The Venue at Aggies/Aggies Catering

12/23/2024

This was just posted by the U.S. Small Business Administration. What a nice recognition! Merry Christmas to all and thanks for supporting The Venue at Aggies/Aggies Catering

Meet Cathy Bishop, President of Aggies, Inc., a BBQ catering business in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa.

A Texas A&M alum, Cathy opened Aggies in 1994, transforming it into a full-time catering business and event venue by 2009. During the pandemic, Aggies pivoted to carry out and used SBA relief funding to keep employees on the payroll.

Now thriving with more than 50 workers, The Venue at Aggies/Aggies Catering continues to serve great BBQ while giving back to the community.

Cathy is the Iowa Small Business Person of the Year!

11/13/2024

It’s that time of the year again! Check out our menu at AGGIESBBQ.com for all your holiday needs. We feature over 26 different appetizers, 20 different entrees and numerous side dishes. Don’t forget our extensive menu of homemade desserts. If you don’t see what you want, we can make it-because at AGGIES we make everything from scratch. Every dish. Every day.

11/05/2024

We are 2 days away from the at the Sioux City Convention Center from 4-7.

Please stop by and visit AGGIES at booth 30 and enjoy a sampling of some of our clients favorite appetizers. Talk to us about your upcoming holiday needs. From Scratch. Every Dish. Every Day.

AGGIES is a proud member of the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce and a proud supporter of fellow members.

10/27/2024

We had some fun last night at a house party with a Halloween theme. Here are the pics…. Cooking from scratch. Every dish. Every day.

10/19/2024

It is National School Lunch Week 🌯🥙🥗🥪🍳🍌🍓🍒🍎

Thank you to our partners over at The Venue at Aggies/Aggies Catering for providing us a healthy lunch daily! We as well want to thank our very own food service staff member Miss. Maddie for her hard work serving and preparing meals! She loves to visit with all the children at meal times! She works hard cleaning up after meals especially on days like spaghetti day😉

10/14/2024

09/28/2024

It truly takes a lot of people and preparation to feed the hundreds of people that choose AGGIES to cater their events weekly. For example, we had an event for 800 on Wednesday night with 3 sides, salad, and 2 meats. These two fine people came to AGGIES in the early morning hours to prepare 40 pans of chicken and wild rice!! Alfredo Aragon and Matilde Rangel are fast and furious. They are focused on the job at hand and I don’t recall every seeing them sit down, other than when driving😀

Alfredo has been with AGGIES for several years and works part time. His “boom boom” fast ability to slice and chop with precision is amazing to watch.

Matilde is new to the AGGIES team and has already earned her stripes. She aims to please and goes above and beyond all with a great attitude. If we could clone her we would😀

09/24/2024

Here is another super employee of AGGIES, Madison Wilcoxon carrying the charcuterie tray. She’s pictured here with Alivia Wolf. Madison and Alivia are high school classmates and graduates of SBL. Alivia is a junior at Iowa State and Madison is a junior at South Dakota State! Madison is one of those people known as an old soul. She’s way beyond her years in her work ethic and the way she thinks and anticipates what needs to be done. Madison is reliable and signs up to work when she’s home during school breaks. Even though she may be away from us at school she never misses a beat when she comes back. It’s like she never left. Madison brightens the room with her smile and we always receive tons of compliments on both of these young women when they work a party. We’re anxious to see you this weekend Madison!!

09/21/2024

Here’s another family we have working at AGGIES. We fondly refer to them as the Wolf pack with the momma and 2 daughters. You may know them as Katie Wolf, Alivia Wolf and Brynn Wolf. This trio is highly talented and saves our bacon a lot of times with their willingness to work wherever, whenever. Katie works full time while Alivia is currently studying in Honolulu and Brynn is in her first year at Iowa State.

All three of the Wolf pack prep, cook, cater, deliver and do whatever is asked of them. Katie is now broadening her scope as she wants to learn how to smoke meat! Katie also loves music and she keeps us all entertained with music and most often accompanied by her singing along🎶. Can’t wait for the Wolf pack to be reunited😀

09/20/2024

Sometimes when the phone rings at AGGIES, the person calling will ask to speak to Aggie 😀. While we don’t have a person named Aggie, we do have our very own Texas A&M Aggie! Let me tell you the story of how AGGIES got its name. Cathy was born in Texas and she and her family moved to Sergeant Bluff when Cathy was in 3rd grade. In August of Cathy’s senior year at SBL, her father was tragically killed in a plane crash. Her Uncle Jack suggested she look at College Station and think about attending Texas A&M. Cathy graduated from A&M with honors and after years of being a bank examiner decided to open AGGIES in Sergeant Bluff. 30 years later, AGGIES continues to thrive.

We go back to Texas every year and go fishing and sometimes we are lucky enough to also take in a Texas A&M game. That’s what we did over Labor Day weekend this year with 107,000 people in the stadium. The final outcome was not what we hoped for but it warms Cathy’s heart to drive around campus and reminisce. Cathy learned 6 core values at A&M that guide AGGIES and our employees to this day: respect, excellence, leadership, loyalty, integrity and selfless service.
Now you know why AGGIES is named AGGIES!!

