The original college football tailgate party: fun, but perhaps not the most appropriate way to entertain corporate clients. On Saturday, Patina launched a program to marry the tailgating concept and the corporate-entertaining concept with a little more finesse.
Summer Stearns came up with the idea of a gourmet pre-football game party, and launched it when she was the catering sales manager at Lawry's. When she joined Patina as catering sales manager, she brought the idea with her, and Patina's first USC tailgate party became reality this Saturday at the Coliseum for the game versus Cal. On the grassy area directly to the front of the stadium, staff served up Kobe cheesesteaks and smoked-pork sandwiches from the grills. Veev and Samuel Adams sponsored the bars. Best Buy of Westwood set up TVs and Xboxes for the over-stimulation so many football fans require.
"It's great for people who are entertaining clients—really kind of an out-of-the-box way of socializing and immersing out-of-towners like legal or corporate clients in a Southern California experience," Stearns said. Planners can pick up individual or group tickets through Stearns for Patina's future tailgate parties (details to be announced), and Patina can arrange packages with game tickets as well.
