Glad you came aboard! We are the innovators in office catering. And, we have been doing it under the same ownership since 8/8/88.

Crocodile strives to serve the most flavorful, authentically prepared food you'll find anywhere. We are fanatical about the freshness of our ingredients - many of which are purveyed from local and organic farmers. You will taste the difference!

And you are going to "feel" the difference, too.  We are a very committed (some might say crazy) group of Crocs and we don't stop until you are positively thrilled!

Our services include many extras not often found elsewhere...

• Refrigerated delivery
• E-mail billing and online ordering
• Special diet menu to accommodate special requests like Atkins, vegan, low fat, vegetarian, organic, ethnic, Kosher, etc.
• 110% money back guaranteed on-time delivery
• Fully insured to 3 million dollars liability
• Innovative design team
• Crocodile College - unique leadership development program

As you peruse our menus, you'll see we have lots to offer. If you don't find something you need, issue us a challenge! We love new ideas and suggestions.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Kurt Linneman, Proprietor and Master Executive Chef
 

PS. Since so many of you have asked, here is the...

                         History of the Croc and how our mission came to be.

You know, I have always been saddened by the multitudes of people who tell me that work is a chore to be endured. A necessary evil.

These people have come to believe that it is their fate to spend most of their waking hours doing work that has no meaning and no excitement... just so they can put gas in their car, pay the rent and watch their cable TV.

They do this for forty years or so waiting for the day they no longer have to work. By the time they retire, their health is shot and they are too damn tired to do anything with their free time. They spend the rest of their days visiting doctors and watching still more TV. 

Me? I find the prospect of living life this way terrifying.

Just what is it that makes so many people miserable in their jobs? In the beginning, I could not explain it. But I knew this widespread epidemic contained seeds of tremendous opportunity. I set out to find the true meaning and purpose behind this thing we call work.

It took me longer than expected, but after 25 years of research, I can now say that I have discovered a unique method to teach others people to create work that is a source of joy and inspiration.  

These findings have made a profound change in my life. And in the lives of others as well. Because of this, I feel it is my dutiful mission is to share with you what I have learned.

I teach from hard-won experience. It comes deep from the heart.

I am about to reveal something that…

No other school on the planet will teach you.

You may think I am crazy. Well, if it makes you feel any better, my family thinks I am crazy. My friends think I am nuts. Oh, and by the way… they are extremely, extremely jealous.

I decided to take a page from the people who have earned rewards that others only dream about? Their secret? A plan. A mission. Something to look forward to.

We all need plans. We all need purpose.

Without purpose life becomes stale. Been there?

For you, we have something very, very special. But first…

A Bit of History.

Good food has always been a love of my life. I always loved everything about cooking. It was tough waiting until I was old enough to work in restaurants.  Just a few days after my 16th birthday, I got my first job.  It was mostly grunt work- carrying out garbage, washing dishes, mopping floors, and stuff like that- but since I was working around food, I was happy as a kid in a candy shop!

I worked in restaurants for the next 14 years, only taking time off to finish high school and to earn a marketing degree at Penn State. Beyond the grunt work, I was a cook, chef, kitchen manager, cost control analyst, management trainee, restaurant manager, and general manager of a restaurant chain. 

I learned the business.  Topping off the list of skills I developed was a special knack for being able to take great ideas and make them happen. My motto was “cook, chop or get outta my way.”

Confident, I was ready to open my shop.

The Croc is Born

On 8/8/88 (8 is now my lucky number), I found a business partner and opened the Croc.  I thought I had figured out exactly how things should be run.  It was my way or the highway. If someone wasn’t up to the task, they had no choice but to pack their bags and hit, “the highway.”  Yeah, I could be- and often was- a miserable S.O.B.  One of my employees even came up with a clever nickname for me- Kurtler.

But, in spite of running the Croc like a dictator, the catering business grew.  By 1992, the Croc was a financial success.  I was quite proud of myself and of our accomplishments in the food industry.

Still we had hard time finding the right employees. People came and went so quickly that I could barely keep their names straight.  No wonder. They were just looking for a paycheck.And that’s about all they got.

Why was the turnover rate so high?  I was running a successful company here!  What more could they want? What was wrong with these people? We were a financial success! If they would only stick around and apply themselves, they could reap the benefits of the Crocodile gold mine.

These sorry souls worked 10 or 12 hour days, commuted home, stole a precious hour or two for “real life,” slept, woke up and did it again. This vicious cycle played out day after day. They were trapped in dull, tedious, repetitive, dead-end jobs. They weren’t really interested in the Croc as a company, and of more significance, they had no interest in self-improvement.

But so what if my employees were unhappy?  I was making lots of money and that made me happy.   I was living the American dream and it was good enough for me.  In time, though, I realized that I was one of the few people- perhaps the only person- who was truly happy with me.  “My way” was no longer working…even for me.

What was wrong?

One day it hit me like a bolt of lightning: my focus on money was wrecking my life.  Relationships at work and in my personal life were suffering. I knew I had to rewire my thinking about life, both on and off the job.  I had to find a better way.

Back to the Books

I did a lot of reading, coursework and studying. My epiphany came in 1998. I stumbled across an obscure branch of yoga called karma yoga- the yoga of work. Unlike other forms of yoga, you didn’t have to be flexible enough to bend yourself into a pretzel. But you did have to be flexible in your thinking and able to follow certain principles.

