The Faces of the Golden Strip invite you to meet Michelle Amrien, the newest addition to The Faces of the Golden Strip community blog! Michelle owns “Sweet Catherine’s”, a Sassy Southern Cafe located at 111 S. Main St. Fountain Inn, SC. The food is nothing short of Ah-mazing. Get there early to secure your table. There is always a line waiting to get in. Trust me, it is definitely worth the wait. Everything is made fresh to order and will make your taste buds dance with delight with every bite. Don’t forget to save room for dessert. You’ll thank me for that suggestion after you try a slice of any of her delicious cakes.
We would like to thank Michelle for sharing her love of her neighbors in the Fountain Inn Community and for highlighting the caring and supportive people that live and work there.
Q: What inspired you or led you to your current profession?
A: I previously was a teacher. I taught Special Ed in Greenville County and I taught high school. I got moved to a school that had a large population of kids who’ve been incarcerated. That was my classroom. They were not really listening to me. After about a week of not getting kids to pay attention, I suggested that if I brought some food on Friday and they did my lessons we could trade and sit down and have a family meal. We had been given the old Home-Ec room, which was packed up because they don’t teach Home-Ec anymore. They just used it as a classroom. So we cleaned out the kitchen and I brought food and we planned a meal and we sat down together. They were honestly, the most surprised people I’ve ever seen in my whole life. I just don’t think there had been a lot of honor in their lives. So it was a way to communicate with them. I think I realized then how powerful food was, because honestly, they would do anything I asked. Every Friday thereafter, we produced something. We sat down and ate as a family. We ended up running a catering company out of my classroom called Patriots Palette. We catered the Senior Breakfast for the Senior Class the last year that I was there. We would produce a product on Wednesday, let the faculty sample it and then actually provide their products the following Friday. Whatever money we made provided for those of my kids who otherwise financially wouldn’t be able to participate in cultural events, field trips, or get their cap and gown for graduation. A lot of times, my kids didn’t have book bags or school supplies, so it was a way to offset all of that and we made money. It also gave them great life skills for employment opportunities by learning how to deal with customers, and a boss, and deadlines. So, I figured owning a restaurant couldn’t be that hard. After I decided I wasn’t going to sign my contract and go back to teaching that last year, I came to Fountain Inn looking to do catering.
Q: What made you choose Fountain Inn as the ideal location for your restaurant?
A: A teacher friend told me that Fountain Inn had a lot of empty buildings and she thought I could get something really cheap. I was referred to a guy and he took me around showing me different places. He mentioned he had a site that used to be a restaurant that he wanted me to look at. I wasn’t interested in a restaurant, that was way too much, I’m just baking stuff. He said it won’t hurt to look at it and he took me to this building, I walked in and it was like the building spoke to me. Every hair on my body stood up and I started crying. I was like, “What is wrong with me?” It was like it was telling me, “You belong.” After I looked at the building that day, I would drive through Fountain Inn and I would park out front and press my nose against the glass. I would go home and tell my husband, “That will be mine.” He encouraged me and offered to get on auction and help buy stuff, test out a menu and all kinds of stuff like that. He definitely helped my motivation. I worked for two years after that to make that happen. It was definitely a God thing.
Q: How long have you been in this business?
A: We’ve been at Sweet Catherine’s 10 years this year, which blows my mind. It’s crazy to imagine in October we’ll celebrate 10 years.
Q: Where did the name Sweet Catherine’s come from?
A: My best friend was Catherine. Her name was Angela Catherine. We were best friends growing up in church. When we were in elementary school she was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, and it just took a toll. She was just never well despite all the innovations that came our way during our lives. Finally she got really sick and she went into renal failure and went on dialysis. Then her body just gave up, shut down and she died right before my 30th birthday. We had always had this plan when we were kids that one day when we’re grown ups, we’re going do this. Well, that day that I came in this building for the first time and all my hair stood up on the back of my neck, the building was talking to me and God was saying, “It’s okay, I got this. Come on!” I was like, “This is our place. You just didn’t get to physically come with me.” But you know, we always say that she is the guardian angel that watches over. It’s about friendship and family and things that make me happy and the love that I can provide through food to other people. That’s all about her. My youngest that just went to Clemson, she’s Emily Catherine. So the “Catherines” continue. I cry a lot when I tell the story, pretty often. It’s not uncommon for me to sit at a table. And when I first started here, 10 years ago, I would apologize and I would feel really embarrassed. And now I’m just, this is me. That’s my story. And you know what, if somebody else needs to cry with me, and they’re having a hard go, I’ll hug on ya! Our Sweet Catherine’s family has had its fair share of loss and sadness over the 10 years and as a family, we move through it. It’s helped me to definitely grieve and honor her at the same time.
