EP #132 From Lunch Cups To Wedding Carts Without Stress

Charcuterie is everywhere right now, but most people still wonder the same things: How much do I need, how do I order, and can it actually be affordable for a real-life budget? We answer those questions with Lenair Ballard from Graze Craze Fredericksburg, a charcuterie catering company with a brick-and-mortar shop in Central Park Fredericksburg. We talk through what you can grab for lunch, how online ordering and easy pickup works, and why boards have become one of the simplest ways to feed a group without cooking.

From there, we get practical about options. Lenair explains how customers choose board sizes and popular styles like classic, keto, and vegetarian, plus what happens when your guest list grows beyond a small gathering. We break down grazing table catering for cocktail hours and large events, and we also explore one of the most fun trends we’re seeing in wedding catering: a mobile charcuterie cart where a “grazologist” builds cups on-site, sometimes with a custom monogram for the couple.

We also zoom out to the business story. Graze Craze is locally owned and operated, but the nationwide franchise scale helps with consistent sourcing, strong vendor relationships, and competitive pricing that can surprise people when you look at cost per person. If you’re planning a birthday, bridal shower, girls’ night, family reunion, or a wedding in Fredericksburg VA, this conversation gives you a clear roadmap for hosting without stress.

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Lenair Ballard

Graze Craze

grazecraze.com

info@grazecraze.com

+1 321-825-2226

1507 Central Park Blvd, Fredericksburg, VA, United States, 22401

Transcript

Speaker 0:01

This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.

Speaker 1 0:13

Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I'm excited to introduce you to my guest today. We've got Lenair Ballard joining us with Grace Craze. Lenair, welcome to the podcast. Well, I'm really excited about this. I love interviewing uh new businesses in the Fredericksburg area. And so let's start with sharing with the audience all about Grace Craze.

Speaker 2 0:43

Sure. So Grace Craze, we we are a charcuterie board and boxes catering company, but we do have a brick and mortar storefront. We are in Central Park. Um, we're in the shopping center right there across from Ulta Beauty. And we specialize in basically providing charcuterie for any type of gathering. Uh we do have single serve offerings, but we we more or less tailor ourselves to any time people get together, they gather. So we do birthdays, bridal showers, weddings, family reunions, uh everything you could think of in terms of uh events, but having that storefront in Central Park also allows people to get online, see what we've got, order it, and uh set a time to come pick it up as well. So you can have charcuterie every day of the week nowadays.

How Ordering And Styles Work

Speaker 1 1:35

That's amazing. So, okay, so I understand you can order online and then come in and pick it up. Um, with the physical location, can you also come in and kind of look at things and order there in the store?

Speaker 2 1:48

Sure, you can. You can come in and order. We've got a cooler in the front that has small single serve items and some beverages. So we get a lot of lunch traffic. Um, and then we have a lot of people come into the store and they just say, Yeah, how does this work? So we take them through the process. It's really simple. Uh, you know, we have different sizes uh and we have different styles. So once you know the size you need for the size of your gathering, um, you pick the styles, everything from a classic board to uh a keto board, a vegetarian board. And uh a lot of people do come into the shop just to find out how we work and uh often order right there at the shop.

Speaker 1 2:25

Nice, nice. That makes it that makes it easy and convenient. So I I imagine your customers really appreciate that.

Speaker 2 2:32

It does, yeah. Like I said, we got it, we got a lot of lunch traffic in there, people getting little things to graze on, a lot of people that work in the in the shopping center with us, and uh people just out and about shopping, like to stop in and grab things. And then once they see what we do, then often it leads to, well, I would like this at my next event, right? My my next birthday or my next uh uh girls' night or something like that.

Catering Sizes And Grazing Tables

Speaker 1 2:55

I love it. And how big of an event can you accommodate? Do you do like, I mean, I I've seen these at you know, weddings and things like that, these big, you know, grazing, what do they call it? Like a grazing table. Do you do that kind of stuff as well?

Speaker 2 3:10

So we do, yeah. So out of the shop for everyday charcuterie, we do boards up to about uh 20 people. That's our large size board. When we get beyond that, then we get into full catering mode. And at that point, we do grazing tables. Uh, the tables are based on the dimensions of what it is. It's often very popular as a cocktail hour uh before a large meal or something like that. Um, and then we also have a charcuterie cart, which is mobile. Um, that the cart is nice because uh we can take it to a venue, take it to an event, and make charcuterie fresh for the guest right there. Uh, super popular at weddings this year, uh, where the bride likes to pick what goes on the cart. And then uh you know, we usually take one of our charcuterie cups and we'll put the wedding monogram on it. And uh one of our grazologists will make the charcuterie for the guest at the event.

Speaker 1 4:00

I love it. And I love these words that you're using. Grazology.

The Charcuterie Cart Experience

Speaker 2 4:05

It is, yeah. So we are a nationwide franchise. Uh the one here in Fredericksburg that we just opened is uh one of over a hundred that's already open in the US. Uh they've been on their entry, their fourth year, and uh to reach 100 stores in that first three years was pretty phenomenal growth. Uh, there's about 50% growth expected in 2026. So it won't be long before there's a graze craze in uh everywhere you go.

