Restaurant Catering 101

More and more restaurant owners are reaching beyond their dining rooms to bring in business, by catering. Both on-premise and off-premise catering has become increasingly common for many restaurants. Restaurants with private dining rooms and banquet facilities can increase sales by catering private parties and large functions such as weddings, holiday parties and business conferences. Off premise catering is another area of the restaurant industry that continues to grow. Many restaurants who cater offer to bring their food to the customers, rather than the other way around.

Restaurant catering can be defined as:

• On-premise catering - Customers come to the restaurant for a special party or meal
• Off-premise catering - The restaurant brings the food to the customer, either in their home or at another location that doesn’t serve food.

Restaurant catering includes:

• Weddings
• Birthday Parties
• Anniversary Parties
• Business Meetings
• Conferences
• Luncheons
• Holiday Gatherings

Some restaurants who cater even rent out their entire establishment for large functions.

Restaurant Catering Menu

A restaurant catering menu can be as simple or as elaborate as you want to make it. Typical catered functions feature either plated meals, buffets, or food stations. Platters, such as fruit and cheese, shrimp cocktail and antipasto are easy to prepare and transport, if you are catering off-premise.

A restaurant catering menu should be more flexible that your regular dining room menu. You can’t simply offer everything on your dining room menu as part of your catering menu, since a lot of dishes won’t hold up for the long period time that catered food sometimes requires. When pricing your catering menu, do your homework. Find out what other local caterers and restaurants who cater are charging for catered events. Also check out your local grocery store and find out how much they are charging for party platters and meals.

Restaurant Catering Fees

Restaurant catering, especially for larger parties, takes a lot more time than a typical meal in the restaurant dining room. You need to cover the cost of catering, including transportation costs, so you may decide to tack on a fee or two. Avoid adding too many fees, otherwise potential customers may feel like you are trying to nickel and dime them. Also, know what your competition charges for the use of their room.

Fees may include:

• Room Fee
• Cake cutting fee
• Clean up fee
• Dance floor fee
• Bartender fee
• Delivery fee

Additionally, restaurants who cater may have a time limit for the use of their function room and may charge an hourly fee beyond that limit.

Restaurant catering offers you a chance to increase both your sales and your customer base. People already love your food, so why not capitalize on that and offer catering services as well?