Catering Cost Breakdown

I'm not 100% sure but 9 staff members for 100 people sounds like a lot to me. Does the $450 for the bar include the bartenders?

That sounds crazy high to me!

I feel like it's a lot too. The bartenders are in the $3450 price. The $450 is for set up of the bar, soft drinks, ice, fruit and mixers.

The $3450 price (which includes a 20% gratuity) is for:

3 chefs

1 utility person - who handles the rental deliveries

2 bartenders

2 captains

7 wait staff

I had asked if we had less people than 100 if it could be adjusted in amount of staff and price and he said yes but that would pretty much be determined last minute.

Oh, and they only do one tasting in the winter for those people who book. But how do I know I want to book if I don't know what the food tastes like, especially at that price!

I paid $5000 for 50 people with 4/5 waitstaff so I think it's spot on, especially when you consider how much work with little time goes into setup and cleanup

I have never heard of all of the different services having a cost. Usually venues just give you one price for everything. Sounds strange to me....

My venue doesn't charge for waitstaff but instead are pretty expensive on the price per plate. It comes out to like $100 per person after food and open bar.

I feel like that's a lot... Our all inclusive reception venue with full catering, bar, etc. is only like 5K more...

That seems unreasonably high to me, but maybe it depends on where you're at. Our staff fee includes set-up/tear-down and it's only $900 for 150 guests.

I agree with the comment, it depends where you are having the reception.

I'm in Chicago where catering can be expensive. For the same amount of people I'm paying a little more than you but this was the caterer with by far the lowest quote!

Our venue charges a 21% 'staffing fee' that covers kitchen, wait and barstaff hourly rates among other things.

My alarm is more in the cost for the staff being more than half of the food. Yes, if you take the total and break it down to how many guests it's around $100 a person. This price does not include any alcohol. I do have to take into consideration my venue fees, rental fees, purchasing alcohol, and a cake though on top of it so I didn't budget as high as $100 a person for food only as personally that seems too much to me just for food.

Here in new York they add a 20 percent surcharge so if you get a plate for 100 it's 120 plus tax so 131 it comes to. Plus the matra d explained to me that cost is 400 to 500 . But what does this money goto like what paper work is really being done

Im in CT and it seems like they are just breaking the charges down in a different way, but seems on par. We have 120 guests and will be about $9,200 total including servers, bartenders, food, linens, and tax and gratuity, but no alcohol.

OP not sure where you're located but this is only a little over what mine will be for the same number of people. I'm in CT. And my venue is the same way about tasting - we could have arranged to pay for a dinner before booking, but we don't get our free tasting until this winter (we booked a few weeks ago). We opted out of arranging a dinner because my dad has eaten there and highly recommended the place, but it did make me a little anxious.

Yea that seems pretty high. Granted, I got a good deal for my area but I only paid about $90 pp with full open bar, and that included gratuity, staffing, etc.

Have you gotten quotes from another catering company?

I know that when I looked at one company they had a pretty similar breakdown... the staffing was thousands of dollars alone just for a couple of servers (3?)

I ended up finding a different company that better fit our needs/budget.

Mine was worse!

100 guests and the cost of staffing was $5500: wait staff, set up, bar tenders, 2 security guards (I have no idea why we need 2) etc. Included furniture, chairs and some linens but extras may be required.

Food alone would have been $11,000 just for a minimum of what I wanted to spend. Not including drinks.

PLUS the cost of renting out the venue of $5000.

So basically $10,500 just for the space not including food/drinks.

I decided to go elsewhere and spend my $10,500 on food/drinks instead.

We're paying $140pp (this includes 20% admin fee and 8% NYS sales tax). This is for open bar, hors d'oeuvres, meal, and cake, as well as taxes and fees. Your quote seems a teeny bit high, but not too high. Taking out alcohol doesn't save as much as you think! Good luck

ETA: When we asked about removing alcohol (just to see) it was only about $20pp lower (ridic!)

That's kind of a lot. We are paying $7,200 for food, plus a 10% service fee for the staff. So, about $8,000 all together. That includes soft drinks, 3 appetizers, 1 entree, a starch side, veggie side, roll, and salad. We are also having a champagne toast, which is only going to be around $200. We are having around 120-130 guests. Considering adding a second entree option, but it will $10 a person.

Oh, and I should add that the catering is through the venue, so this is all we will pay for both the venue AND catering.

Ok, not reading other comments sorry. Speaking as a former catering manager, YES this is normal. Labor is always extremely high and typically what most of your cost is going towards. Most caterers charge you by the hour for each staff member that is involved, at the rate of their highest paid staff member.

Think about, someone has to place your order. Someone has to be around to greet the delivery guy. Someone has to put everything away in the appropriate places. Someone has to write out your menus and run meetings with the staff so they know what to do with your stuff and when to do it. Someone has to peel each and every potato if they don't use the shitty boxed stuff. Someone has to peel each carrot. Someone has to cut the apples into cutesy little roses, loads the dishwashers, takes everything out of the dishwashers, puts everything away, takes temps repeatedly throughout the prepping, cooking, and holding processes... This doesn't even include the staff that is working your actual dinner time.

Yeah, labor adds up.