Q: What’s your most popular dish here?
A: Chicken salad and strawberry cake. Yeah. So we sell a lot of chicken salad. That’s our number one seller, and second is our Main Street, which is what we call the tour of Sweet Catherine’s. It’s a scoop of chicken salad, some pasta salad and a small Sweet Catherine salad, which has mixed greens, goat cheese, pecans and apples with our homemade vinaigrette. Then it has a garnish and a sunshine muffin, which is basically the orange cream cheese pound cake. It’s a pretty happy plate of food. Strawberry cake is our number one seller. We sell a lot of cakes.
Q: Do you get requests from customers to buy a whole cake?
A: Yes, absolutely. We like 48 hours notice because we make everything here fresh. We don’t have anything sitting around in the back.
Q: What other type of cakes do you offer?
A: We do chocolate, strawberry and coconut. Seasonally, we do sweet potato, carrot, or red velvet. Sometimes we’ll do Creme Brulee. We have a brownie experience, which is two giant brownies stacked on top of each other with ice cream in the middle hot fudge and caramel. That is a food coma. And it’s huge. People ask why is it so large? Because that’s what size I would make it at my house. When I cut those slices of cake that first day and the brownies that first day 10 years ago, it’s the same way it is today. So it’s “Michelle size”. If I’m going to eat a piece of cake it’s going to be the wedge of cake.
Q: What do you enjoy most about what you do?
A: I like making people happy. Food is a huge connector to that.
Q: What is your favorite restaurant in the Golden Strip, and what do you love there?
A: I love Sushi ASA in Mauldin. The owner is a female and you might often see her younger kids there. It’s a place where you go and you know there’s a real family back there driving this because they need this to support their family. I like that.
Q: How long have you lived or worked in the Golden Strip area?
A: I’ve lived in Simpsonville for 22 years. I lived in Easley before that. When my husband, James, and I got married in 1998, he had a house in Simpsonville and we moved this way. I love it.
Q: What is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?
A: I work really closely with a couple of organizations. Meals-on-Wheels and the local Fountain Inn Police Department. They do a lot here to care for our elderly citizens. They do wellness checks on them regularly to make sure, especially during cold weather, that they have heat and food. When there’s a snow day and Meals-on-Wheels can’t travel, the police converge here and we produce Meals-on-Wheels for our people and then the police go out and make sure that everybody’s okay and they deliver them. I remember the first time it snowed after we started here and I got this phone call and they ask, “Where are you?” I said, “I’m laying in my bed because it’s a snow day.” And they said, “No, we don’t do snow days! Do you need us to come get you? We need you!” So I said “Well, then I’m there!” We do it every time. We also host the seniors here. Our police department brings them once a quarter and they get lunch and have cake and a little time away together and it’s really cool. These are our elderly seniors who are typically shut-ins due to illness, age, inability to drive. Those kinds of restrictions. I think our community does a really great job of protecting and caring for people like that. It’s not uncommon for me to walk through the dining room while they’re here and somebody come over and offer to cut grass, rake some leaves or help reattach a board to their porch. That’s the kind of caring community I’ve been very fortunate to be included in. We also recently did a food drive. We called it, “A Month of Thanksgiving.”
