Tommy's Catering FAQ
"Explore our Catering FAQ section to find answers to commonly asked questions about our catering services. Whether you're planning a wedding, corporate event, or special celebration, our FAQ provides valuable insights into menu options, pricing, service details, and more. Discover everything you need to know to make your event a success with Tommy's Catering.
We price complete meals. For example, let's use an appetizers example with nice round numbers. Since COVID costs are up here's and example: cubed meats and cheeses with mustards and crackers at $6.00 per person, meatballs at $6.00 per person, crudité (veggies and ranch) at $3.00 per person, and sliced fruit at $3.00 per person, totaling $18.00 per person if you just added them up from a menu. We understand that not all items will be consumed in full portions if there are 4 choices for your guests. Therefore, we typically charge around $13.00 per person for these items. This pricing approach ensures that you receive value for the items you select, and any savings are passed on to you.
We strive to accommodate special requests. However, limitations may arise due to food quality considerations. For instance, we may refrain from baking and transporting fish for extended periods of time to maintain freshness. Nevertheless, we can often grill items onsite, such as Salmon with a dill sauce, providing additional culinary opportunities. Refer to other FAQ's regarding food allergies.
Under the menu tab on the website we have sample/starter menus. Custom menus are common and we can work with you to create your menu. The appetizers package featured on the back of the Bridal Show flyer has our most popular appetizers. Our extended menu has a lot of ideas including BBQ, grilled onsite, stations, additional appetizers, linens, China and bartenders. If you're interested in exploring further options, please contact us for our extended menu.
Yes, we often cater events in venues such as tents and barns that lack facilities. We really only need a table to unwrap the foil from our pans and a place to put our dirty pans temporarily. We can bring an EZ-up or two and tables if we need to. Everything comes back with us and gets run through our commercial dishwasher. Our vans are equipped with refrigerators/freezers, and we also bring a hand wash station for our staff.
Our first van arrives approximately 2 hours before dinner service to set up appetizers and the buffet. A second van with the hot food for dinner arrives an hour before the buffet service to allow for any unforeseen delays. Timing may vary for events held in barns, tents, or with onsite grilling, as each catering event is unique.
We can cater anywhere that allows outside caterers. It's important to note that there are many illegal "garage" caterers with no insurance, etc. Our kitchen is equipped to handle up to 1,000 quality dinners per day for events like Weddings and Corporate Holiday parties. Quality staff for off-premise catering is valuable and difficult to find, and we pride ourselves on our expertise in this area. You can see the venue list below.
Yes, we do offer RAMP Certified bartenders, with one bartender for every 100 guests. Our bartenders prioritize efficiency to minimize wait times. For example, if you're having signature drinks, we pre-make the mixed part without the alcohol and put it in iced tea dispensers. Then, we add the alcohol for each individual guest drink. This helps to ensure guest satisfaction by preparing the guests' drinks as quickly as possible. We also provide Pop and water through the bar.
Our Barback service includes everything except alcohol. This encompasses plasticware, mixers, garnishes, napkins, ice and coolers with your beer and wine. We do not handle kegs, and our bartenders are typically middle-aged women. We will work with you on any signature drinks and hard alcohols so that we can bring the most popular mixers. A few weeks out we’ll also ask about how many types of beer bottles/cans, how many wines and if you would like bottles, cans, or boxes.
We use one grill for up to 100 guests. We can also grill additional items such as marinated squash and zucchini as your vegetables. In addition we serve normal dinner entrees of beef, chicken, pork, portabella’s and fish. For dessert we can also grill pineapple, peaches and other items. Our extended menu offers a variety of grilling options that we can email upon request.
While staffing is possible, it may not always be the most cost-effective option, especially for smaller events with minimal drink service. However, we can provide staffing for your event if required. This handles setup, maintaining the buffet and busing the dirty plates. Usually Weddings and Corporate events are staffed.
Our most popular service option for small parties is dropoff/setup/pickup. With this option, we handle everything from bringing the food, plates, chafers, serving utensils, and drinks, (if applicable) to setting up the chafers for the buffet and loading the first pans of food. Additionally we leave a hot box with the extra food ensuring everything is ready for your event. We have you call us when you’re about done and we come back to put leftover food into disposable pans for you to take home. Then we clean up our equipment and leave. Staffing is available at an additional charge. Weddings and Corporate events are usually staffed.
Any event with a grill or carving station are staffed.
We used to do 3 or 4 weddings per day, but now we're doing 1 or 2, depending on the first wedding booked for that date. Large weddings (over 250 guests) or those with special requirements like real China or Barback, and others that may require extra crew, are the only wedding for that day. This can determine how many weddings or other catering events we can staff on any given date.
