General I'm catering a wedding tomorrow and I'm not a caterer

[kvr28]

In house only, I'm guessing?
How would the #s look if you just paid double time and not count on tips? I say that because if it's not a "friends @ cost" situation I don't think that envelope is going to get that full when you pass it. And you shouldn't be handing over facility rental, especially when you're place will be full of "never coming back here anyway" types.

Anyone else in your area or similar market doing this? We had a caterer buy a small café and turned it into her tasting room/meet the clients/prep space and did pretty well, if you ever transition (beep) that direction.

It's why I am thinking the rental fee versus passing an envelope, plus it would be a cash bar as well so they get tips from that. I think they got 120 from the bar tips and then the rest was from the envelope passed .

If we would have charged 3200 dollars and with the 800 in bar sales, we would have made a nice chunk in those 4 hours with our food cost, liquor cost and the labor we spent. Food/Liquor COG are around 30% then minus the labor we paid out we would have made around 2500 clear.

I need to research this more.

 

[Fan_of_Fanboys]

90 percent of the people asked my daughter if they were meatballs

Other 10% of the guests were gay

 

[vad]

Dr. Cornass and his Traveling Magic Buffet

 

[Braf_Zachland]

It's why I am thinking the rental fee versus passing an envelope, plus it would be a cash bar as well so they get tips from that. I think they got 120 from the bar tips and then the rest was from the envelope passed .

If we would have charged 3200 dollars and with the 800 in bar sales, we would have made a nice chunk in those 4 hours with our food cost, liquor cost and the labor we spent. Food/Liquor COG are around 30% then minus the labor we paid out we would have made around 2500 clear.

I need to research this more.

Will these events introduce new people to your place that may come be new customers as well? There's a value there too if so.

Glad it went well.

 

[NiteProwleR]

So it went great. Everyone loved the food, I was taking pictures till things went to shit.

What 200 center cut teres medallions look like, I should have cut these last night

Cooking baby backs

I should have got more shrimp, they knocked out those 7 pounds immediately, this was the first tray we set out, we filled it 2 more times

prepping the street corn, screw you niteprowler

wife made a vegetable and cracker plate, not happy that she bought a store bought dip, everything else was scratch made, but whatever, didn't have time to fuck with it

Apps were flowing well, drinks were getting filled and that is when things went to shit, we threw Phil's famous meatballs into the oven and when I checked them 30 minutes later I realized the pilot blew out on the oven. Then all hell broke loose for my stress level. Didn't take another picture of the rest of the food we made. I had told Fred dinner would be ready right after 3:30 when they renew their vows. I pulled him aside and was like uh, do the vows at 3:45. We are having a slight technical difficulty.

But everyone was happy, Fred and Artie couldn't thank me enough, we sold a ton of merchandise to the family from out of state. Bar sales were around 800 dollars and labor was around 275. I think the final food bill is going to be 875, I need to go over my numbers in the morning.

An envelope was passed around for the staff, we had two out front and me and another in the kitchen, they all walked with 210 dollars for 4 hours of work. Not bad for serving 70 people.

My wife and I need to sit down and figure out how can market this and we make more money from it, not sure if we charge per person or just an hourly rental fee for the restaurant plus extra added. Fine for doing this for close friends but I think it is a revenue stream we need to look into.

Back to Phil's famous meatballs, 90 percent of the people asked my daughter if they were meatballs, no, they are potatoes. I had to sneak over and have a beer with Phil and told him. He was like see, I wasn't that stoned that day.

I'm gonna go drink another beer.

Its a whole nother beast, catering. Since your not in your kitchen all kinds of shit can happen but there is good $$$ in it and it sounds like you handled it very well. Did you enjoy doing it?

Another thing that I'll say is you kind of need to vett who you cater for. The wrong person can make it a nightmare for you and you cant kick them out of their own house lol. (Edit, didn't know you were doing in house)

 

[kvr28]

Its a whole nother beast, catering. Since your not in your kitchen all kinds of shit can happen but there is good $$$ in it and it sounds like you handled it very well. Did you enjoy doing it?

Another thing that I'll say is you kind of need to vett who you cater for. The wrong person can make it a nightmare for you and you cant kick them out of their own house lol. (Edit, didn't know you were doing in house)

yeah, we would just do it at the restaurant

 

[kvr28]

Will these events introduce new people to your place that may come be new customers as well? There's a value there too if so.

Glad it went well.

Yeah some, I am going to assume the people that want to book here now us and then in will bring in people that haven't been here.

 

[NiteProwleR]

Cool, how did the staff react to the event? Was the extra $$ motivation enough to keep this going?

 

[kvr28]

Cool, how did the staff react to the event? Was the extra $$ motivation enough to keep this going?

Yeah, we always get a list signed up and then we pick how many we need, first come first picked. Between them being clocked in and the cash they walked out with they made about 250 bucks for 4 hours work, and it's really light work for them. Basically just making drinks, clearing plates, glasses from the booths when they see something empty, topping off food and then just washing silverware and glasses. Plus they all take a shit ton of food home with them. I make sure I feed them well. I probably do the most work with prepping everything and the cooking.

 

[NiteProwleR]

Quick cash, nothing better. In this economy, should have them lining up. Especially, if its cold hard cash. Do they get paid same day as far tips go?

 

[kvr28]

Quick cash, nothing better. In this economy, should have them lining up. Especially, if its cold hard cash. Do they get paid same day as far tips go?

yep, what ever they make on any day in tips they get, they just report them when they clock out and I send that info into our payroll department when I run it each week and then they handle the taxes for it.

 

[NiteProwleR]

I'm omw!

Also, tell me bout them ribs.