So you need to find catering in Philadelphia, and preferably you’d like to find catering services that are close to you. It would be even better if you could find a provider for catering that was close by, and one that you could rely on to cater all of your events, whether a family party or a corporate event.
However, you might think it’s a little tricky to sort through the options. Philadelphia is a big city after all and there are a lot of caterers around. If you do your homework upfront and find a catering partner that you can lean on the first time around, you won’t need to do double the work later.
Before you start a blind search for catering near me, think about the following questions. If you pick up the right Philadelphia catering company the first time, you’ll be well-positioned down the road. Here are some of the items you may want to investigate before proceeding with a partner for catering services.
1. I am planning a themed party and I need a carefully selected and devised menu. How can you help with that?
We only recently published a few posts to our blog on how to plan themed parties and events and to make sure they go off beautifully and with no hiccups. Opportunities abound throughout the year to capitalize on holidays and seasons in order to craft carefully orchestrated parties that please all of your guests. Still, whether it’s a Fall party or a Holiday fest, part of the planning is in the crafting and choice of the menu.
That’s one of the reasons why the careful choice of a caterer can make a big difference in how successfully your party goes off. What happens when you plan a holiday party, complete with fitting music, wintry decorations, and even entertainment, but your menu offerings are not seasonal? Something would be missing there.
So, to keep things short and sweet, we’ll work with you when you are planning a party or an event, even a themed party, just to make sure that everything goes off beautifully, and just how you would have envisioned it.
Just give us a call at our Philadelphia waterfront location (or the one that’s closest to you) and we’ll let you know just how we can help you plan customized menu offerings for all of your events, whatever the theme.
2. Never mind the theme – I have picky eaters; will you work with me to craft the menu?
Maybe you are not particularly concerned or interested with the theming of your party and how you array your locale with decorations. That doesn’t necessarily mean you wouldn’t be concerned with a custom prepared menu.
What about when you have notoriously picky guests or family members that will be joining you for a meal or a party? It wouldn’t be good hosting if you didn’t account for their tastes, at least within reason.
Perhaps the issue here isn’t even that you have a picky family member so much as you will have kids joining and you want to cater to their simpler tastes. We’re proud of the fact that we create vibrant new dishes with piquant flavors and innovative twists on classic flavors, but we also recognize that there are a whole bunch of tastes out there.
As we stated, all you need to do is give us a call and talk to us about what you need. Any Philly catering company worth its salt would be pleased to craft a specialized menu for you, and we sure would be.
3. How about dietary requirements and constraints?
What about this one – there are times when you need to come up with unique menu items and offerings because you want to meet the tastes of your guests. There are times that you may want to come up with a special menu for your themed party. But what about the times when offering a carefully prepared dish is not a matter of preference but one of medical imperative?
Sometimes a menu item needs to meet special nutritional requirements and not just finicky palates. Whether you have guests who need gluten-free offerings or will be hosting those who choose to follow vegetarian diets, we can create special offerings for each of them and make them a part of your catered offering.
In fact, we also provide menu items for those who follow even stricter dietary considerations; for example, many of the items on our menu are not only vegetarian but truly vegan. That’s just what we offer, but if you reach out to us and let us know you need a little something extra, we’ll make that happen too.
With us, the name of the game is service, and to us, going above and beyond is just making the grade. Let us know what dietary restrictions you’re facing and we’ll show you just how we can help.
4. I need to set up a corporate meeting. Can you provide for corporate catering?
You may have gotten the impression by this point that we’ll create special menus for you, whether for themed parties or for special dietary requirements – but that’s not all.
Some catering companies in Philadelphia will specialize in how, when, and where they provide catering services to their customers, which is reasonable. Specialization makes the world go round, but sometimes specialization can hurt service.
Consider this; what happens when you work with a corporate caterer most of the time but at some rare point need a provider of catering for a wedding or a family party? They might not serve the venue. The converse is also true, but we’re here to provide you with catering services across the board.
Whether you need affordable catering, wedding catering, catering for a birthday party, or even corporate catering, we’ll make it happen for you.
5. What about odd hours of the day? How about if I want breakfast catering?
Speaking of specialty in a catering company in Philadelphia and how it can be problematic, remember that there is more to diversification to the type of event you will help to cater. Remember that menus and preferences vary throughout the hours of the day as well as by the location and nature of the event.
