Event planning pros push outside events for companies that are tired of hotel ballrooms and office cafeterias. Tricks like taco cart catering make them work.
Al fresco taco-themed events are increasingly popular for business events. No one is complaining - and there are reasons why a love of the outdoors for corporate and employee events has taken off in recent years.
People are naturally disposed to outside special events: Whether it’s for employees, senior executives, key customers, or suppliers, just about everyone but landscapers and roofers spend the bulk of their working days indoors. Plan an event in a park, at a country club, in a backyard, at a miniature golf course, or a promontory point with awesome sunsets and you’re providing a place that will draw them out and leave them with lasting memories. Also, there aren’t too many hotels that will allow you to play tug-of-war, water balloon tosses, or Velcro wall jumping inside.
That said, you cannot host an event involving taco cart catering indoors. Why? Each one of those carts is a self-contained kitchen, using gas grills and a small amount of cooking exhaust. Both evoke memories of festive events, but neither is allowed inside buildings.
While that might seem a limitation, business taco catering outside might better be described as a useful differentiation.
Wherever a taco cart can travel there can be a taco-catered event. Corporate taco catering events overcome what party planners know as “the kitchen cool off problem.” With other types of cuisine and party themes, the food has to be served entirely in a short window of time, which then requires a buffet line or even table service. If the food has to be made offsite or in a mobile kitchen, it then has to be kept warm in chafing dishes; the execution of that is spotty at best and can limit the menu options.
Taco events are usually looser, with a window of time for food service that might stretch over several hours. What the event loses in formality it gains in conviviality. Guests not only can move about and network as they do, but they also get a fresh, made-to-order taco (or tacos) with the very specific ingredients they want. Fish, carne, or vegetarian offerings are never a problem with taco cart catering.
In addition, even gourmet tacos can be served for hand eating. This simplifies logistics and reduces waste. Fish, shrimp, vegetarian and Caribbean carne tacos are just a starting point for the types of tacos that can now be served.
The obvious reason this is notably more popular in Los Angeles and elsewhere in Southern California is the weather. Event planners in other parts of the country have to have a tented backup or indoor contingency plan.
So unless you’re planning a business taco catering event for landscapers and roofers, let your imagination run wild on outdoor venues that can best your objectives. Chances are the taco option is hot - and so is the food.