A key principle of karma yoga is selfless work. Karma yogis perform their work with the intention of serving others by giving their full effort, creativity, and generosity. Karma yoga philosophy also incorporates the virtues of honesty, concentration, beauty, excellence and courage.

Eureka. This is what had been missing at the Crocodile- a purpose that transcended monetary rewards. It was now time for our little company to become part of something bigger than ourselves.

The sheer genius of karma yoga is that you do it while you work. Unlike other methods of self improvement, there’s no need to set aside times for special practice.  You see, karma yoga offers guidelines for developing effective work relationships.

After delving deeper into the philosophies of this new way of life, I was hooked.  I decided to use karma yoga’s principles as the foundation for Crocodile’s operations as well as my personal life. This was the foundation that would dramatically change not only my life, but the lives of the people around me as well.

At first my wife thought I was out of my mind.  She was not alone. Hell, everybody else felt the same way.  But I knew I had found the purpose that my work and life had been missing.

After endless soul searching, countless hours of study, Leadership Courses, and with the aid of fellow Crocs, Penn State Professors, and my wise guru, Bob, the new purpose of the Crocodile began to take shape.

Quite simply, the Crocodile mission is…

To teach others how to create …more productive, joyous and inspirational workplaces.

What more noble profession could there ever be?

But all I really had was a vision of what I would like our business to become. I had no real plan. I had no “tool kit” to make this wonderful mission happen.

We needed a set of guiding principles. Guidelines that could tell us what to do (and what not to do). After countless hours of further research, we developed a revolutionary set of life changing principles to help us carry out our noble mission.

We call these guiding principles  …

The 5 Steps to Success.

 I consider these lessons to be the five most powerful "big picture" secrets anybody who needs to work for a living can ever know. Learning these secrets is like stepping back and seeing your whole mission as a person through a crystal-clear pane of glass. You'll know precisely what you need to do and say to produce the best results- for yourself, those around you and your community. 

We put the The 5 Steps to Success into action- even though it was not perfected- and… it changed everything. No longer were we just talking a good game…we began to play a truly remarkable game.

 Take a look at the Croc today and you will see…

Crocs with beaming smiles, who are undergoing continual training to develop their skills in culinary arts, marketing, education and leadership.

Customers who are delighted to give wonderful testimonials.

Suppliers who “walk the extra mile” for us because they know we will always treat them fairly.

King Croc (that’s me) who is considered more like a team leader than like a dictator. 

Sure enough, our new mission changed our outlook. But it did more; it went above and beyond the original expectations. I was in for a…

Big Shock

In the design phase, we had brushed aside thoughts about boosting the Croc’s bottom line. In fact, we figured the company’s profitability would go down. Our concerns were to create a more creative, productive and joyous workplace. And we did.

But boy, were we in for a monumental surprise.

Imagine my shock- yes, shock- when I realized that the model had also uncovered sure-fire steps to an even more profitable way of doing business.  Long story short, Crocodile’s sales have doubled and profits have tripled.  What was once a small sandwich shop has become one of the most financially successful catering operations on the East Coast! 

With this totally unexpected financial success, the Croc is able to do things it could only dream of before. It can afford to hire the best people, invest in extensive, unequaled employee training and benefits, give that something extra to its customers, and make significant donations to charities and educational institutions.

When you work at the Croc, it means you’re in for something extraordinary. It’s not just another monotonous job.  Here- as part of you’re work- you’ll learn the secret to true success that took me over 20 years of study to develop.

You won’t need to become a certified yoga instructor or read an entire library’s worth of books on management theory like I did. You won’t need an MBA or need to take all the coursework in Leadership that I have completed.

Sidestep all of that brutally hard work. Stick with me and I’ll happily pass on the secrets to success while we cook, chop and serve! It is my duty.

Integrate the Croc’s special recipe for success into your daily life and you, too, can become more content, peaceful, financially successful, and relaxed both on and off the job.  

We can show you how to take that crucial "giant leap forward" in your career.  You’ll be like an actor acquiring the talent it takes to perform on Broadway… or an athlete developing skills to compete at the highest level of a professional sport.

You will come to understand business at such a high level that there will be no limit to how successful you can become.

Admittedly our approach is unique. That’s why it flat-out works. I know we’ve made some big promises. Our approach might seem too far out of your safe little comfort zone. If you are thinking “This can’t be true” then this program is not for you. Skeptics will be miserable it here at the Croc.

Quite frankly, you may not be ready.

But remember, if you continue to do what you are doing, you will get what you always have gotten. To get the life you deserve, you must take…

ACTION.

We have all bought books, attended seminars and joined clubs thinking we would put forth the effort to improve our skills- only to end up wasting our time because we didn’t make the extra effort to apply what we learned.

Are you sure you are ready to make the extra effort needed to achieve phenomenal results?

You must be ready to accept different ways of doing things, new ideas, and the changes that will take place. If your gut is telling you, "Wow, this is exactly what I've been waiting for. I need to get started fast!" then the Croc is for you.

It will be our pleasure to help you, step-by-step. We can help you master the bigger, deeper secrets to making work worth your while 

You see, helping others is our specialty. That’s because our mission- our reason to exist- is to teach others how to create work that is more creative, productive and inspirational.

Welcome.