Yes, we offer table service. Please contact us for more information as there are several details to discuss. This includes rolls & butter, salads & dressing, water goblets including initial filling & refilling, maybe pitchers on the table, how many entrees and what vegetables and potatoes you would like. Most of the time this requires real China. Table service significantly increases the required labor.
Many menus include pasta and marinara sauce because younger guests, particularly children, often prefer non-meat options. While some guests enjoy pasta as a side dish, for others, it serves as their main course. We mention this because we encounter this scenario regularly, and we understand that party planners may not always be aware of it. With this we can ensure they have a preferred entrée as well. However, you're not obligated to include pasta on your menu at all.
We have a few tastings a year where people can sign up, as we limit how many can come to try all of our most popular foods and see displays of nightcap bars, linens, China, etc. Typically we leave the old tasting posted as the menu is usually the same and when the next tasting date is set, we’ll update the information. Many people find it useful when picking a menu and other items/services offered. You don’t need to attend a tasting, most people book without attending. It is such a great opportunity to have a table of up to 6 people to try these foods. This is why we have tastings. We usually contact our folks who have called, emailed, or filled out a “contact us” form at a show before publicizing a tasting if we have any room left.
After we have a good proposal, we’ll put it into our simple contract.
Basically, we work together to ensure accuracy with menus, other items, and the number of guests. A 20% deposit holds your space on our calendar for your date. We have limited crews and only book what we can do well.
There are two long lead-time items: steamships and RAMP-certified bartenders. Aside from these, you can make reasonable changes to menus and other items (China, linens, etc.) until two weeks before the event. At that time, we’ll send you a final invoice, and you can send in a check. Since we purchase almost everything fresh the week before (aside from the two items above), we don’t require final payment months in advance. We strive to be as flexible as possible throughout the process, including payment.
We prefer cash or checks as credit cards add a 5% processing fee. You can mix and match check and credit card payments and only pay the 5% on actual credit card payments. For instance, the deposit can be paid by credit card with the 5% fee, but if the rest of the balance is paid in cash or check, there won’t be an additional 5%. Payments are posted in our software and will appear on future proposals and the final invoice.
We aim to make your day as stress-free as possible with our portion of responsibilities, including the contract process.
Fast food vs. Catering – Everyone is price conscience. And I believe that we are always the best value. Let me help put something in perspective for you.
If you go to Wendy’s, McDonalds, Arby’s, etc. and get their most popular sandwich meal it’s going to be $10-$12. Lets break that down, the drink all in (syrup, cup, ice, straw) is less than 40 cents, the fries aren’t much more, and you went and picked it up. The only item with any real cost was the entrée. So when you’re thinking of a party with a couple entrees, more substantial side items than fries, and typically more side items, think of what you pay for fast food that you have to go get.
To us the last thing that makes sense is inviting a bunch of your favorite people to enjoy the party then get sub-par food due to cost. We work with folks to try and stay within their budget.
A tasting is a chance for Brides, Corporate folks, Planners, Venues to come try our most popular foods. It’s an excellent opportunity to bring 6 folks and get their opinions. We have a few per year when they fill up and we don’t advertise them. We do leave an old one on the website so you can see what we typically have.
Some folks book because they’ve had our food before, or simply create a menu of their favorite foods. For Brides and repeat Corporate customers this is a chance to experience other foods, our staff, and get any questions answered.
We also have displays of ur linens. China upgrades, Night Cap Bars, RAMP Certified Bartenders and Barback, giving you a full picture of what we can add to your event.
You don't have to attend a tasting, there are other items and services we offer at a tasting in addition to the food.
Want something different for your party? We Cater 50 to 800 at Lernerville. We can work with you on a menu, whether you want onsite grilling or the food already prepared. There is currently only 1 pavilion there. Racing is Friday night and we already Cater a few of them. There is the possibility of rental other days of the week. We can help with a package deal for tickets.
First of all it has to do with if you’re getting a Steamship Round of Beef. We need to order then a month ahead and starting in 2025 can’t even specify a size range as we used to. So they can be 60 to 100 pounds. If undersized it’s easy we prepare a top round as backup as that’s the best part of the Steamship to begin with.
Other than a Steamship it lets us know how much work for our Cooks, shopping, how many staff and Vans for your event when we figure what work we can take on. We’re flexible with menu and guest count but when pricing it’s an important factor. The price per person is higher for 50 guests versus 200 guests with the same menu. PLEASE See our FAQ about a la carte pricing.