Catering and events
34 articles from the Katalyst team.
USDA says not to reheat a whole cooked Thanksgiving turkey
A cold-pickup holiday dinner should be eaten within 2 days, not the usual 3–4. The 2026 Food Code adds a 2-inch maximum depth for cooling pans.
Visa says a deposit receipt must use the word 'Deposit'
A client can dispute a cancelled event deposit for 120 days after the event date, capped at 540 days. ACH has no dispute right for cancelled services.
McCormick Place can fine outside food sampling $1,500
Food samples are capped at 2 oz at McCormick and Javits but 1 oz at Moscone, which bans alcohol sampling. Older city contracts paid 18–49% of receipts.
A $108 Galveston meeting package costs $135 after service
IACC conference centers must include basic AV and Wi-Fi in the package. A 2023 Maggiano's packet charged $19.95 for Wi-Fi and $200 for a projector.
A hotel's sneeze guard put its breakfast buffet out of reach
ADA dining surfaces must be 28 to 34 inches high, and side reach over a counter stops at 24 inches deep. Buffet labels and menus need no Braille.
A blackout excused a wedding hall, not its $10,578 deposit
Markel's event policy excludes the ordinary thunderstorm. One Outer Banks venue refunds only on a county evacuation order in place that day, and only 80%.
Agency staff bill four hours for a two-hour party
Qwick paid $2.1 million and must treat its California workers as employees. A banquet's mandatory 'gratuity' is wages, not tips, under federal rules.
Wholesale turkey bids hit 184 cents a pound in October
Wegmans sells Thanksgiving for eight at under $5 a person. Cracker Barrel's dinner for 4–6 is about $119.99, and one farm charges $25 more to cook it.
Pre-dinner hors d'oeuvre guidelines differ by four times
Brown and Hershey plan 8–10 pieces per person per hour before dinner; a convention-center caterer plans 2–4. In lieu of dinner, sources agree on 12–15.
Offices hit 66% on Tuesday but averaged 56% for the week
ZeroCater charges headcount cuts on the same schedule as cancellations. On ezCater, 15% commission plus 2.99% processing is about 18% of an order.
19% of US adults report a food allergy; 10.8% have one
Shellfish is the most common adult food allergy, and nearly half of allergic adults developed theirs as adults. Last year's dietary list is already stale.
Donated catering labor carries no charitable deduction
A gala dinner fails the enhanced food-deduction test, but leftovers sent to a food bank can pass. The charity still owes guests the meal's value above $75.
Adding tent sidewalls for warmth can trigger a fire permit
Seattle bans mushroom heaters inside tents but allows heaters blowing in from outside. Denver doubles permit fees inside 14 days; Chicago triples them.
One hotel contract priced the same shortfall three ways
Published catering policies overset 3–5% and bill the guarantee or the actual count, whichever is greater. A late increase can add up to 15% a head.
North Carolina waives box labels if your staff hand them out
New York's allergen-label law for prepackaged food takes effect in November. Time control allows four hours out of temperature, then the food is discarded.
Ariba bills suppliers only past $50,000 with one buyer
A $10,000 catering invoice paid by virtual card carries $270 of interchange. Restaurants hold a median 16 days of cash; large companies pay in about 59.
Orlando prices conference breaks for 30 minutes, not 45
Convention centers that price 12-ounce cups get 10 to 12 per gallon, not the 16 to 20 most guides use. Attended stations bill a four-hour minimum.
One NYC room charges $2,900 on Q4 weeknights, not $2,500
In 2023, 58% of companies held their holiday party during the workday. Fogo de Chão's holiday contracts had to be signed by October 30.
A hotel's banquet order said 'keep the glasses filled'
California shields hosts and licensees from overserving claims, yet employers still lose through their employees. In 2013 a court listed the fixes.
A catered lunch costs a federal attendee $19, not your price
GSA's meal rates for FY2027, effective October 1, stay at $68 to $92 a day. The conference-planning rules most guides cite were deleted in December 2025.
Caterers cause 14% of outbreaks but 29% of the illnesses
California requires departure and arrival temperature logs, kept 90 days. The Food Code gives temporary events just three exemptions.
Planners' ethics code requires disclosing supplier payments
Venues sell placement three ways: flat monthly fee, per booking, or performance. Reported outside-caterer buyouts run $500 to $2,000, and none is published.
Union banquet contracts set 20 plated covers per server
A lunch-then-dinner double is a California split shift with its own premium. New York guarantees three hours of call-in pay per shift.
Form-to-email capture ranked worst in the lead-response data
Federal law lets you email an inquiry lead with no prior consent. A marketing text to that same couple needs prior express written consent.
Portraits and cocktail hour are the same 60 minutes
Allow three to five minutes per family photo grouping. One venue publishes plated service at 40 to 45 minutes, from salad to coffee.
Your photographer's contract sets how many meals you serve
A university caterer adds $1,000 to every wedding for labor alone, and $2 a head across the whole room when one entree choice passes 20%.
A non-refundable deposit can still be void as a penalty
California judges a birthday dinner's deposit more strictly than a corporate booking's, and taxes a mandatory event service charge even if staff get all of it.
ezCater's commission is charged on your delivery fee too
Marketplace orders pay 15% plus 2.99%; customers you bring in pay 7%. On ezCater's $420 average order, that is roughly $83 versus $46 in fees.
How to price catering orders — and write contracts that protect you
The real cost stack behind a per-person price, why catering food cost runs lower, and the contract clauses that decide whether a booking is profitable.
Catering: the $1M revenue channel most restaurants leave on the table
Catering economics for restaurants: average order sizes, margins, lead-time logic, deposit math, and how operators get from $0 to $200K and then to $1M without hiring a full second team.
Why catering is the high-revenue channel you’re likely under-managing
Stop managing catering on sticky notes. Scale your most profitable channel with Katalyst. Book a demo!
9 game-changing strategies to market your restaurant’s catering
Unlock serious catering revenue with these nine catering strategies.
Revolutionizing restaurant catering with Katalyst POS
Catering is one of the most profitable channels in a restaurant — and one of the most operationally painful. Here’s how Katalyst’s POS-native catering turns it into a 24/7 revenue engine.
How Katalyst empowers restaurants to scale catering services effortlessly
From order intake and upfront payments to capacity-aware fulfillment, Katalyst’s catering management lives inside the POS — turning catering into a streamlined, revenue-driving channel.