Although only one of the women who launched Two Caterers Contemporary Cuisine is still involved in the business, the name remains the same.

"I tell people it's my split personality," joked company president Angela Stoll Petro, who lives in German Village.

In a way, though, that's highly fitting, since her enterprise is based out of a split facility in the Northland area just outside of Westerville.

On one hand, it is home to the offices of Two Caterers and is the Copper Lodge banquet facility, available for wedding receptions and corporate events.

On the other hand, it's a lodge for coppers.

The former Schmidt's Restaurant and Banquet Facility off Schrock Hill Court is owned by, and is the headquarters for, the Fraternal Order of Police, Capital City Lodge No. 9. It was purchased almost four years ago for $1,087,500, according to Franklin County Auditor's Office records. It replaced the former FOP Lodge in Gahanna.

How did a catering business and a union hall for police officers come to coexist under one roof?

"Our realtor was the realtor for FOP," said Petro.

After nine-and-a-half years operating out of first one, then two and then three units in a strip shopping center in Linworth, Two Caterers needed more space, Petro said. When the FOP purchased the long-closed restaurant across from a Ramada Inn, the realtor suggested that Petro write up a proposal for managing the facility and providing the police union with a portion of the profits from catering events held there.

"It's an extra income-producing sector for both of us," she said.

The catering firm owner admitted that she sometimes has to overcome a public stereotype regarding lodge halls in order to convince clients Copper Lodge is the right place for their event.

For example, Petro said, many people expect animal heads to be the main decoration on the walls.

"And that's not the case here," she said of the dining hall, which can seat 200. "It's a warm, inviting space."

Petro became a caterer while waiting to become an attorney.

A native of the small town of Greensburg, south of Akron, Petro came to Columbus to attend The Ohio State University, but only after taking several years following high school to travel in Europe, including time spent waitressing and bartending in Germany. She was impressed with the high level of service customers are accorded in Europe and the way customers regard the wait staff.

"It's just a respected profession and I love that," Petro said.

When she came back to the U.S. and enrolled at Ohio State at the age of 21, Petro majored in political science and history with an eye toward going on to law school. After graduating, but before committing to that legal career, Petro said that she worked for a time for Katzinger's Delicatessen in German Village, where she learned a lot.

Petro and a friend started Two Caterers in 1997. Initially, the firm operated out of a German Village bar, using the kitchen facilities during the day to prepare food for catering customers in exchange for providing the happy hour menu items.

After the proposal for Two Caterers to manage Copper Lodge was accepted three years ago, Petro said there were some concerns, probably on both sides, about how the arrangement would work out.

"They're not traditionally a landlord," she said.

For the catering company, things have worked out just fine. Income has doubled since the move to the new facility, Petro said.

At the old location in Linworth, Two Caterers had eight to 10 employees and a list of about 25 part-timers to fill in as needed. Now, the business employs 20 with around 70 on the will-call list.

Things have worked out for the FOP, as well, according to Capital City Lodge No. 9 president Jim Gilbert.

"Partnering with Angela's business has been great," Gilbert said. "The reality is a large organization like us needs a lodge hall so we can provide a centralized location for us to hold our meetings, but at the same time we want to get good quality use out of our space.

"We just think it's been a win-win to let members of the public in to use our facility."

Said Petro: "We designed the kitchen ourselves and it was built to our specifications."

Some of the interior renovations to turn the former restaurant into Copper Lodge were also undertaken with input from the catering company, she said.

"We've actually become a model and other FOPs have talked to this FOP group about how to model their own," Petro said.

Horror stories exist among users of banquet halls, such as bridal parties, about places that suddenly go out of business, taking deposits, and dreams of that perfect day, with them. An organization as longstanding and stable as the FOP pretty much ensures that can't happen when Two Caterers books an event, according to Petro.

"They're not going anywhere," she said. "This is about as safe as it can get."

And Two Caterers is trying to be as "green" as it gets, as well. Last November, the company received a Green Jobs and Innovation Award from the Ohio Environmental Council.

"This industry is so intensely wasteful," Petro said of catering.

At Two Caterers, teaching recycling for all involved was a first step to reverse that, followed by a 40-foot-long composting pile located behind Copper Lodge that receives 100 percent of the kitchen's vegetable waste. Some of the herbs used by the company are grown on site, as are a portion of the flowers used for garnishes and floral arrangements.

Petro pronounced herself delighted to have become affiliated with the Fraternal Order of Police.

"They've expanded our horizons," she said.