The longtime face of a local coffee chain has been working on his next chapter.
Steve Schnitzler left Port City Java amid a shift in that Wilmington-based brand in June 2025.
“I did absolutely nothing for 30 days,” he said. He cleaned the garage, and the shed, and cut the grass. “And then I start thinking about what’s next. And something had to be next. I’m not the retiring type.”
Schnitzler knew he didn’t want another corporate gig, and he didn’t want to work 70 hours a week as a chef, as he had as the first executive chef for Front Street Brewery. Other ideas, like hosting cooking classes at his home or offering pop-up events, were logistically complicated.
Before working as a chef and at Port City Java, Schnitzler was a graduate of the Culinary
Institute of America. And he and his wife, Lisa Schnitzler, have always enjoyed entertaining their friends and family.
“I want to cook with people,” he said. “It is my favorite thing to do.”
Bite Club was inspired by that.
“A group of our friends gets together monthly, and cook together and eat together,” he said. “Each evening has a theme … and it’s always a lot of fun.”
He's already started working as a private chef and has done some restaurant consulting. Next, he hopes to host intimate dinner parties and group cooking classes.
He's been working to help revamp Blue Willow Cafe, an eatery that opened in 2022 as a project of A Caring Heart foundation. It’s open on weekdays, serving breakfast and lunch, and has a nonprofit mission of employing people with disabilities to develop skills in the culinary arts.
Schnitzler is now the new manager of the cafe. He's helped update Blue Willow’s menu and space, has added a new point-of-sale system, and is planning to start a small-scale delivery program to Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center. He's also completed training to work with the special needs staff.
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In turn, he will be using the using the space in the evenings and on the weekends for his Bite Club events. If all goes well, he hopes to begin Sept. 12, with four dinners a month, on Friday and Saturday, every other weekend.
“Everybody sits at the same table, and everybody is eating the same food,” Schnitzler said.
The seasonal, five-course menus will be posted on his biteclubilm.com site. The menu will be served family style, and they’ll play vinyl records for background music. Tickets are all-inclusive, and wine by the glass will be available for sale, with those proceeds going to the nonprofit.
“We want to encourage people to meet new people, to talk to each other and the enjoy a dinner party,” Schnitzler said.
Bite Club is also available for private events, and the cooking lessons are designed as small-group, hands-on experiences held inside the cafe kitchen. Schnitzler said he's looking forward to starting his next career.
“The world is calling out for connection and community. This is sharing a meal with people,” he said. “Really the goal is to cook food with people … old-school, upscale, homestyle food. We’re going to do some of the classics, because honestly, people don’t really do the classics anymore.”
Just like people don’t really host dinner parties anymore. But Bite Club can help.
Allison Ballard is the food and dining reporter at the StarNews. You can reach her at aballard@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Former coffee CEO starts next chapter, wants to revive the dinner party
