Date:  2026-11-02 12:22:00  |   Story: Stephanie Maxwell Newton  |   Photography: Kalen Kemp  |  

Little Rock catering company At the House offers fresh takes on tried-and-true Thanksgiving classics

Katie Brown lives to nourish people. From gathering friends for casual meals to catering high-end cocktail parties, the feeling she gets from seeing that satisfied look on someone’s face is worth the long hours in the kitchen. “When you’re cooking for other people, you have all your vulnerability out there on the line,” she says. “It’s just food, but for food you made to have an impact on someone else is really special.”

Marquis and Katie Brown, owners of At the House

Like most cooks, Katie got her start in the kitchen with family. Early memories involve making homemade cranberry sauce with her mother, the smell of roast lingering at her great-grandmother’s house, and Cajun cookouts in South Louisiana with her father. All these influences show up in the menus she now creates with her husband, Marquis, through their catering company, At the House. The high school sweethearts started cooking together in their teens and never stopped. “In college, especially, we would cook for ourselves and our roommates, and we had this little deck where I would set up nice meals with tablecloths and everything,” she says.

While Marquis is an architect by day, Katie went full-time with At the House in 2023. These days they serve meals for groups tipping toward 200 at their largest. But they also cater smaller, more intimate dinners, which mimic the memories from their college days; those are the experiences the couple looks forward to the most. “Private, in-home events are really fun because they give us the opportunity to be a little more relaxed, convivial, and chat with everyone involved,” Katie says. “It’s more personal. We’re grateful for either opportunity, but we get to showcase really customized, personalized dishes for people on a smaller scale.”

The opportunity to personalize an experience is one of her favorite parts of the job. At the House specializes in “elevated Southern comfort food,” but they are always looking to try something new, too. For example, meatloaf, pimento cheese, and biscuits are regulars on their menus, but so are lobster bisque, miso-glazed short ribs, and caviar-topped deviled eggs. “When we’re creating a menu, we ask a lot of questions—of course we cover aversions and allergies,” she says, “but we’ll also ask, Is there something in the spectrum of Southern comfort food you really love and appreciate? Then we’ll go from there.”

Their approach is one that feels especially fitting at Thanksgiving, a time when the food served is as much about tradition and family as it is about what actually appears on the plate. “I hold a lot of sacred space for food and memories with family that certain dishes are tied to,” Katie says. For this issue, she shared a little about the sides that appear on their personal Thanksgiving table and also on customized menus for clients.  “Mashed potatoes and mac and cheese have always been staples in my and Marquis’s family Thanksgivings, and honey carrots and ricotta green beans are great sellers when we do private events,” she says. “The latter offer a new dynamic to classic vegetables for Thanksgiving.”

Family Favorite
While macaroni and cheese is ample on her family’s Thanksgiving table, Katie says you better get in line first if you want her favorite part: a corner piece. “Everybody in our family fights over the corner because you get that good crunch,” she says. “Being first in line with your plate is essential.”

RECIPE: HOT HONEY CARROTS

SHOP
2-pound bag of carrots, peeled
salt, to taste
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
honey, to taste
1 stick of butter
fresh parsley, for garnish

PREPARE
Preheat oven to 400ºF. Parboil carrots in salted water for 5-7 minutes, making sure water is at a rolling boil. Once boiled, remove from pot and place in a large, oven-safe casserole dish. Add salt, red pepper flakes, and a heavy drizzle of honey. Cut butter into 8 pieces and place on top of carrots. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove and stir to ensure an even coating of butter. Drizzle with honey again, sprinkle with fresh parsley, and serve.

PUTTING THE GIVING IN THANKSGIVING

While cooking for others has always given Katie and Marquis that warm fuzzy feeling, it’s something they’ve been able to amplify in recent years through a series of holiday “givebacks,” a concerted effort to provide food for those in need. Last year the couple completed their largest giveback to date on Thanksgiving Day. They ended up feeding more than 100 people with the help of $2,500 in donations, all through word of mouth. “We had a crew of volunteer family and friends working in our carport where we were set up with food, clothing, supplies; whatever the recipients needed,” Katie recalls. “It was one of the most meaningful moments in my life,” she says.

This year, the Browns will be teaming up with several nonprofits—namely Pulaski Senior Center Outreach, where Katie is on the board, and Seis Puentes Hispanic Outreach—for their giveback at the Patrick Henry Hays Senior Center in North Little Rock. This collaborative effort hopes to serve 1,500 meals on Thanksgiving. Visit seispuentes.org/donate to donate or volunteer your time.

Find the recipe for At the House’s Lemon Ricotta Green Beans with Pistachios on our blog (athomearkansas.com/blog).

Striking Gold
The key ingredient for At the House’s mashed potatoes is “a ton of Kerry Gold butter,” Katie says. This recipe earned her a nod of approval from fellow cook and mentor Heather Baber, owner of ROBER in Benton. “I brought these potatoes to her house and she was like, I sure do wish I had that recipe!” Katie says with a laugh.

Not in the mood to cook?
Call on At the House to provide these sides (and more) for your Thanksgiving dinner. Visit foodatthehouse.com.