Blog

One of the most memorable parts of a guest's experience at any event is the service. Having experienced, knowledgeable, professional and courteous wait staff for parties & events can be challenging at times. Often service staff have more than one job or are students in addition to earning a living which can make it hard to always have the staff on hand required for the event. I know that when I'm looking for a service or product I always want to look for the best that I can possibly afford.

To help our customers who are caterers, event venues and party rental companies easily research and hire event and catering staff, I've researched the best companies for event staffing in Toronto.

Core Event Staff Ltd

Founded in 1999, Core Event Staff was started when the owners realized the Toronto area had a lack of reliable, friendly and refined catering staff. They have a consistent reputation of building and maintaining relationships by going above and beyond the call of duty. They encourage staff to strive for excellence, attention to detail, depth of service and quality of experience. They offer supervisors that can act as liaisons between the wait staff and your team, servers well versed in fine dining, mis en place, buffet service, or speedy bussing, and bartenders who are efficient, great under pressure and Smart Serve® Certified.

The Butler Did It Event Staffing

Founded in 1989, The Butler Did It was formed with a mission to provide excellence in service. Having provided exceptional service to some of Toronto’s most exclusive events including for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Roy Thomson Hall, they strive to create events with service that is memorable. They offer supervisors and head waits that are Food Safety Certified and servers who are Smart Serve® certified. All staff members go through a proprietary Standards of Professional Service™ program and on-site mentoring by senior staff. Continual learning in the form of workshops and orientations are also performed to continue the growth and learning of the service staff.

Nasco Staffing Solutions

Having been in business for over 14 years, Nasco Staffing Solutions is a full service event staffing company with locations in British Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta. They have exclusive staffing contracts with 10 venues across Canada and over 2000 staff able to fill hundreds of event related roles. They offer staff as bartenders, cocktail servers, wait staff, banquet servers, coat check staff, concession workers, hosts, bussers, housekeeping and stewards. Because they specialize in the events industry, their staff have relevant experience. They also have a comprehensive and interactive training program that they run each new employee through to make sure they conform to the highest level of service.

Sammic Cutlery Polisher

Made in Spain, Sammic has three different models for their cutlery polishers: a tabletop unit outputting 3000 pieces per hour, a floor standing unit outputting 8000 pieces per hour and a second floor standing unit outputting 8000 pieces per hour that comes with a motor brake which shortens the stopping time, reduces vibrations and improves the durability of the machine. All three units are equipped with the following:

• Fully automatic
• Stainless steel exterior with a Stainless steel drying tank
• Rounded cutlery carousel which avoids cutlery jams
• Lights and sounds indicating when machine is done
• Lights indicating if heating elements are activated
• Lights indicating that the polishing product must be replaced
• Drying and polishing cycle with automatic stop after use
• UVC-ray germicide lamp sterilizes both the cutlery and the drying product

Sammic cutlery polishers are available in Canada through Permul Foodservice Equipment.

CPI Silvershine Cutlery Dryer/Polisher

Made in USA, CPI Silvershine has four different models of cutlery polishers: CDM-Star which outputs 1500 pieces per hour, CDM-2K which outputs 2000 pieces per hour, CDM-6K which outputs 6000 pieces per hour and CDM-12K which outputs 12000 pieces per hour. They were awarded the 2007 Kitchen Innovations award at the National Restaurant Association show. All four models come with the following features:

• A 9-11W ultraviolet (UV-C) lamp operating at a peak of 253.7 nm for a safe, chemical-free germicide process
• Sanitation option can be engaged/disengaged manually
• Machine self-diagnoses on start-up
• Patented stainless steel NAUTILUS tub
• Calrod heated tub provides consistent heat
• Internal timer monitors granulate change periods (Every 400 hrs)
• Operates automatically at 30-40 seconds per piece
• Quiet and vibration free

CPI Silvershine is available in Canada through GBS Food Service Equipment.

With event venues, hotels and party rental companies, there is definitely a case for purchasing 66 inch round folding tables. As mentioned in our previous post, 66 inch round folding tables allow for 10 people to be seated comfortably at a table for dinner, while allowing more tables (and thus more people) into the event space than a 72 inch round folding table. If you're looking to invest in new round banquet tables, ensuring that you have approximate costs for budgeting purposes as well as an idea of how many extra people can fit into the space makes a huge difference in asking management for additional funds. So it's not surprising that one of the questions we often get asked is "How much do 66 inch round folding tables cost in Canada?" We've rounded up the range in cost of 66 inch round tables available to purchase in Canada for easy reference below.

66 inch round folding tables vary in price quite dramatically. The reasoning behind this is because of the structure of the table, material the table is made of, distribution of table and the brand of table. If you're looking for 66 inch round folding tables, be sure to budget approximately $120.00CDN - $580.00CDN per table. Wood folding tables will be the least expensive of the round banquet tables mentioned in this post. That doesn't necessarily mean that they’re not solid (as we've proven in our product testing videos). ABS plastic folding tables will be middle of the road in terms of budget and are more expensive than wood folding tables as they feature a honeycomb core to increase their strength – which increases manufacturing costs. Laminate on wood folding tables will be the most expensive as they are often made in the USA which has more costly labour and production expenses. They are able to be set up without polyester tablecloths though.

When I first started learning about the restaurant and foodservice industry, I was surprised and intrigued by the psychology and strategies behind menus. Never having thought about it, I assumed chefs and owners thought up menus based solely on food costs and what their specialities are. But as I have begun researching more and more on this industry as a whole, I’ve become more and more intrigued with the practice of optimizing menus.

Having taken a little psychology in school I already had a basic understanding that colours play a role in how much or how little food we eat. I had no idea that there was such a thing as menu optimization though and the role language plays in that practice. For those who are fuzzy on what menu optimization is – it is the practice of optimizing the dishes on your menu to squeeze out as much profit and value as possible for your restaurant. Not only is it a topic that RestaurantCentral.ca, the official website of Canadian Restaurant & Foodservice News magazine, continually writes about; the topic also has entire companies devoted to helping restaurants identify and actively promote items that are most relevant to their customer base to earn margin.

I ran across an article over the weekend from KitchenDaily.ca – a website dedicated to culinary inspiration for the everyday chef. The article focuses on educating consumers on the language that restaurant’s use in menus. As I was reading this it occurred to me that instead of reading this article from a consumer’s point of view, I could take this article and ensure that restaurants were using this language to optimize their menus properly. For example, the article mentions that “expensive restaurants are 15% more likely to reference where their ingredients originate from”. If you’re looking to increase your prices, ensuring that you include that use Kobe Beef from Japan on your menu will help justify the price increase. Also, think global in terms of your specials as those menu dishes tend to allow for higher prices to be charged. To read the rest of the article, head over to kitchendaily.ca.

The wedding industry is a trend driven industry with a lot of competition. Party Rental Companies, Caterers and Event venues need to be monitoring these trends to ensure they’re staying on trend and generating business. With it officially being fall, I thought rounding up the top fall wedding trends for 2014 would help our customers and prospects alike refresh their showrooms, menus and venues to attract the events they want to win. Click through below and enjoy!