Family style
Big platters and bowls go to every table and guests pass them around. It's generous, it's social, and it gets strangers at a wedding table talking.
- Feels like. Sunday supper at a long table.
- Best for. Weddings, rehearsal dinners, private dinners and anything with long tables.
- Needs. Room on the table for platters, and more servers than a buffet to refill them.
Buffet
Guests serve themselves from a line. It's the most flexible style and the easiest on a mixed crowd, because everyone takes what they want.
- Feels like. Relaxed and casual, with a little line.
- Best for. Corporate lunches, celebrations, big crowds and menus with lots of choice.
- Needs. A double-sided line for big counts so nobody waits long, and a bit more food than a plated dinner.
Plated
Every guest gets a plate, served at the table, course by course. It's the most formal style and the easiest to time to a program.
- Feels like. A dinner where you're looked after.
- Best for. Galas, fundraisers, formal weddings and anything with speeches on a schedule.
- Needs. Entrée choices collected ahead of time, and the most service staff of any style.
Stations
Cooks work separate stations around the room: carving, a taco bar, a raw bar, a pasta or a sweets table. Guests move, mingle and graze.
- Feels like. A party that keeps moving.
- Best for. Receptions, cocktail-style weddings and crowds that would rather mingle than sit.
- Needs. Floor space for each station, and enough of them that no line gets long.
Passed bites and drop-off
Two more ways to feed a room. Passed bites work for a cocktail hour or a whole reception when guests are on their feet. Drop-off is the office answer: we deliver it ready to serve, with disposables or a staffed setup.
How to choose
- Want people talking?. Family style.
- Feeding a big, mixed crowd on a timeline?. Buffet, double-sided.
- Speeches, a program, a black-tie room?. Plated.
- More party than dinner?. Stations and passed bites.
You can mix them, too: passed bites at cocktail hour, family style at dinner, a late-night station at the door. Tell us the room and the crowd and we'll suggest what fits.