The premiere featured cupcake displays inspired by the film's five "emotional" characters—Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness.
BarclayCard's lounge at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, was open January 22 to 24 at 364 Main Street. Sponsor Campbell's provided guests the opportunity to make their own soups at a custom, buffet-style soup station.
The soup station offered toppings like tortilla chip slices, sriracha, avocado, and Parmesan cheese.
The event also included a faux food truck that served poke bowls and shrimp chips. AJ Strasser from Sculptural Solutions provided the New York-theme decor.
S’mores got their start as sticky, gooey, handheld campfire treats, but events have reinvented them in many ways friendlier to guests, such as this example of a lollipop version at the Engage!14 Wedding Summit dessert party.
At the Watermill Center’s benefit in 2015, Great Performances created dishes that would allow guests to easily roam—all self-serve options designed to be hand-held and didn't even necessarily require plates. Among them was fried chicken served in waffle cones.
At a September event, Preston Bailey transformed the new Four Seasons New York Downtown in celebration of his relationship with the property. As part of the event’s catering options, the hotel supplied tiramisu served as grab-and-go offerings.
Rather than the traditional bowl of splash-prone red sauce, New York’s Elegant Affairs offered a neater take on spaghetti and meatballs, using mess-free form topped with a micro meatball and marinara and sprinkled with parmesan.
Mary Giuliani Catering and Events in New York created a catering option of one-bite paella with shrimp and chorizo with sips of sangria, a take on the hearty rice dish.
Salad can be messy, with the risk of oily dressing ending up on clothes and hands. Occasions Caterers in Washington created a wedge salad bite hors d’oeuvre, served on a fork, that tidies up salad service.
Always a crowd favorite, hummus can get messy when served as a dip. At the 2014 Washington Humane Society's annual Fashion for Paws runway show, hors d'oeuvres during the reception included beets and hummus on pita points as a tidy alternative to service at a station.
A popular alternative to soup in a bowl, with all of its messy slurp potential, many caterers offer inventive soup shooters. One example: Chicago’s Boutique Bites' artful soup shooters with popcorn and truffle oil.
These cocktails are inspired by old-school Capri Sun drink pouches—but an adults-only version. Found at Thursday Kitchen, a casual New York restaurant serving Korean eats with French and Spanish influences, the whimsical concoctions ($9) come in four flavors (lemon, strawberry, lychee, and cucumber) and are mixed with soju, a vodka-like rice liquor.
For a "healthy" start to the new year, many restaurants and bars are now serving a host of low-ABV cocktails, which typically means the drinks have an alcoholic strength by volume (ABV) of between 0.5 and 1.2 percent. Faro in Brooklyn offers the Negroni Sbagliato, which contains Contratto bitters and Italian red vermouth, topped with sparkling wine. Apparently the drink was invented accidentally by a bartender who had used red sparkling wine instead of gin in a traditional Negroni (“sbagliato” is Italian for “mistaken”).
Inspired by Jell-O shots, Spoonable Spirits are alcoholic puddings and jellies served in mini mason jars. Each containing 5 percent alcohol by volume, the boozy desserts come in flavors such as Naughty Nutel-Latte (a chocolate latte-flavored pudding shot topped with Nutella and chocolate chips), Raspberry Rose Gin & Tonic (a gin-and-tonic jelly shot muddled with rosewater-infused raspberries), Spiked Cake Shake (a milkshake-flavored pudding shot with sprinkles), and more. Original flavors cost $25 per set of five jars for orders of 1 to 10 sets, $22 for 11 to 20 sets, and $20 for 21 or more sets; customized Spiked Cake Shake Pudding costs $30 per set of five jars for orders of 1 to 10 sets, $27.50 for 11 to 20 sets, and $25 for 21 or more sets. Delivery fees apply to orders inside and outside of Manhattan, and nationwide delivery is available. Plus, a catered display with a Spoonable Spirits server, signage, table setting, and toppings bar is available for $40 per hour; each additional server is $25 per hour.
Designed for outdoor events like pool parties, tailgating, and camping, BuzzBallz are ready-to-drink cocktails made with juice and 15 percent ABV vodka, rum, or tequila, each packaged in portable, single-serve containers that are stackable, recyclable, and unbreakable. The drinks are available in 15 different flavors such as Pineapple Passion, Watermelon Smash, and Strawberry Rum Job. They cost about $2.99 per ball and are available in retail stores throughout the U.S.
In Chicago, Blue Plate Catering brings candy apple stations to holiday parties. Treats include apples dipped in caramel and assorted toppings and sliced up into snack-size portions.
The catering firm also has a new burrata action station. Staffers top the creamy cheese with toasted pine nuts and Italian muscat syrup. The snack is gluten-free.
Instead of serving French fries at a stationary table, Limelight has used a wheelbarrow to deliver Belgian frites at events. The fries are served in cones, and assorted sauces are displayed on the side.
