In your company, are you responsible for booking venues, facilities, restaurants and organizing transportation for meetings and events?
| Changing the Face of Catering |
Make your next event a success with catering services from H-E-B. With approximately 50 locations in the greater Houston area, you always can find a convenient H-E-B location ready to help you with several aspects of your function. The H-E-B deli offers an array of fresh meats and cheeses as well as custom sushi party trays, meal solutions and boxed lunches. To please the sweet tooth, H-E-B’s bakery teams are ready to lend a hand, offering signature gourmet cakes that are fabulously rich without a rich price and bakery trays of cookies, cake slices, pastries and more. Plus, the floral departments provide bouquets, centerpieces and even balloon designs available for delivery. Visit www.heb.com/party-planning/ to learn more.
With three Houston locations, the newest downtown across from Discovery Green, Phoenicia Specialty Foods carries more than 10,000 products from more than 50 countries at reasonable prices. Phoenicia provides quality service and excellent food to spice up any catered business meeting or social event. Phoenicia’s buying power with international imports creates catering menus full of international cuisine as well as fresh-baked artisan breads, boutique wines and beers, fresh seafood, quality meats and cheeses, hot grilled items and exotic produce. From tasty finger foods to a whole roasted lamb or mixed baklava trays to assorted French pastries, Phoenicia makes catering memorable. Explore all of the catering options at www.phoeniciafoods.com/catering.
Whole Foods Market has five Houston locations to offer widespread availability for catering special events with its high-quality natural and organic products. Whole Foods employs local chefs who use real ingredients to create high-end catering of main courses, party and sushi platters, hors d’oeuvres, sides, boxed lunches, breakfast selections, salads, dessert trays and cakes. Plus, the Whole Foods concierge team offers services to make shopping and party planning easy and convenient. Special events and custom catering require 24- to 48-hour notice. For a list of Houston locations and menus or to place an order, visit www.wholefoodsmarket.com.
With their diverse gourmet selections and budget-friendly pricing, specialty grocery stores provide a catering option not to be discounted.
Restaurant Resources
Some of the best events are held in truly unique, alternative locations. A common drawback with some of these spaces, however, is that they may not come with food or catering services. Don’t sacrifice the use of a spectacular venue because you think you may not be able to deliver elegant food offerings. One delicious possibility to make that special venue work for you is to order up the culinary services of a favorite or locally acclaimed restaurant.
By definition, restaurants are in the business of delivering consistently good food to their customers. In line with current trends and in the wavering economy, many restaurants now offer expanded on- or off-site catering services to supplement their traditional dining-room business. As such, they are poised ideally to help you satisfy your guests while getting some extra benefits not always included by traditional caterers.
Using a restaurant to cater an event guarantees great food for sure, but it also often includes extra services, such as setup, wait staff and cleanup whether on- or off-site. Bundling these services can impact your overall event budget.
Moreover, restaurant catering is easy and convenient. If your venue will be the restaurant itself, immediately you have secured a formal, elegant atmosphere in which to pamper your guests. If your event will be at another location, many restaurants arrange to bring the food and servers to a venue you specify. A few restaurants even provide a fully appointed mobile kitchen (in the form of a food truck) so they can provide your guests with fresh, made-to-order cuisine right at the event.
Plus, restaurants sometimes provide a more diversified selection for your guests by presenting them with several options, allowing last-minute order changes or accommodating special dietary needs with special offerings, such as vegetarian or gluten-free options.
Obviously amenities and services vary by restaurant, and you always should ask about the specific details before deciding to book a restaurant or its catering services. As with all catering options, sample the food beforehand and inquire about what is included, such as staffing, table settings and linens. For ideas about some of the Houston-area restaurants that offer catering services, visit the catering lists at Restauranteur (www.restauranteur.com/tx/houston/caterers.htm) or B4-U-Eat (www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaurants/cuisine/caterers.asp).
Whether dining in or dining out, restaurant catering offers another viable option for any size event.
Just desserts
Some corporate meetings and social events can just be about the decadence of dessert. In addition to simply being tasty, often the dessert-only catering can lower the cost of catering by half. Several Houston companies provide dessert-specific catering for events, with everything from chocolate or champagne fountains to cakes and pastries to build-your-own ice cream and candy bars.
Along with chocolate fountains for up to 450 and five-gallon champagne fountains, Chocolate Encore specializes in turning candy-bar buffets or centerpieces into fun, unique presentations of sweetness. They boast setups of classic confections or whimsical candy creations, such as lollipop towers and marshmallow topiaries, and welcome other ideas from clients. Chocolate Encore customizes each setup for your event or color scheme, complete with custom candy labels, ribbon-wrapped scoops and bags. Other specialty buffets include cupcakes, brownies, assorted cookies, ice cream bars and seasonal themes like S’mores. For more information, call (713) 320-5912, e-mail info@chocolateencore.com or visit www.chocoateencore.com.
