Family-style dining has probably been around as long as families have been eating together—plates of food are placed on the table, and those seated pass the dishes around and share the meal. The concept is also popular in restaurants, especially with current trends toward communal dining and customers seeking value. But in banquets and catering, plated courses and buffets have always been the standard, so family-style meals are rarely seen. That’s a template Rob Robinson wanted to change at his hotel.

“We do it in restaurants, so why can’t we do it in banquets? There’s no real reason other than it’s a break from tradition,” says Robinson, director of F&B at the 1,010-room Parc 55 Wyndham San Francisco Union Square hotel. “It’s like bringing a buffet to the table, because the guest doesn’t have to get up. Hotel kitchens are well equipped to feed large groups of people, and I think they might even be better equipped to handle family-style service than restaurants.”

Using that logic, Robinson and Parc 55’s Executive Chef Brian Healy developed a familystyle banquet menu earlier this year and tested it on some very tough critics: The Hotel Council of San Francisco, which included several hotel general managers among its 120 diners.

FAMILY-STYLE TRIAL
Robinson and Healy presented family-style sides of potato purée, baby buttered carrots, sautéed spinach, and onion rings—all items that are offered in the hotel’s Cityhouse restaurant. Dessert was served as a family-style sampler featuring apricot bread pudding, cheesecake, apple tarte tatin, and profiteroles, which are also on the menu at Cityhouse. Only the salads and entrée, a duet of petit filet mignon and bacon-wrapped swordfish, were plated.

Robinson says the meal was a success, generating positive feedback across the room. In particular, the group liked how passing the sides broke the ice among attendees at each table. “They really enjoyed it as something different, and it felt like more of a restaurant experience, as opposed to a typical cookie-cutter banquet,” he says. “These are people who eat and drink for a living, and they can be a tough crowd.”

Encouraged by the feedback, Robinson added family-style options on his overall banquet menu package, and it’s currently being sold as an alternative to a buffet or an à la carte event. He and Healy say family-style menus can be deceptively simple, so two key areas—cross-utilizing ingredients and proper serving vessels—should be watched to keep costs in line and customers happy.

BUILDING THE PERFECT FEAST
“There’s nothing worse than ordering something special for a large group, then the numbers drop at the last minute and we’re left with additional products,” Healy says. “Here, we can just utilize them in our restaurant.”

Since family-style items are also on the menu at Cityhouse, Parc 55’s current vendors already supply as much as the hotel needs at an agreed-upon price. As seasonal produce changes, the menus in Cityhouse will change, and the family-style offerings will reflect that. “There are definitely savings we can capitalize on by cross-utilizing ingredients,” says Robinson.

Proper serving vessels are another aspect that’s critical, Robinson adds. “Big portions can be impressive, but you also have to be practical. If you have a dish that’s so large eight people need to serve themselves, chances are, by the time it gets to the sixth or seventh person at the table, the food will be cold.”

Robinson says because Parc 55 already offered sides in Cityhouse, he had the proper dishes to transfer to family-style events. If a hotel doesn’t have that luxury, he notes that smaller vessels that hold about five ounces of food—roughly enough for two or three people—will ensure the food stays hot. To make sure there’s enough for everyone, multiple dishes are placed on the table and can be replenished easily by the banquet staff.

Finally, Robinson says the labor needed for a family-style event is nearly the same as a traditional buffet, and there are actually savings when compared to a plated event. “I can have one guy cook a buffet for 300 people, but if it’s a plated dinner, I’ve got to bring in three or four cooks to help. I would say similar staffing savings apply to a family-style meal as they would a buffet.”

Michael Costa’s culinary school training and work as a journalist—in addition to several years of hotel F&B experience—enhance his position as Industry Relations Editor for HOTEL F&B.

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