”
She said she hopes to offer supplies to food trucks that serve at the data center.

Pavon said the kitchen at his Sheboygan restaurant is small and he welcomes a larger space.

“It’s an opportunity to expand my business,” he said

Raymond said she loves Pavon’s food.

“We eat there a lot,” she said.

Both businesses have food trucks, and the new space will help alleviate any complications as Wisconsin tightens some of the requirements for food trucks, Raymond said.

In addition to restaurants, the Raymonds want to use some of the space for a community room.

The strip mall has 5,000 square feet and has been empty aside from Boots BBQ and Catering for some time. In the past, it has been home to Ugly Mugs coffee shop, Style Beauty and Wellness Salon, My T’ Sharp Cuts, Subway and a video game store. Some of those businesses have since relocated. Others closed.

The Raymonds moved Boots BBQ and Catering from next door in a former fuel station that has since been torn down. That is where Port Washington State Bank is building its new Belgium branch to replace the one on Main Street.

Boots BBQ and Catering started as Boots Q’n Boogie in Waubeka Fireman’s Hall. When its lease was up, it moved to Belgium and changed its name before it slid over to the strip mall.

Boots BBQ and Catering is going through the process of amending a village ordinance that would allow restaurants to operate with an expanded commercial kitchen and for other licensed food operators to use shared kitchen facilities for catering and third-party delivery services and food education classes.

Nobody spoke against Boots BBQ and Catering’s plan at a public hearing last week.

The Raymonds didn’t want to do too much with their new venture before the proper village approvals are met. Once that happens, more plans will be put into action, Raymond said.