Take Out Butler Owner Recalls Launch at Chamber's Brandon Business Expo

For Erik Butler, the Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce Brandon Business Expo & Taste of Brandon holds a special place in his company's lore.

"We actually launched here three years ago, even before we had a customer," he said at the 2012 event at the Florida State Fairgrounds on May 17. "It was a week before our opening and the expo was too good an opportunity to pass up. I had a booth and no customers and I didn't know what I was doing. I had an email log and 10 people signed up and a couple of them later ordered."

From those auspicious beginnings, the company today, as a "restaurant delivery service for Greater Brandon and beyond," boasts an affiliation with more than 45 eateries.

Butler said he started out by making calls around the area and recounted one such call he had with the California Pizza Kitchen, where he learned that the Bennigan's restaurant on Brandon Boulevard had closed its doors for good after midnight that day.

"That was going to be my next call," Butler recalled. "Then I went to Sam Seltzer's [at the Westfield Brandon shopping mall] and they were closed, too. I thought, 'What have we done, opening a business now?' "

Perseverance paid off, with a business "committed to assisting busy families wanting to spend quality time eating quality food," according to the company's Web site. The goal is to offer "alternative menu choices from restaurants that [customers] desire" and to allow "working folks and travelers in our area [to] stay on task and on schedule."

"Our service lowers your stress levels and if you believe that time is money, this is for you," the Take Out Butler site further notes. "We pay for the gas, fight the traffic, tackle the parking, and assume all the risk. We get cold and wet, get cut-off, and get stuck in line, all for you. Not a bad deal for just a $3.99 delivery charge and a thoughtful gratuity for your wonderful mobile waiter."

That "waiter" is Andrew Sheppard, who at the Brandon Business Expo & Taste of Brandon on May 17, said he has delivered more than 3,000 orders for Take Out Butler.

"We opened in May 2009 and he started with us in November 2009," Butler said.

"I guess I just stuck with it," Sheppard said about his tenure with the company. "He's a good guy and I enjoy the [job's] flexibility."

Sheppard said he has a degree in historical preservation and that he graduated from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va.