Crystal Marie Render, Owner of Magnificent Morsels Catering and Restaurant
Entrepreneur using experience, expanded offerings to re-launch brick-and-mortar eatery.
If experience truly is the best teacher, Crystal Render is ready to bring a Ph.D.- level of knowledge to her latest venture.
“I did have a place (before) and it was actually (also) called Magnificent Morsels back in 2009. We opened in North College Hill ... It wasn’t really for me as I was helping my mom because the whole thing started from her dream,” Render says, discussing the original venture that would inspire the name for both her catering company and future restaurant. “It only lasted for about a year. We had a lease agreement issue so as quick as it got great, we had to let it go and then just couldn't find another spot to keep it going in that area.”
Now smarter and wiser to the process, she is looking forward to bringing Magnificent Morsels back to the masses – and she’s already got a good head start thanks to Main Street Ventures (MSV).
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Render spent two-plus decades working as a stylist in the beauty industry before founding her catering company, Magnificent Morsels Catering, LLC. (MMC), in 2018. A graduate of Cincinnati State’s Culinary Arts program, Render has seen Magnificent Morsels grow exponentially in recent years, becoming a preferred caterer for the Aronoff Center for the Arts and catering events for several high-profile clients, including the Cincinnati Reds, Cincinnati Ballet and the Contemporary Arts Center. All the hard work has not gone unnoticed in the local business community, a fact evident in the Cincinnati Better Business Bureau (BBB) Torch Award for Ethics she received in 2022.
In 2025, Render’s company is set to take the next step in its evolution with the opening of a new Magnificent Morsels brick-and-mortar restaurant at 3253 Jefferson Avenue near the University of Cincinnati. The eatery will feature “all-American Midwestern cuisine with a little bit of a MMC twist” according to Render, a menu she calls “mom and pop food elevated.” According to Render, “You’re going to be able to come in and get all those comfort foods that you like – fish, chicken, soul food, hamburgers, fries, signature drinks – just in a much more elevated manner because that’s how we operate.”
While her catering business and future restaurant occupy a large part of Render’s time, her journey received a significant boost from MSV in 2023 when she applied for and received a $15,000 grant that assisted with the launch of its “3-n-1 Spice Blends,” part of its MMKitchen Ultimate Collection (https://www.mmkitchen.co/). Also available at Cincinnati landmark grocery store Jungle Jim’s International Market and through Findlay Market’s app, the line consists of seven flavors – including “Garlicky Goodness” and “Caribbean Cocktail” – in regular, low sodium and zero salt variations. Render says the MSV grant was utilized to hire a graphic designer to create the labels and to purchase equipment to mix and seal her product which expedited the product’s arrival in stores.
The launch of the blends was “a huge part of creating a different revenue stream” for her company, noting the funds allowed her to be “a little riskier and daring” to launch the line. Fortunately, the reward has proven to be worth the risk.
“When you're pulling funds from other places, you start to feel the stress of it. But when those (MSV) funds come in and they're designated for a specific project, you don't think that way, so you attack it in a different manner ... we did much better than I ever anticipated,” Render says. “It gave us a different level of confidence to push forward with this new project, which is the restaurant.”
She recommends that those who are confident in their ideas should seek out support from MSV.
“(The support of MSV) is monumental because I don't care what stage your business is in, they have a resource or a support system to help you get past any obstacle that you are seeing or dealing with or set to be in front of you ... The bonus is they also potentially have the capital that it may take to help you scale and grow as well, so it's a win-win whether you get money or not,” she says. “To know that you could at the drop of a dime, have a resource to call and say, ‘Hey, I'm lacking in this area – do you know a tool or a resource or a connection that would fix this?’ was major for me. They’re just like a secret source you didn't know you ever needed; it’s valuable for any business to be able to connect with Main Street Ventures.”
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