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Catering FAQ

"Explore our Catering FAQ section to find answers to commonly asked questions about our catering services. Whether you're planning a wedding, corporate event, or special celebration, our FAQ provides valuable insights into menu options, pricing, service details, and more. Discover everything you need to know to make your event a success with Tommy's Catering.

  • What is your attire?
    Whenever you see us, we'll be in black shirts with our company name on them, and black pants. Our goal is to blend into the background and not be noticeable as we perform our duties.
  • À La Carte Menu Pricing Explanation?
    We price complete meals. For example, let's use an appetizers example with nice round numbers. Since COVID costs are up here's and example: cubed meats and cheeses with mustards and crackers at $6.00 per person, meatballs at $6.00 per person, crudité (veggies and ranch) at $3.00 per person, and sliced fruit at $3.00 per person, totaling $18.00 per person if you just added them up from a menu. We understand that not all items will be consumed in full portions if there are 4 choices for your guests. Therefore, we typically charge around $13.00 per person for these items. This pricing approach ensures that you receive value for the items you select, and any savings are passed on to you.
  • Handling Special Requests?
    We strive to accommodate special requests. However, limitations may arise due to food quality considerations. For instance, we may refrain from baking and transporting fish for extended periods of time to maintain freshness. Nevertheless, we can often grill items onsite, such as Salmon with a dill sauce, providing additional culinary opportunities. Refer to other FAQ's regarding food allergies.
  • Sample Menu Availability?
    Under the menu tab on the website we have sample/starter menus. Custom menus are common and we can work with you to create your menu. The appetizers package featured on the back of the Bridal Show flyer has our most popular appetizers. Our extended menu has a lot of ideas including BBQ, grilled onsite, stations, additional appetizers, linens, China and bartenders. If you're interested in exploring further options, please contact us for our extended menu.
  • Can you cater at a venue without facilities?
    Yes, we often cater events in venues such as tents and barns that lack facilities. We really only need a table to unwrap the foil from our pans and a place to put our dirty pans temporarily. We can bring an EZ-up or two and tables if we need to. Everything comes back with us and gets run through our commercial dishwasher. Our vans are equipped with refrigerators/freezers, and we also bring a hand wash station for our staff.
  • When do we arrive?
    Our first van arrives approximately 2 hours before dinner service to set up appetizers and the buffet. A second van with the hot food for dinner arrives an hour before the buffet service to allow for any unforeseen delays. Timing may vary for events held in barns, tents, or with onsite grilling, as each catering event is unique.
  • Do you include disposable dinnerware?
    Our pricing always includes 3-compartment heavy foam plates, heavy-duty plastic silverware, and paper napkins. We offer three upgrades apart from this base China to suit your preferences and event requirements.
  • What China upgrades do you offer?
    Our extended menu China upgrades: 1. We have a simple plastic plate upgrade with the same white heavy duty plastic silverware and paper napkins. 2. Disposable plastic but looks like real china and silverware. 3. Real China. If you’d like our extended menu please contact us via phone or email.
  • What area do you service?
    We service about a 100-mile radius of Pittsburgh. If the travel distance is beyond a half an hour we have a fee to cover labor and the vans for the rest of the trip. Just to cover our additional payroll and van expenses.
  • What venues have you been at?
    We can cater anywhere that allows outside caterers. It's important to note that there are many illegal "garage" caterers with no insurance, etc. Our kitchen is equipped to handle up to 1,000 quality dinners per day for events like Weddings and Corporate Holiday parties. Quality staff for off-premise catering is valuable and difficult to find, and we pride ourselves on our expertise in this area. You can see the venue list below.
  • Can you provide RAMP Certified bartenders?
    Yes, we do offer RAMP Certified bartenders, with one bartender for every 100 guests. Our bartenders prioritize efficiency to minimize wait times. For example, if you're having signature drinks, we premake the mixed part without the alcohol and put it in iced tea dispensers. Then, we add the alcohol for each individual guest drink. This helps to ensure guest satisfaction by preparing the guests' drinks as quickly as possible. We also provide soda and water through the bar.
  • What does the Barback service include?
