With the holidays right around the corner, many companies will have catering brought into the office. Finding the balance of what you want, where you will put it, and if it can be produced and served properly is not always easy. Start by looking at the number of guests in attendance. As a general rule, you need one buffet line for every 50 to 60 guests if it is served as a full meal. Do you have this kind of space? Do you have a kitchen, oven, or sink? Throwing the caterer in a back hallway or supply room and hoping for the best does not always work! Remember that action stations create lingering aromas and can quickly fill an office enviroment. Try to stagger you staff so they are not all hitting the buffet or station at once. Are you allowed to have open flame or sterno on your property? Do you have the proper electrical outlets? Remember, industrial coffee makers blow fuses easily!
What looks great in the magazines does not always translate into an office space with no kitchen facility. Keep things simple, abundant and beautiful and you will save on food costs, labor and decor. Good looking ideas do not always have a practical application!
A focused meal or culinary experience that is plentiful and artfully displayed always garners good results. Delicious breakfast pastry with some type of egg casserole, hot coffee and juices is crowd pleasing and cost effective. Sandwiches with hot soup, an afternoon cookie and cocoa station, wine and cheese with antipastas, or even happy hour munchies will make your employees feel special.
Start by taking a focused menu such as a Dessert Buffet Station and make the display stellar with a few specialty linens and buffet enhancements. If there are grids or beams above the table, hang candles or lanterns, beads, snowflakes or wreaths. Use a color story that enhances the food and beverage and works with things you might already own. Make your event an experience rather than a deli tray on the employee lunch table.
If you need some suggestions on how to make your employees feel appreciated this holiday season, call us! We have extensive menu ideas and decor to help you celebrate in SBFD style. What is the best culinary item you have ever had at a work function? We would like to know!

Rob Schaefer
Holiday Cheer Provider and St. Louis Wedding Professional Hall of Fame Inaugural Inductee

Trying to break into the event coordination or wedding planning business and need experience? Looking for a little extra for your resume?

Steven Becker Fine Dining and The Coronado Ballroom, a premier event facility and catering company in St. Louis is looking to hire an Events Coordinator Intern. We are currently looking for a talented, motivated, independent thinking and creative student or recent graduate for internship opportunities in our office. Internship days and hours are flexible, and can be worked around class, extra-curricular activities and work schedules.

Intern duties include, but are not limited to: answering phones, learning Caterease event management software, assisting with processing corporate catering delivery orders, assist with the planning and execution of all aspects of events and wedding receptions, marketing and eblast promotions and assisting Catering Managers at event sites. Candidates will work directly with the Director of Sales and Vice President of Catering and Design, along with the client, from first contact all the way through their event day to ensure that the details of their event go exactly as they dream. Applicants should be able to listen to instructions and carefully and correctly follow directions.

Please send resumes to kathy@stevenbeckerfd.com. Your resume should demonstrate the following qualifications:

Strong Interest in Industry ~ Applicants should have some previous event planning experience.

Personality ~ Applicants should be detail oriented, personable, assertive, motivated, independent, resourceful, quick moving and able to multi-task, good at handling objections and issues, have a great work ethic, and of course enjoy events!

Availability ~ Applicants must be available to work weekday evenings and up to 12 hours on Saturdays and/or Sundays during the event.

Fundraising Gala to be Emceed by Former Blues Enforcer, Tony Twist. Retired Hockey Player is “Taking His Gloves Off” in the Pursuit of Love and Marriage for One Glamorous Evening.

WHAT: The St. Louis Chapter of Wish Upon a Wedding, the world’s first non-profit wedding wish granting organization is holding its inaugural “Blissful Wishes” Ball to benefit its programs and mission. Monies raised during the evening will allow the organization to continue its mission of granting weddings and vow renewals to couples facing terminal illness and other serious, life-altering circumstances. Local wedding industry professionals and founding board members, James Robert Schaefer and Nancy Slade are co-chairing the event.
Tony Twist, former left wing player for the St. Louis Blues and one of the heaviest NHL punchers of his time, will serve as the event’s emcee. Twist retired from the St. Louis Blues in 1999 after an eleven-year playing career. He is now a co-host of post-game shows after televised Blues games and is known for his charity and community work in the St. Louis area.

WHO: The St. Louis Chapter of Wish Upon a Wedding is one of more than two dozen local chapters of Wish Upon a Wedding throughout the United States and was founded in March, 2010. The chapter granted its first wish on September 1, 2010 by making the dream of walking down the aisle and marrying her fiancé come true for a young Fenton women suffering from end-stage cystic fibrosis. The chapter has since granted two additional wedding wishes.
Nationally, the organization was founded by wedding planner Liz Guthrie of San Jose, CA, founded Wish Upon a Wedding to celebrate the courage, determination and spirit of these couples by granting dream-wedding wishes, with the intention that chosen recipients will inspire others facing similar situations. Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, and officially launched in January, 2010, the organization currently has more than two dozen chapters nationwide, and has granted approximately 20 wishes since its inception Wish Upon a Wedding is organized as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization.

WHERE: The Coronado Ballroom, 3701 Lindell Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63108.

WHEN: November 20, 2010 from 6:00 to 11:00 p.m. Tickets to the event are $100 per person and may be purchased on-line at: http://wuwgalasaintlouis.eventbrite.com/. Ticket price is $100 per person. The chapter is also seeking event sponsors and auction items. Please contact Nancy Slade, fundraising chair at stlouisfundraising@wishuponawedding.org. For more information on Wish Upon a Wedding, please visit: www.wishuponawedding.org.

It was my extreme pleasure to teach an etiquette course to the Kappa Delta Sorority here at the Coronado Ballroom. The ladies enjoyed a delicious multi-course dinner and received instruction on how to sit, unfold their napkin, and how and when to use each piece of flatware and glassware. I don’t think I have ever enjoyed a group more as they were funny, charming and thoughtful. Standards of etiquette were created to make people FEEL COMFORTABLE, not UNCOMFORTABLE! They act as a guide and make you look professional and polished. The young ladies in attendance asked numerous questions and many of their concerns are still gray areas in the modern etiquette world. Hors d’ouevres today are more than pretty canapes, they are works of art. Unique presentations include shot glasses for soup, picks and demitasse spoons. The ladies asked that once the vessel is empty of food…what do you do with it? The one thing you never try to do is hand it back to the server who is presenting them…it is unsanitary and gross. So we learned how and what to do during the cocktail period.
Many brides, schools and companies are contacting me to teach etiquette courses. The current generation has been raised in a casual society. Many people have never been seated at a formal meal with more than one fork. Many people have no idea when it is appropriate to start eating or what side to pass items to…and the list goes on and on. In the super competitive job market today, luncheon interviews are more for observation than convenience. Seeing if you are courteous, calm, well-mannered and comfortable tells many employers what they need to know. If you slurp your soup, stab your lettuce and fail to pull out a chair for a lady, IT CLEARLY SAYS YOU WILL OFFER SLOPPY SERVICE TO THE COMPANY OR PRODUCT YOU REPRESENT. And I know many companies are basing their hiring decisions on the thank you note you write them. (Yes graduates, you need to do that instead of a text message!) It is a wise investment in your employees and children to learn the basics of St. Louis Modern Business and Social Etiquette. So stop flapping that napkin, extending the pinky finger, drinking your soup, asking for ketchup and call us today!

Rob Schaefer
Modern Etiquette Guru and St. Louis Wedding Professional Hall of Fame Inaugural Inductee

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