Since a lot of us are in the Austin area I had a quick question.
All game studios crunch, most get dinner for their employees during crunch, who is responsible for that in your studio and how would a new caterer get in touch with someone in your studio to be considered.
My wife is starting a catering business because she saw the need for healthier home made style food during crunch hours in game industries, and we were wondering if anyone had any insights on getting the food in the door.
I found that i.e. with Bioware (Edmonton) new catering businesses would usually contact like PR/HR/an employee or just whatever contact is on the website and then offer a free sample the first time. I.e. enough for 8-10 people or whatever you feel is appropriate.
That would usually get them more attention then just emailing saying you cater (without the sample).
I think it will be different for every studio, but I believe somebody at HR (human resources) took care of it at BW (i could be wrong). As long as you email them and ask for it to be forwarded to whoever handles the catering, I think it should be fine.
What might be successful too is if you somehow tie ‘games’ into your food presentation.
Not sure if that is reasonably possible with your wife’s food, but game employees usually appreciate that kind of thing.
I.e. shape your pies like a mushroom from mario.
Or have your food look like the old space invaders or whatever.
It was always the office manager for us… The selection of provider for a given meal was almost always based upon who got the most favorable comments (as opposed to complaints) after an initial “trial” run.
Thanks for the replies, that’s what I think we’re going to try to do, just give a sample and hope for the best.
here’s the menu, which one would you guys recommend, I’m thinking the mac and cheese or the baked ziti since it’s the thing most people will generally like.
Our mid to low level production staff is responsible for ordering food. Their biggest challenge is mixing it up so no one gets bored with the choices to quickly. We tend to avoid caterers and order from restaurants.
On the last project we had half-a-dozen vegetarians, so we always had special orders for us. Typically from a different restaurant. On the current project there are only two of us, so we tend to get short shrift. The vegetarian selections are often seen as delicious sides to the rest of the staff. They eat their beefy selection and pile on the veggies as well.
pindercarl - yeah, we have the same deal here at SOE and she does have vegeterian options flagged, and is able to make almost all of the dishes into no meat =)
Adrian - Thanks! Tell him that he can email her at anytime with any questions and she can set up a tasting sample for your guys.