09/19/2024

You know at AGGIES we love to employ multiple people from the same family. That’s been our M.O. for the last 30 years!! Today, we are highlighting Barbara Miller and her granddaughter, Maribel Alvarez, who both work with us. Barb or Barbarella, as we like to call her, has been with us for years and was the manager of our north kitchen at Premier Bankcard. Barb is very adept in the kitchen and can make ANYTHING but she particularly excels at being the queen of salsa. She makes the best tomatillo salsa, pico de gallo and homemade AGGIES salsa. Oh and she’s really good with guacamole too. 🥑 Barb is always ready to lend a hand and we love and appreciate her so much.

Maribel is equally as fabulous in the kitchen and she’s not afraid to try new things. Just yesterday she was questioning her baking ability but she turned out the best M&M cookies that had a little crunch on the bottom and soft on the top. The perfect cookie in my opinion😀. Maribel is always up for a good laugh and brings forth a positive, can do attitude in our kitchen.

Sometimes we are lucky to also have Tiffanie Topete McCann, Barb’s daughter and Drayton Rodriguez, Maribel’s significant other, join us for catering too. Keeping it all in the family.

09/18/2024

The Iowa Restaurant Association’s Facebook post about AGGIES and Cathy Bishop today

30 years ago, Cathy Bishop, a Colorado-based bank examiner with an entrepreneurial spirit, returned to her hometown of Sergeant Bluff and recognizing a need for great BBQ, opened a restaurant. In 2009, Aggies evolved to become, The Venue at Aggies/Aggies Catering, for life’s celebrations. Her smoker, dubbed, “The Beast” works nonstop, smoking racks loaded with locally sourced pork, beef, and chicken, accompanied by made-from-scratch dishes. Her success has earned accolades like the SBA Iowa 2024 Small Business Person of the Year. In her “free time” Cathy serves on the boards of the Siouxland Chamber and the Sergeant Bluff Community Foundation.

09/17/2024

AGGIES wouldn’t survive without these G.O.A.T.’s - Sandra Krause on the right and Nancy Peterson on the left. Sandra turns on the lights at AGGIES every morning between 4 - 4:15!! She starts the day off by making our famous brownies, dinner rolls and if ordered, cinnamon rolls and pecan rolls. She also bakes other breakfast items like our best breakfast burritos and yummy homemade French toast. After completing her baking she helps with getting our Cluck Salads ready for lunch.

Nancy Peterson is our multi-faceted talent who scours Sam’s Club every Tuesday and Thursday morning. She gathers a van full of items and stocks our shelves. She also keeps us very organized as she keeps the closets and shelves nice and neat. Nancy is also in charge of our fleet maintenance keeping our AGGIEmobiles 🚙 gassed up, washed and in overall safe driving performance for all our deliveries.

Thanks for all you two do. We couldn’t do AGGIES life without you❤️

09/16/2024

The smoker was working hard today at AGGIES. We’ve had the same smoker for 30 years and we give it a lot of TLC. Our smoker puts out our delicious beef brisket, baby back ribs, sausage, and pork loin. We’ve been known to smoke some turkeys at Thanksgiving also 🦃

Our beef brisket and baby back ribs are seasoned with our very own AGGIES rub and as our motto says “smoked not soaked“ as the homemade AGGIES barbecue sauce is always on the side!

Are you hungry yet??

09/14/2024

We love and value our family at Aggies. Carolynn Sue Miller, Cathy’s mom, has always been known for her fantastic cooking and her memorable parties. 30 years ago when Aggies opened, many of Sue’s recipes were incorporated into the restaurant menu. That inspiration continues today in our catering business as we still pull from family recipes to create memorable experiences for our clients.

Speaking of family, we have to brag about Tammy Matthey, Cathy’s sister. Tammy retired from her exceptional career at Verizon corporate and came to work at Aggies. Tammy has proven to be invaluable as she wears many hats at Aggies - prep cook, caterer, deliverer and also lends a hand with bookkeeping!! She does it all with a smile and at times can be heard singing!! BTW - Tammy’s birthday is tomorrow. Be sure to wish her a great day🎂

09/13/2024

Our goal at Aggies every day over the last 30 years is to make great fresh food from scratch. So here’s a fun fact - we plant an herb garden every year right outside our back door. We can easily access our chives, parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano and dill to add to your favorite dishes or use the herbs as a garnish on a plate.
Cooking from scratch. Every dish. Every day.

09/12/2024

Today, we’re highlighting our kitchen manager at Aggies, Shannon Kneifl! Shannon has been with Aggies for 27 of our 30 years! She started very young😀. Obviously, she’s very dedicated and an integral part of our success. She has an eye for detail and knows exactly how our food should be prepared and presented. Shannon takes pride in making Aggies shine and we thank her abundantly for her continued commitment to be the very best.

Missing from the picture is another son and their daughter, Addison Kneifl, who has also worked at Aggies during her high school years.

09/11/2024

On October 6th, Aggies will celebrate 30 years in business. Cathy Bishop designed and built Aggies with a vision of having the first brick and mortar BBQ restaurant in the Siouxland area. The guiding principle of making all Aggies food from scratch has been sustained throughout all these years and makes Aggies so unique and successful.

Throughout this month, we will highlight our wonderful Aggies staff, our services and show some pictures of all our homemade food. In the meantime, Thank you to all that have supported Aggies over the past 30 years!!