    Our Barback service includes everything except alcohol. This encompasses plasticware, mixers, garnishes, napkins, ice and coolers with your beer and wine. We do not handle kegs, and our bartenders are typically middle-aged women. We will work with you on any signature drinks and hard alcohols so that we can bring the most popular mixers. A few weeks out we’ll also ask about how many types of beer bottles/cans, how many wines and if you would like bottles, cans, or boxes.
  • How many guests will one grill handle?
    We use one grill for up to 100 guests. We can also grill additional items such as marinated squash and zucchini as your vegetables. In addition we serve normal dinner entrees of beef, chicken, pork, portabella’s and fish. For dessert we can also grill pineapple, peaches and other items. Our extended menu offers a variety of grilling options that we can email upon request.
  • What happens to any leftover food we bring back?
    The majority of leftover food is donated to Vandergrift Meals on Wheels, with some portions supporting additional families in need. We prioritize minimizing food waste and supporting our community wherever possible.
  • Pickup Option?
    We provide pickup services in Vandergrift at no additional charge. The food is carefully packed into disposable pans for your convenience. However, please ensure suitable arrangements are made to keep the food hot during transit.
  • Dropoff/Delivery Services?
    Dropoff or delivery services are usually available, depending on our existing bookings for the day. A fee will apply and we recommend contacting us in advance to confirm availability and discuss logistics.
  • Staffed Events?
    While staffing is possible, it may not always be the most cost-effective option, especially for smaller events with minimal drink service. However, we can provide staffing for your event if required. This handles setup, maintaining the buffet and busing the dirty plates. Usually Weddings and Corporate events are staffed.
  • Most Popular Service Option?
    Our most popular service option for small parties is dropoff/setup/pickup. With this option, we handle everything from bringing the food, plates, chafers, serving utensils, and drinks, (if applicable) to setting up the chafers for the buffet and loading the first pans of food. Additionally we leave a hot box with the extra food ensuring everything is ready for your event. We have you call us when you’re about done and we come back to put leftover food into disposable pans for you to take home. Then we clean up our equipment and leave. Staffing is available at an additional charge. Weddings and Corporate events are usually staffed. Any event with a grill or carving station are staffed.
  • Where is your commercial kitchen?
    Our commercial kitchen is located in Downtown Vandergrift.
  • How many Weddings do you do per day?
    We used to do 3 or 4 weddings per day, but now we're doing 1 or 2, depending on the first wedding booked for that date. Large weddings (over 250 guests) or those with special requirements like real China or Barback, and others that may require extra crew, are the only wedding for that day. This can determine how many weddings or other catering events we can staff on any given date.
  • Do you offer concessions?
    Yes, we do concessions for festivals. Our offerings include Italian foods, sausages, lemonade, and shave ice.
  • Do you operate a food truck?
    We have a food trailer that we use occasionally, mostly for concessions at events.
  • Best value option?
    Buffet is the best value for your money, not only does it provide more food selection, the guests also get to choose their portion sizes.
  • Do you handle family style?
    Yes, we can and will. We do think a buffet works better and is more cost-effective considering family-style has a lot more waste and adds labor costs vs a buffet. If this is what you want we can do it. (Note: This seems to often be requested near Uniontown)
  • Do you provide table service (set down dinners)?
    Yes, we offer table service. Please contact us for more information as there are several details to discuss. This includes rolls & butter, salads & dressing, water goblets including initial filling & refilling, maybe pitchers on the table, how many entrees and what vegetables and potatoes you would like. Most of the time this requires real China. Table service significantly increases the required labor.
  • Why do most menus have pasta and marinara?
    Many menus include pasta and marinara sauce because younger guests, particularly children, often prefer non-meat options. While some guests enjoy pasta as a side dish, for others, it serves as their main course. We mention this because we encounter this scenario regularly, and we understand that party planners may not always be aware of it. With this we can ensure they have a preferred entrée as well. However, you're not obligated to include pasta on your menu at all.
  • What’s so special about your bacon?
    We make it salty and well smoked on purpose to use in our carbonara, bacon wrapped tater tots, as a topping for salads, potato stations (baked, tots, mashed) and possibly in our mac n cheese and cheesy potatoes.
