RNC Catering Gigs Slam Davis Islands Restaurant

Chef Robert Kim Bailey's restaurant is successful and busy most any week, but turning out 6,000 plates during that span is almost unheard of. Until now that is.

Over the course of the Republican National Convention, will serve high end meals mostly off site at private parties and Tampa Bay Times Forum events, to such names as Governor Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Wyoming delegation, PBS and more.

"We've done larger parties on a daily basis but never anything keeping us busy over a ten day period on this scale," Bailey said. "We just did the chairman and head of the production for the RNC on Saturday night here in the restaurant. We served about 50 people and they loved it."

Bailey's is known for its southern style comfort food, but what the client wants dictates what he'll be serving, and Bailey can do just about anything. His business has received a boom from the RNC since last August as organizers and private parties began coveting him to cater RNC events. 

"They all have our cell numbers and they've been coming in over the last year," Bailey said. "They stood up and gave us a standing ovation on Saturday night which made us feel great. We'll do everything from crab cakes and fine dining stuff to fried chicken, it's up to them."

Bailey is under a non-disclosure agreement to not mention some of the groups he will cater for and couldn't say how many parties he'll be doing over the coming week, but admitted his biggest challenge is logistics.

"We're doing a lot of parties throughout the week and our biggest challenge is getting to and from the off site locations," Bailey said. "We've got a lot of different menus out there. It's exciting because it hasn't been tough for us to accomodate this into our usual business and we're meeting some great new friends all the time."

Bailey's restaurant ordinarily seats 125 people and doesn't normally include as wide a range of gluten free, vegetarian or sustainable local foods as he'll be serving this week, but he estimates profits from the RNC that would normally take him more than a year to earn.

"The RNC and the organizing committee has been very good to us," Bailey said.