Our goal was to provide 10 families with Thanksgiving meals because we support the James Monroe House (Food Pantry) on Trinity that feeds over 300 families every week. That’s a lot of needy people in our neighborhood, in our close proximity. We asked what we could do and they told me they were running low on supplies. Thanksgiving usually is their lower time because people are using their resources for their own families preparing for Christmas. They let us know what needed to be included in the meals and I volunteered that we would do 10 families (thinking that is a lot of food). So we put it out in the community and let them know what we were doing and said if they wanted to drop stuff by, please do so. Oh, my gosh, the response was overwhelming! People and companies would just drop grocery bags full of stuff right in our entryway and then they would leave. They had to bring in a special truck to come pick it all up. It just touched my heart in such a way, we ended up feeding 45 families. That’s an amazing day. That’s what I like being part of …a neighborhood who loves on their neighbors. Yes. That’s what Fountain Inn is. It’s amazing!
Q: What is the story behind all the artwork displayed on your restaurant walls?
A: It’s a way to not only get our walls beautifully decorated, but it is a forum for artists who may not have an outlet or a way to showcase their abilities. There are so many talented people. We just love it. It’s every genre, every ability level, every kind of art, every medium represented. We don’t take any percentage of it. The deal is, if it sells, the artist has to bring me something else to take its place.
Q: You mentioned to me previously that you have five grandkids through Fostering/Adoption.
A: Yes. Morgan, my oldest daughter, was fostering two boys who were family members of mine, whose mother had died. When she and Jacob got married, they adopted the two boys. Then they fostered another child who came from a really bad situation, and then eventually got his sister as well. Now they have number five, which was a former student of hers. So now they have five kids. Three Foster’s and then two that have actually been legally adopted. I was adopted. My parents were foster parents, and I have an adopted sister as well. So definitely our family has a passion for loving people into our family.
Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about the Golden Strip area?
A: I had never actually been to Fountain Inn until I came and looked at this building. That was the first time I’d ever been in this town. I just fell in love. When we started renovating the building, it took us a few months to get the building renovated and ready to go, people would just stop and say, “Can I help?” We had strangers come in and paint, and loan us scaffolding equipment so I could go paint the highest part of the wall. I had a guy come by and tell me I really need an aspirator if I’m going to be doing certain things so he loaned me his. “Here’s a Shop Vac and here’s something else you need.” People were just so kind and generous. It was like a place I’d never been before and it has continued. That is number one, hands down, why we’re successful, because of people’s kindness in this community and the love they show us every day.
Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?
A: Still doing this but doing it bigger! We want to scale to grow into the night time. Plans right now of adding a wine bar in the evening Focusing more on wine, dessert, small plates and maybe live music. Just capturing some of the fun and growth that is going on in Fountain Inn.
Q: In what ways do you see Fountain Inn growing in the near future?
A: What I’ve seen change already in these past 10 years is amazing. Just bringing even more foot traffic to our city, more housing, more diversity, more revenue for small business owners, all of that. We have seen such a drastic change in our revenue and our customer base in the last year. I can’t imagine what the next 10 years will bring. It’s going to be crazy and we’re excited about that. I feel like Fountain Inn is growing every day. I don’t do any advertising. I do Facebook once in a while. When we have kind of a slower day, I’ll get on; but usually, it drives itself without much initiative on my part.
Q: Do you have a charity or organization that you are passionate about? Do you do any volunteer work for it?
A: My mother has Alzheimer’s. So the Alzheimer’s organization is definitely one that I contribute to and would like to be more involved with. My mom attends a chapter in Clemson. They have regular get togethers every week, where they try to slow down the disease with social activities and fun things like memory games and listening to music.
My mom is doing really well. Her doctors are just shocked that her disease has not progressed more. I honestly think it’s a lot of what I just mentioned and a lot of family. She loves kids, so anytime we’re out she’s eyeballing the kids, and she’s just talking about how cute they are. I think that at the end of the day, that’s what has made her the happiest, being a mom.
Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?
A: I love spending time with my amazing husband, our kids (we have 5) , and our grandkids (we have 12). I like to travel. I love to cook. Honestly I read a lot of cookbooks because I enjoy learning new things.
Q: Who else would you like to see nominated as a Face of the Golden Strip?
A: I would say the person that probably would stand out to me would be Ghazi Farhan. He runs the Frank’s House of Pizza. He stands out in a community full of good people.He does a lot for people in need within our community without any expectation and he’s always there to lend a hand. He’s a big example for me. We love his food and he’s a customer of mine as well.