With three Houston locations, the newest downtown across from Discovery Green, Phoenicia Specialty Foods carries more than 10,000 products from more than 50 countries at reasonable prices. Phoenicia provides quality service and excellent food to spice up any catered business meeting or social event. Phoenicia’s buying power with international imports creates catering menus full of international cuisine as well as fresh-baked artisan breads, boutique wines and beers, fresh seafood, quality meats and cheeses, hot grilled items and exotic produce. From tasty finger foods to a whole roasted lamb or mixed baklava trays to assorted French pastries, Phoenicia makes catering memorable. Explore all of the catering options at www.phoeniciafoods.com/catering.
Whole Foods Market has five Houston locations to offer widespread availability for catering special events with its high-quality natural and organic products. Whole Foods employs local chefs who use real ingredients to create high-end catering of main courses, party and sushi platters, hors d’oeuvres, sides, boxed lunches, breakfast selections, salads, dessert trays and cakes. Plus, the Whole Foods concierge team offers services to make shopping and party planning easy and convenient. Special events and custom catering require 24- to 48-hour notice. For a list of Houston locations and menus or to place an order, visit www.wholefoodsmarket.com.
With their diverse gourmet selections and budget-friendly pricing, specialty grocery stores provide a catering option not to be discounted.
Restaurant Resources
Some of the best events are held in truly unique, alternative locations. A common drawback with some of these spaces, however, is that they may not come with food or catering services. Don’t sacrifice the use of a spectacular venue because you think you may not be able to deliver elegant food offerings. One delicious possibility to make that special venue work for you is to order up the culinary services of a favorite or locally acclaimed restaurant.
By definition, restaurants are in the business of delivering consistently good food to their customers. In line with current trends and in the wavering economy, many restaurants now offer expanded on- or off-site catering services to supplement their traditional dining-room business. As such, they are poised ideally to help you satisfy your guests while getting some extra benefits not always included by traditional caterers.
Using a restaurant to cater an event guarantees great food for sure, but it also often includes extra services, such as setup, wait staff and cleanup whether on- or off-site. Bundling these services can impact your overall event budget.
Moreover, restaurant catering is easy and convenient. If your venue will be the restaurant itself, immediately you have secured a formal, elegant atmosphere in which to pamper your guests. If your event will be at another location, many restaurants arrange to bring the food and servers to a venue you specify. A few restaurants even provide a fully appointed mobile kitchen (in the form of a food truck) so they can provide your guests with fresh, made-to-order cuisine right at the event.
Plus, restaurants sometimes provide a more diversified selection for your guests by presenting them with several options, allowing last-minute order changes or accommodating special dietary needs with special offerings, such as vegetarian or gluten-free options.
Obviously amenities and services vary by restaurant, and you always should ask about the specific details before deciding to book a restaurant or its catering services. As with all catering options, sample the food beforehand and inquire about what is included, such as staffing, table settings and linens. For ideas about some of the Houston-area restaurants that offer catering services, visit the catering lists at Restauranteur (www.restauranteur.com/tx/houston/caterers.htm) or B4-U-Eat (www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaurants/cuisine/caterers.asp).
Whether dining in or dining out, restaurant catering offers another viable option for any size event.
Just desserts
Some corporate meetings and social events can just be about the decadence of dessert. In addition to simply being tasty, often the dessert-only catering can lower the cost of catering by half. Several Houston companies provide dessert-specific catering for events, with everything from chocolate or champagne fountains to cakes and pastries to build-your-own ice cream and candy bars.
Along with chocolate fountains for up to 450 and five-gallon champagne fountains, Chocolate Encore specializes in turning candy-bar buffets or centerpieces into fun, unique presentations of sweetness. They boast setups of classic confections or whimsical candy creations, such as lollipop towers and marshmallow topiaries, and welcome other ideas from clients. Chocolate Encore customizes each setup for your event or color scheme, complete with custom candy labels, ribbon-wrapped scoops and bags. Other specialty buffets include cupcakes, brownies, assorted cookies, ice cream bars and seasonal themes like S’mores. For more information, call (713) 320-5912, e-mail info@chocolateencore.com or visit www.chocoateencore.com.
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Send submissions to
editorial@MeetingPlannerResources.org. We will contact you if your submission is chosen.