We all recognize the horrific damage the Covid 19 pandemic is wreaking on the hospitality business and one segment of our business which is being hit harder than most is group business. Groups typically select buffets as the preferred way to take most meals. It enables the group to have a variety of choices which can be served quickly. But the fear of picking up the Covid virus by utilizing communal serving utensils, or picking up a plate from a stack that others have touched has all but rendered the traditional buffet obsolete.
So it’s time to rethink the buffet.
1. My Lunch My Way
At a conference I attended a few years at Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta the super creative Events team led by Catering Director Claudia Aguas, organized a lunch called My Lunch My Way. Prior to the AM coffee break each attendee was given a simple menu/order form which we filled out and handed in. Two hours later our customized order was waiting at a table in the lunch room. Today, the sandwich could be wrapped and the salad served in a small ’to go’ container ensuring a contamination free experience.
2. Food Truck
Food Trucks have become universally popular as they give us a choice of creative, flavourful ’street’ food individually served and packaged ’to go’. So why not buy a Food Truck for your hotel. By customizing the truck with your own brand you can vary the menu offerings depending on the group. And if you don’t have access to an outdoor area, have a carpenter and an artist create an imitation of the side of a food truck (or multiple trucks) to set up in your event space and serve the food from a make-shift window. You can easily create a coffee truck for breakfast service as well.
3. Think retail Grab & Go
Consider buying some mobile, glass fronted, refrigerated units and creating a temporary Grab & Go store within your event space. You could offer a variety of different soups / salads / sandwiches & entrees served in ‘to go’ packaging. An additional ’store’ could be set up for beverages offering a full range of sodas, tea and coffee drinks. In most hotels multiple meeting rooms share the same circulating space. If done well this Grab & Go store could service multiple groups assuming the timing was well coordinated between the various groups.
Meetings and conferences will continue to happen. It’s our job to offer creative solutions to how we feed these groups so that attendees feel safe and secure. Now is the time to get ahead of this problem!