  • What is a tasting?
    We have a few tastings a year where people can sign up, as we limit how many can come to try all of our most popular foods and see displays of nightcap bars, linens, China, etc. Typically we leave the old tasting posted as the menu is usually the same and when the next tasting date is set, we’ll update the information. Many people find it useful when picking a menu and other items/services offered. You don’t need to attend a tasting, most people book without attending. It is such a great opportunity to have a table of up to 6 people to try these foods. This is why we have tastings. We usually contact our folks who have called, emailed, or filled out a “contact us” form at a show before publicizing a tasting if we have any room left.
  • Do you use canned vegetables?
    We use frozen vegetables other than for on the grill, then we use fresh. Frozen taste so much better than canned.
  • What is aujus or au jus?
    "Au jus (pronounced "oh zhoo") is a French term that means "with juice." It’s basically very thin juice. Think of it as bouillon, just less salty, in case you don’t know what it is. It’s a condiment we send with carving stations for steamship or top round, along with horsey sauce and horseradish."
  • What is your booking process for a Wedding?
    After we have a good proposal, we’ll put it into our simple contract. Basically, we work together to ensure accuracy with menus, other items, and the number of guests. A 20% deposit holds your space on our calendar for your date. We have limited crews and only book what we can do well. There are two long lead-time items: steamships and RAMP-certified bartenders. Aside from these, you can make reasonable changes to menus and other items (China, linens, etc.) until two weeks before the event. At that time, we’ll send you a final invoice, and you can send in a check. Since we purchase almost everything fresh the week before (aside from the two items above), we don’t require final payment months in advance. We strive to be as flexible as possible throughout the process, including payment. We prefer cash or checks as credit cards add a 5% processing fee. You can mix and match check and credit card payments and only pay the 5% on actual credit card payments. For instance, the deposit can be paid by credit card with the 5% fee, but if the rest of the balance is paid in cash or check, there won’t be an additional 5%. Payments are posted in our software and will appear on future proposals and the final invoice. We aim to make your day as stress-free as possible with our portion of responsibilities, including the contract process.
  • Nut allergies?
    Pesto that has pine nuts in the sauce and a lot of our boxes have the disclaimer “this product was produced in a factory that may process nuts” If you have any other allergies please contact us for more information.
  • Gluten Free?
    We often accommodate to people in need of gluten free meals. For example if it’s a Wedding and one family member has celiac, we make them Gluten Free pasta and combine it with the many Gluten Free options on our menu. Our Steamship, carved turkey breast, pulled pork, and base marinated chicken with cheese and scallions do not contain gluten. Neither does most potatoes or vegetables and we can leave the croutons off of the salad to accommodate any gluten allergy.
  • Do you do KETO?
    Yes - Baked cheese crisps, cucumber appetizers, salmon, smoked salmon, cucumber bites with dill sauce, caprese kabobs, flavored bacons and smoked cheeses. Contact us for any special requests.
  • Tell me about your VW grill.
    Our VW grill is a unique feature. It was originally displayed as artwork high up on the wall at Gadzooks in Monroeville Mall, where we purchased it in 2014. We designed a custom trailer with a platform we can stand on while we grill at the front which also has a removable tongue. This allows people to sit in the back seat and take pictures while we grill at the front.
  • What grilling items do you offer?
    We offer a wide range of grilling options, including steaks, fresh or frozen burgers, marinated chicken, portabella mushrooms, hot & sweet sausage, kielbasa, hot dogs, and marinated vegetables. For dessert, we can grill pineapple or peaches, providing a unique and flavorful treat. Contact us for our extended menu that has lots of grilling onsite ideas.
  • How large of a Steamship can you get and how many will it feed?
    Our largest Steamship was 103 pounds. We have special pans and ovens to handle Steamships. For events with fewer than 125 guests, we prepare a top round instead. Especially since COVID sometimes the sizes available aren’t as plentiful and often the smallest available is 60 pounds. Some clients opt to pay the difference for the presentation value of a Steamship, even for smaller gatherings.
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