What's the best way to serve 600 guests in 1 hour?

Hey Rootsman-

You're on the right track, but that's a lot of people for less than one hour. I can't say as I've ever done 600 in under an hour, but I have done that many and more in short periods of time.

You basically have 8 lines with your descibed set-up. I'm wondering if you may even need more lines. Lets say you can get someone through the line in 5 minutes, and after the first person, another person finishes their self-serve every 30 sec. The above figures are correct (and I'm just kind of guesstimating about the times), and my math is correct, you should be able to get averyone through the lines in about 43 minutes. Do they need to be done eating within the hour, or just get them served?

Having the drinks already on the dining tables would help speed along the line greatly. If that's not possible, I'd definitely have the drinks poured and ready to go, or serve cans of soft drinks where people can just grab them. Also, if possible, have all of the food out on the buffet lines from the beginning. If you have to replenish during the serving, it will slow down the lines, not to mention I always think it's a pain to replenish double sided buffet lines, since you kind of have to "cut" into the line.

Just a few kind of random thoughts there. Best of luck with it! I find that the most challening jobs tend to be the most fun once it's all said and done.

a suggestion... cut the # of lines in half. We fed almost 2000 in about 1.5 hours having 4 lines.
The reason for having one side of the table not have a line is for access getting the food put out. If you're trying to replenish the hot food by interrupting the lines you're bound to have someone with a hot pan of beans on their shoes.
something to think about. There are some picture of the ordeal here:
http://www.skippypbbq.com/opBBQ_2005-03.htm
look through some of the other galleries to see the line table set ups before people arrived.

Good idea, Skip

Thanks all. Assuming my proposal is accepted, I'll probably go with double lines and 2 buffets in close proximity on opposite sides of the isle. There will be 2 pans of each item on each table to increase flow.

You should be able to accomplish this easily within 30 minutes using 4 lines, using 3 drink stations and 2 dessert stations. I would never use lines as self serve as it kills ur food costs. You'd be surprised how much faster the lines go when you have people serving which allows you to have portion control.

At the Texas State HOG rally in Amarillo last month, they served breakfast to 2600+ bikers in under 90 minutes. 2 lines, 2 servers dishing out food. Only complaint I heard was 1 line for coffee & drinks, and NO servers there.

bob

WOW!

Thanks all. Turns out the potential gig was a church foodservice manager just gathering information to do the job herself.

Thanks for your inputs.

I did a 100 person corporate fundraiser gig this week and used the sponsoring company's emplyees as volunteer servers. It worked out very well when the client wants to save a few bucks or wants the interaction with the guests, especially if its a customer appreciation event.

quote:

Originally posted by Rootsman:
WOW!

Thanks all. Turns out the potential gig was a church foodservice manager just gathering information to do the job herself.

Now that's funny right there, I don't care who ya are! I guess she just should have logged on to the CS website!

Good deal on the other job Rootsman!

Rootsman where was this Church ?

I just quit running an event for a Church. They had a lady FSD. When I left we were feeding 1800 thru 23 double panned/double sided lines on 3 different floors all in 40 minutes. 3 meats, 3 veggies, 1 salad, desserts on the tables preset.