Four ways to serve a group
Before you write the menu, decide how the food reaches the table. The format sets how much choice guests get, how hard the night is on the kitchen, and what the host has to decide ahead of time.
| Format | Guest choice | Kitchen load | Decided ahead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plated, with choices | Two or three per course | Highest; each course fires at once | Package, often each guest’s entrée |
| Family style | Everything, shared | Moderate; platters by table | Package and count |
| Stations or buffet | Guests serve themselves | Front-loaded; replenishing all night | Package, count, service window |
| Passed bites, standing | Whatever comes by | Steady; many small pieces | Pieces per guest, length of the reception |
Family style is the easiest sell for a restaurant with no banquet kitchen: it uses dishes already on your menu, needs no pre-selection, and feels generous. Plated dinners suit rooms that already run a coursed menu.
Build two or three packages
Hosts choose faster from a few packages than from your whole menu. Build them in steps, each one adding a course or a better protein, each with one per-person price:
- The first package: a shared starter, two entrée choices, one dessert.
- The middle package: two starters, three entrée choices including a premium one, dessert.
- The top package: passed bites on arrival, then the full dinner, with a supplement line for anything extra, such as a wine pairing.
Every package needs a vegetarian choice, and each should be made mostly from what your kitchen already preps. The printed layout for packages and courses, set as a real menu, is the banquet menu template. How a coursed set menu lists its courses is in prix fixe and tasting menus.
Counts, choices, and dietary needs
Private events go wrong on numbers, not food. Set the dates for each decision when you book, and write them into the agreement:
- At booking: the date, the room, the package, an estimated count, and the deposit.
- Two weeks out: the menu choices final, the wine chosen, the room layout agreed.
- A few days out: the guaranteed count, each guest’s entrée if pre-selected, and every allergy and dietary need by name.
- Day of: place cards or a marked seating list so servers know who ordered what.
The guaranteed count is the number you bill, even if fewer guests arrive. Say so in writing at booking, not on the night.
The banquet event order
The menu the guests see is only half the paper. The kitchen and the floor work from a banquet event order, or BEO: one page per event with the date, arrival and service times, the guaranteed count, the exact menu and each choice’s count, allergies by guest, the room setup, the bar arrangement, and the billing. It is the document the chef preps from and the manager checks at lineup. Keep it separate from the guest menu; it carries things guests should not read, like the price and the host’s phone number.
The menu on the table
The printed menu at each place setting is part of what the host is paying for. Print the host’s occasion (“Celebrating Margaret’s retirement” or the company name), the date, and the courses in order. Leave off the prices; the host already agreed them. A single sheet, folded or flat, on the same paper as your regular menu is plenty.
December is the busiest month for group dinners, with its own timeline and pitfalls; see the holiday party playbook. Clubs that run member dinners and private events every week have their own setup on menus for country clubs.
Minimums and service charges
Many restaurants use a food and beverage minimum for a private room instead of a room fee: the group spends at least that amount, and the room comes with it. Whatever you charge, write it plainly at booking: the minimum, any service charge and whether it goes to staff, tax, and the deposit and cancellation terms. Check your state and local rules before adding a mandatory service charge.
What Gaslamp does and does not do
In Gaslamp, keep a standing private dining menu with your packages as items, each at its per-person price (a package sold at two sizes can carry both prices on one line), and send the host its link. The courses and choices go in each package’s description or in sections of their own. More than one menu needs a paid plan; the trial includes one live menu.
One honest limit: every Gaslamp item prints with a price. That suits the package menu you send the host, and it does not suit a price-free card at each place setting. For that card, set the courses in a word processor on the same paper you use for your menus.
Gaslamp does not book rooms, take deposits, collect guest choices, or write BEOs. It has no event calendar and no seating chart. It keeps the package menu right, from your phone, wherever the host opens it.