Help me think about quantities for this party

[Anonymous]

We are having a party for about 40 people from babies to very elderly. The largest group will be teens and adult, with only a handful of kids, all of whom I know well enough to know what they'll eat. One vegan, a few vegetarians, and lots of omnivores. There are a fair number of big eaters, such as teenage boy athletes in the group.

Our plan is to serve pizza and dogs.


Pizza

Deep dish Chicago style pizza -- choice of pepperoni, spinach, or cheese. Supposedly each pizza is 6 slices, and serves two to three people

Individual thin crust pizzas with a choice of toppings including vegan options


Dogs

Vegan carrot dogs

"Regular" hot dogs (mainly for picky kids)

Polish sausages

Buns and various toppings


Sides

Baked beans

Vegetable tray

Fresh fruit

Potato chips


We also have desserts and beverages, but I'm not in charge of those.



Is there anything that seems missing?


How much pizza and how many of each type of dog would you expect to need?

[Anonymous]

I’d have a hard time figuring out quantities with two completely different types of main dishes. Any chance you could simplify and do just the dogs and sides?
(Or just pizza and then do different sides, because your sides seem to go better with dogs than pizza). If you’re set on doing both, I guess I’d try to mentally sort through which guests would likely eat which foods and go from there.

[Anonymous]

Deep dish pizza can be hard to eat (it's a knife and fork thing, usually). It's also heavy so doesn't translate like regular pizza. Just something to think about if this is a paper plate backyard thing.

I'd probably get:
- 16 pizzas (6 pep, 6 cheese, 4 spinach)
- 40-50 brats (10 packs?) (freeze what isn't cooked)
- 3 packs of regular hot dogs
- I'd probably just get a pack of smart dogs or vegan dogs as opposed to carrot dogs
- 60-70 individual bags of chips
- two huge veggie trays
- a huge fruit tray and 2 watermelons
- 2 baking dishes of baked beans (or one large catered tray)

If it were me I'd drop the pizza and up the brats, adding regular, spicy, cheddar, more vegan dogs, and have ketchup, various mustards, sauerkraut, various relishes and pickles. Just simpler.

I'd also add:
- 3 dozen deviled eggs
- pasta or potato salad
- brownies and cookies and/or cupcakes
- popsicles

What about drinks?

[Anonymous]

Deep dish pizza is super weird for this. Is there some reason? I get it if it is a theme, but then I would lean in. Otherwise it just doesn’t work.

[Anonymous]

Just have hot dogs and hamburgers, skip the pizza.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely nothing on that menu goes with pizza

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Deep dish pizza is super weird for this. Is there some reason? I get it if it is a theme, but then I would lean in. Otherwise it just doesn’t work.

This

[Anonymous]

Is this a Chicago themed event?

If so then order the dogs from Portillos and forget the polish dogs. You don't need various dogs.

If you are buying frozen Chicago deep dish pizzas where are you ordering them from? The frozen ones tend to be a lot smaller than the ones in the restaurants especially if it is Giordano's.

I think you have way too many "entree" options. I would drop the polish dogs and individual pizzas. Maybe have a vegan pizza option for the one vegan.

[Anonymous]

I recommend individual
Bags of chips in different flavors

[Anonymous]

I would have trouble with your menu and would not eat pizza or hot dogs. It is a very young child menu - as if a 10 year old birthday party with a veggie tray because you were trying to make the kids eat something healthy.