Chef Shawn Hayes, owner of the Blue Ridge Cafe & Catering, has a real passion for food and creativity. He believes that good food, well prepared and offered at a reasonable price keeps his customers coming back. And, it’s true! Virginians and travelers have been enjoying Shawn’s cooking since he and his wife, Rita, opened the Cafe’s doors in 1995. Dreaming of being a chef in the hospitality industry since age 12, Chef Shawn has pursued his ambition and received his degree from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York in 1988. Since then, he and his family have dedicated days, nights and weekends to ensuring the success and quality of their business. Rita assists Shawn wherever she is needed – from the kitchen to catering and menu planning. The Hayes’ daughter, Elizabeth, actually christened the cafe with her birth just 12 hours before the scheduled opening. The first banquet room was opened in 1997 just after their son, Nicholas, was born. Both children have grown up working with and around food at the cafe and catered functions. His years of experience in the field, and being in the right place at the right time, enabled Chef Shawn to make his dream come true. He enjoys preparing a variety of different foods, but his specialties are American fare and Italian cuisine. In addition to his role as Chef, Shawn is also involved in every other aspect of the Cafe, including managing the catering and banquets, the business office and designing the menus. Shawn and the Cafe are also known for their support of and dedication to the local community. The Blue Ridge Cafe is located on Route 29 (south bound lane) in Ruckersville, VA, just north of Charlottesville. Surrounded by the lovely Blue Ridge Mountains, visitors to the Cafe are sure to enjoy the atmosphere. Whether for lunch, dinner or socializing over drinks and appetizers, the Cafe offers its customers delicious food, a full-service bar and a wide variety of Virginia wines. Blue Ridge Cafe & Catering sets the perfect stage for gathering family and friends. If you’d like to experience Chef Shawn’s knack for making even simple foods spectacular, stop by the restaurant or call to book your next catered affair today!

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mbrady8112

Blue ridge cafe catering was the BEST! We were so lucky to have them for our wedding on 4/26/19. They went above and beyond what we could have hoped for! Great food and Sue Dickau is amazing! Everyone was raving
6 years ago
Alaina Peters

Sue and Shawn were great through out the entire wedding process. They were very receptive to our (many) emails about clarification, numbers, choices or changes. The food was good and there was a good amount of it for each person. The wait staff they hired were very polite and attentive. They are very reasonably priced!
7 years ago
Shari Bedker

We used Blue Ridge for the wedding catering as well as rehearsal dinner for our daughter’s wedding. Chef Shawn, Catering Director Sue and the entire staff was very responsive on any questions, changes, dietary specials we needed. The quality of the food was excellent and very affordable. I would highly recommend their services!
7 years ago
Nancy Mazuranic

Blue Ridge catered our daughter’s wedding on August 18th and we could not be happier we chose them! They are affordable and wonderful to work with. The food was absolutely amazing as well – we highly recommend the Blue Ridge Chicken as one of your entrees! Our guest gave lots of compliments on the food as well. The staff was gracious, the food was amazing – I know I already said that, but it was! We could not have asked for a better place to use as our caterer. We’d use them again, definitely!
7 years ago
Elisabeth

We absolutely loved having Blue Ridge Cafe & Catering Co. cater our wedding. They were so easy to work with from the very beginning and they were by far the most responsive caterer we talked to. Blue Ridge was amazing at communicating before the wedding and helping us plan our menu and our rentals order. They knocked it out of the park with both the quality of service and food at our wedding. Plus they are more reasonable than a lot of places in Charlottesville! We can’t recommend them enough!
7 years ago
Kevin Davis

Sue and Shawn with Blue Ridge Catering and Cafe are the best! My wife and I absolutely love them both and cannot day enough good things about the job they did at our wedding. We had a lot of dietary allergy related needs and they were able to accommodate them all with no problems or complaints. Most notable would be my wife’s celiac allergy. We met with all of the “top Charlottesville wedding caterers” and Blue Ridge was by far the best. They are professional, personable, comforting, passionate, and responsive. We still keep in touch with Sue and consider her a great friend. We would absolutely recommend Blue Ridge for any and all of you catering needs!
7 years ago
Jamee & Tripp Tyree

We had the pleasure of working with Sue Dickau at Blue Ridge Café & Catering Company for our wedding in May 2017 at Keswick Vineyards in Charlottesville, VA. From our first tasting to the day-of, Sue & her team did not disappoint. Sue is highly experienced & full of knowledge regarding weddings, much of which was evident at our initial tasting/meeting. She made dietary accommodations for the groom & provided us with a variety of options to taste & choose from. From the beginning, we knew we had to go with her services. Over about 18 months, we worked closely with Sue designing our perfect menu. Sue gave us creative range, offering sensible suggestions along the way in order to allow us to stick to our budget. She walked us through all of our rentals & even attended a meeting with our event coordinator to finalize all day-of details. On the day of the wedding, she served dinner to my husband & I personally, and always made sure our champagne glasses were full. Guests raved about the food, and could not believe how warm, tasty, and well presented the buffet was that night. If you have guests with dietary requirements, she is more than accommodating & served up stellar dishes for them. She & her staff blew everyone away with the late night snack – grilled cheese triangles with tomato soup shooters. Finally, in Sue-like fashion, she packed us a snack to take to the hotel as we headed out of town for the honeymoon. 5-stars from us! Thank you Sue for everything!
7 years ago