Brewed Coffee Catering Pricing
Starting up a new leg of my catering business & Im trying to work out pricing. I've been doing the Cappuccino & Espresso bar catering & smoothie bar catering for years but never has that involved brewed coffee. Just the use of an espresso machine & doing made to order drinks (which might include americanos for the "regular" coffee drinkers). But now Im starting to promote to alot more businesses & Im getting interest in just doing regular brewed coffees for breakfasts & I have no idea how to price this out! Whats the norm? I know its going to be different between my city & your city but whats a good starting point? I've known food caterers to charge upwards of 3.00 a person to just have coffee service available during a wedding reception (which is sad because they could actually get more for badly brewed folgers coffee at a larger wedding than I might be getting for a full blown cappuccino bar!) Generally these corporate breakfasts are for larger groups (350 or more alot of times) so its not as simple as just having a single cambro or even those coffee to go cardboard boxes but more along the lines of having 5 or 6 cambros plus some fancy coffee service urns. So, what are those of you that offer brewed coffee service charging? Is it a flat rate per person like 2.00 or is it a tiered system so the price per person might drop the bigger the group is? My cappuccino bar pricing is tiered so if you call & want a cappuccino bar for 60 people its going to be much higher per person than if its for 200 people.
Also what are you guys doing for smoothie bar pricing on larger groups? I've got the smaller (250 or smaller) pricing set but I had someone call me today for a smoothie bar for 1500 people (WooHoo!). I would say I average 3 to 4.50 per person on a smoothie bar for under 250 people but I doubt I'll be chargin 4.50 per person for 1500 people (and even 3.00 per person is going to get on up there) but I also know what my cost is per smoothie & I cant go down much lower.
Thanks for the insite.
Mitch
Bella Caffe
Memphis, TN
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Perrine on
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Check out the possibility of doing a pourover bar.
All you'd need to hookup is a water tower (Fetco 2gallon) which wouldn't take up much more room than an airpot brewer would.
Intellegentsia is doing this as their primary brewed coffee method and is serving 700-1000 people in a day.
Kickstand coffee is also doing it as a street vender.
I'd be happy to show you give you a fair quote for all necessary equipment if you'd like.
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Permalink Reply by Mitch Buckner - Bella Caffe on
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But would I be able to handle 350 people waiting in a breakfast buffet line? I would guess in about 30 minutes? I would love to do a brew to order but I've gotta have these people out fast. I could see serving 1000 over a days time, but what about an hours time?
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Permalink Reply by Mark Jackson on
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If you are a caterer which is what you will be you need to really prep off site. Most places are not going to let you set up anything. You will be in the way, you will require a lot of power and will impose on what they are trying to accomplish. Brew off site into these
http://cool.cambro.com/Insulated_Beverage_Servers_Insulated_Transpo...
They will be your most cost effective. Make sure you really pre-heat them well.
If you can afford these containers they are better in my opinion for heat retention.
http://bunn.com/pages/windows/Titan_Server.html
Of course these will be heavy and have a good cart to wheel things in. In my experience if you wheel stuff in instead of going to a busy place to set up it is a lot less stressful. You may also find they will invite you back to do another event if you are not under their feet and just come in set up quickly and serve coffee. If you try to power up there you may find you start blowing circuit breakers and most places do not really like that.
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I do prefer the Titans over the Cambros. I already have some Cambros but generally I dont serve out of those, just keep them in the kitchen & refil the more decorative urns as they empty. But, the Titan's I would probably be alright storing & serving out of. Ive got most of the logistics down on serving (although there will always be better ways to do it), I just need to figure out the pricing!
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Permalink Reply by Kathy Fadorsen on
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When I do large coffee orders I charge $17.00 a gallon if I also have to supply the cream and sugar and stuff $15.00 a gallon if just the coffee.
Mitch Buckner - Bella Caffe said:I do prefer the Titans over the Cambros. I already have some Cambros but generally I dont serve out of those, just keep them in the kitchen & refil the more decorative urns as they empty. But, the Titan's I would probably be alright storing & serving out of. Ive got most of the logistics down on serving (although there will always be better ways to do it), I just need to figure out the pricing!
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So that works out to about 1.60 per 12oz cup (with cream & sugar). Would this be the same if it was 5 gallons or 50 gallons?
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I have done larger order and the only time I have discounted that price was for a church function. I should have also mentioned this does not include serving I just drop it off and go than pick up the cambros later.
Mitch Buckner - Bella Caffe said:So that works out to about 1.60 per 12oz cup (with cream & sugar). Would this be the same if it was 5 gallons or 50 gallons?
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More than likely for regular coffee service I would just drop off. Thats a good baseline to go by. Thanks
Kathy Fadorsen said:I have done larger order and the only time I have discounted that price was for a church function. I should have also mentioned this does not include serving I just drop it off and go than pick up the cambros later.
Mitch Buckner - Bella Caffe said:So that works out to about 1.60 per 12oz cup (with cream & sugar). Would this be the same if it was 5 gallons or 50 gallons?
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