Chicken Out does a nice job and is reasonably priced.

Anonymous wrote:We use a company called St Germain at the office quite frequently. Moby Dick also does catering as well.

I LOVE St Germain, and their homemade chips are to die for!

We use a company called St Germain at the office quite frequently. Moby Dick also does catering as well.

PP who mentioned 3Brothers. It's a small family owned Italian chain. They mostly do casual pizza, pastas and subs. It started as a family run business (yes, 3 brothers) and has now expanded to 10 locations, all in the MD area. So, when you buy from them, you are "buying local" and supporting a small local business. The mother of the 3 Brothers still lives in Greenbelt where she lived when the brothers started the business (I know friends who live down the block from her). My wife and I actually eat at 3 Brothers regularly as we're pretty casual diners and the restaurants are safe places to go with two babies (were infants, now borderline toddlers).

OP here. Thanks to both PP for the great ideas. I'm not familiar with 3Brothers, but I'll totally check it out. And I like the idea of simple Whole Foods or Harris Teeter catering - I'll look into their menus as well. Super open to other ideas. Thanks!

For a casual meal, Three Brothers does a nice job for as little as $8pp, so significantly under your budget. You can use a preset "value" menu or you can select your own menu for a little more. You can arrange to have them deliver everything you'll need including steam trays with sterno. You can also arrange to have them do cleanup, but I don't remember if there is a fee for that. Call the catering coordinator to get more details. You can also add pizzas onto the orders for kids. We've had this a few times and it's worked great. It's not in NW, but there is a Bladensburg store that isn't too far from NW (in town) and a Rockville store for further out NW.

http://www.threebrotherspizza.com/catering.html
http://www.threebrotherspizza.com/menu/3BrothersCateringmenu.pdf

PP here - I forgot to mention Honest Kids juice boxes for the kiddos perhaps some Horizon single-serve milk cartons too.

I would disagree that it should just be snacks. Afternoon will mean 'meal' to many people who eat a late breakfast or older people who eat dinner at 4pm.

So I'd do sandwich platters. Honestly I don't have a restaurant suggestion, but there are many options. Honestly I usually resort to a grocery store - Balducci', Harris Teeter, Whole Foods - because the stuff will for sure be made fresh that morning and the quality is pretty consistent.

I'd order:
- veggie tray for 30
- fruit tray for 30
- high-end cheese & cracker tray for 30
- sandwich wraps for 30 (include vegetarian option, NO TUNA SALAD)
- club sandwiches or paninis for 20
- kids' sandwich tray for 20 (most places have this - kid-friendly mini-sandwiches with the crust cut off)
- 2 side salads (the benefit for using whole foods or balduccis is they have delicious sides...the balducci's wheatberry salad is amazing!)
- bottled beverages
- for your budget, I'd have two big buckets with ice: Alcoholic: wines & craft beers; Non-Alcoholic: iced coffees, iced teas (sweet and unsweet), diet soda, pellegrino, coke
- I'd have a third bucket with ice containing bottles of water, and some sliced lemons and limes nearby (personally I prefer serving filtered water in a glass dispenser but if your kitchen is N/A then this is your best option)
- cookie/brownie tray for 20
- 4-5 nice looking large cakes/tarts/pies, pre-sliced

You should still have $$ left over for decorations, table/chair/tent rental, etc. I'd definitely get a tent for outside to cover part of the area, in case of rain you want the option. You can pick up some nice paper lanterns with lights from World Market to suspend from the inside of the tent.

Oh, and rent some large fans and put them on low in the outdoor space to keep the mosquitos at bay.

I'm having a very casual afternoon "going away" party in a couple of weeks. My food/drink budget in around $1000 (semi flexible). I expect about 40 adults and maybe 15 kids. Usually I love to cook for friends, but our kitchen is being renovated so I can't prepare anything - seriously. I have a location reserved that has both an inside space (with small kitchen, but I can't use other than during the party) and an outside space for the kids to play. Can you help me figure out what to serve and how/where to obtain it?

Since it's a middle of the afternoon reception, I think I should serve finger foods or light stuff rather than an entree and sides. So I was looking at catering company reception menus (appetizers, reception platters, etc) and nothing I could afford sounded all that great - it was all generic stuff like hummus platters and cheese trays. So I started looking at places like Corner Bakery, Cosi, etc - which have mini sandwich platters with salads, sides, desserts, etc. That could totally work and is priced perfectly for me, but it would sure be more fun to order from someplace local or non-mega-chain.

Any ideas for either a catering company that might make food for such a small party, or a menu/theme that I should consider, or a deli/restaurant that might be more interesting than, say, Cosi, but still fit in our budget? We're in NW DC, so something close in would be great.

Thanks!