Why Linaire Chose The Franchise

Speaker 1 4:30

Amazing. So, how did you get into this? What what uh made you decide that Graze Craze was going to be the franchise opportunity for you?

Speaker 2 4:40

Sure. So uh I've always been a big foodie. Uh, you know, I I love to cook. I I collect cookbooks and read them like novels, and uh most of my YouTube channel is is all about cooking. So I uh uh so it's always been a hobby of mine. Well, about I guess a year and a half ago, I was looking to buy into a franchise and started looking at all the the options that are out there, and there are so many. And uh Graze Craze kind of leaped off the page, and I wondered, well, what was that? You know, is it another cookie place? You know, so I did my research on it, found out what it was, and just I fell in love with the business model. Uh, I got to meet the the people from corporate and they did such a great job of explaining, you know, how it works and what what the growth models expected. And uh it just it really fit for it in a from a business perspective, what I was looking to buy into. Um, then once I've got it up and running, I can tell you now that it is uh it's fantastic. It I don't have to have a full service kitchen, right? So I've got um I've got a you know uh prep kitchen where we do everything and it really scratches that that kitchen itch for me while also taking care of my my you know my my business investment needs.

Quality, Pricing, And Big Scale Events

Speaker 1 5:52

Yeah, I love that. I love that. Do you find that there are any myths or misconceptions about graze craze?

Speaker 2 6:01

About graze craze, um, I don't know. Um because we are fairly young, there's there's not a lot going around. Um, you know, some people think that uh when they first enter Graze Craze, that that we are uh you know just a small mom and pop. And we are in the sense that every Graze Craze is locally owned and operated. And and more often than not, the business model is a family model like we've got going on. Me, my wife, and and my son run it, and then we have got grazeologists that help us out. And um, so people often think that that's that's a mom and pop. Well, because we're the big nationwide franchise and growing into what we are, uh, it gives us the ability to do things like I've got a nationwide contract with Boreshead. So every meat and cheese that goes on our boards is the best quality we can source. Uh, we've got big buying power for our materials, we have big buying power with all of our other vendors. Uh, and what that does is translates we can pass that on to the consumer so that our boards are really affordable, really obtainable. And then from a catering perspective, when we get to that next level, um, you know, you asked how big of an event can we do? Um, one of the greatest cases uh down in the south did a three-day event with thousands of people. So we we can scale to about any size.

Speaker 1 7:24

That's amazing. That's amazing. I'm really glad that you shared that with us, and that um gives your customers a little bit of peace of mind that they're getting, you know, uh good prices. Everybody's a little conscious lately of of their finances, so that really helps people out.

Speaker 2 7:40

Yeah, it is. Yeah, the so our pricing is is super competitive. Um and you could almost compare it to fast food prices sometimes when when you look at the number of uh people that are board feeds and you break down the the per person. So uh so yeah, we're pretty we're pretty proud of that.

Local Festivals And Community Response

Speaker 1 7:55

I love that. Do you ever go to any events as a vendor? Like I know a lot of you know, wineries will have festivals and things like that. Do you ever show up just as uh a vendor with your with your cart, maybe?

Speaker 2 8:11

So we do, yeah. We're actually at a point now where we're we're we're we're trying to slow down because basically every weekend we've been someplace and uh it's been fantastic though. We've done uh holiday craft shows, we've done wedding shows, uh the the bridal show that was just in town, and uh the the response from the community has been fantastic. Uh, you know, our our booth is always packed full of people wanting to know you know how how we operate and and how we can help them with their specific events.

Speaker 1 8:41

Amazing, amazing. What is something that you wish the listeners knew about Graze Craze?

Speaker 2 8:50

That's a good question. What do I wish they knew? Um I've covered most of it, which is the affordability, the the uh uh the quality that goes into it. Um I mean, I just I just want everybody to know that we're you know we're open seven days a week and they can they can get charcuterie for any event at any time, right? We we say that we cater to one person on Tuesday and a thousand people on Sunday and and everything in between. Um so yeah, just we're available and we're here and and tell your friends.

Website, Tastings, And How To Book

Speaker 1 9:27

Yeah, yeah. And you're part of the community and um support the community. We were just talking about uh how you're a chamber member and and support the business community. So we love that. And so you mentioned that you're in Central Park, so we know where you are. Um share your website, how people can contact you.

Speaker 2 9:44

Sure. So uh if you just go to grazecraze.com, it will take you to all the individual locations and it'll show you everything about Graze Craze, the company. Um, if you go to grazecraze.com forward slash Fredericksburg-Virginia, then you get to our website. And from there you can see what we do. You can order online as an individual. Um, if you have a catering request, there's the ability to click a button there and put it in a catering inquiry and tell us a little bit about your event. Um we contact you back, and then basically what we do is we bring people in for a tasting and a menu consultation. We talk about the event and and and how to service the event the best we can and fit the budgets as best we can. So um so yeah, that you can go up there and find us, find us uh online.

Speaker 1 10:30

Amazing, amazing. Lenair, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and sharing Graze Craze with us.

Speaker 2 10:37

Thank you. Looking forward to it. Hope to see everybody in there.

Closing And Business Nominations

Speaker 10:39

Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXRBG NeighborsPodcast.com.