Consider a niche service like breakfast catering that not all caterers offer or even want to offer. If you’re looking for something like “breakfast catering near me” you might not come up with enough to keep you happy. Not a lot of caterers are willing to reach into that area; sometimes breakfast is outside of working hours, and worse, oftentimes even when they will meet you halfway, you won’t be getting anything to scream about.
No one likes to prepare food in the morning, yet interestingly enough, no one is happy over a hungry stomach or a lack of caffeine. When you know you’ll be needing a catered meal for breakfast, you can settle for a few bagels and donuts, or you can do it the right way with signature coffee blends and tea, artisanal bagels and pastries, fresh fruits, or some combination.
When you need breakfast catering in your area, do it right – and yes, we offer it.
6. When do you prepare your food? Are you preparing it beforehand?
This is, hands down, one of the most important questions you can ask a provider of catering services in Philadelphia. The thing about catering is that many caterers, really top-notch caterers, may fall into the practice of preparing meals ahead of time in order to keep up with demand and limited resources. While this doesn’t necessarily impact the quality of the food they offer, it does impact the freshness, and freshness is everything.
It’s not just a platitude. Our motto is “Always Fresh, Always Awesome,” and we don’t just spout them out without putting some stock behind it. When it comes to the food we prepare, we really do mean freshness is everything.
For our part, that means when you work with us to come up with a special order for your catered event, we take preparing for it seriously. When we receive an order, it’s never prepared ahead of time. It’s prepared freshly for delivery, every time, with no exceptions.
To us, flavor is only one component of quality food, and freshness is a big part of the picture as well. Even if you work with us to provide breakfast catering to your early morning event, you can trust that we’re going to prepare it freshly before we deliver it, every time – even at odd hours!
7. I’m trying to engineer costs down and the quality of the food matters to me most. How much will delivery cost me?
Anyone looking for affordable catering in Philadelphia will be well pleased with this little gem. There are many ways that we differentiate ourselves from the competition as one of the best catering companies in Philadelphia, but this is something that not too many others can do for you.
If you’re looking for affordable catering in Philadelphia, just remember that there is a big difference between affordability and cheapness. One of the ways that we can help you keep costs down without ever compromising on the quality of our menu is by providing you with take-out and free delivery.
All you have to do is work with one of our team members to come up with a menu for your special event and then we will not only prepare it freshly for delivery but also deliver it free of charge – reach out to us for more information.
8. I’m a practicing locavore. Do you source ingredients locally?
This is another great bonus you can look from among catering companies in Philly. As more and more people practice eating locally (or eating locally sourced ingredients) in order to keep their carbon footprints down, or just to enjoy fresher food, the demand for “local” and “locally sourced” is on the up and up.
It might be a trend that many are following, but we’re still proud to report that many of our dishes are crafted from locally sourced ingredients that are as fresh as can be.
To answer the question – yes, many of our dishes are specially prepared in accordance with this maxim. It helps us keep things fresh, too.
If you want to learn more about some of the benefits of eating local or locally sourced ingredients, check out our recent blog on why you should work with a local caterer.
9. I want to speak with an actual person to prepare my plans and my menu. Will I get to work with an actual member of your team to ensure everything falls into place?
One of the most important things that any caterer can provide for its customers is a team of professionals that care about customer satisfaction and customer service. Catering is, after all, largely about service, and it’s something we make sure to guarantee for our customers.
You can check out some of our popular Waterfront Gourmet menu offerings on our website, but we like to keep button pushing and automation to a minimum. That’s one of the ways we guarantee that your food is handled with care and prepared freshly.
When you call us up, you’ll get to work with a real person who will help to make sure that everything is prepared as you like it and delivered when you need it. It’s one of the big differences between the best catering company in Philadelphia – and everything else.
If you’re ready to experience the difference that exists between other caterers and a caterer that cares deeply about menu-based innovation and customer service, then give us a call. We’re never more than a dial away!
Check out our listing of locations via the link above and call us at the one nearest you. You can get started crafting a special menu for your upcoming event today. Even if you just have some questions based on what we offered in this article, call us up and we’d be happy to shed some light on the matter.
