Serving several hundred people with varying tastes and palettes is an, uh, evergreen challenge for the holiday party caterer. (“From the mail room to the board room” is a saying we’ve heard more than once this season.)
Well, we’ve found at least a couple of companies that are going upscale all the way with the night’s food. “Often clients will trend down to the lowest common denominator,” says Joan Steinberg, president of Match Catering and Eventstyles. “This year they are going higher expectation-wise and are happy about it.”
Their employees are likely to be pretty happy too. On December 13 and 14, Credit Suisse will hold back-to-back parties at Crobar for 1,300 people, and let’s just say they aren’t serving jalapeño poppers. The menu includes a buffet of filet of beef with rosemary butcher-cracked pepper crust in a merlot demi-glace, herb-roasted chicken breast with roast pear Armagnac sauce, and pan-seared striped bass with spiced red and green tomato chutney. Among the appetizers is a presentation of poached shrimp coated in green chili pesto and a barbecue sauce-marinated shrimp of a deep red hue.
Over at Eyebeam on the 14th, institutional trading broker Liquidnet—whom we must learn more about—will also serve the filet of beef, in addition to seafood pot pie with scallops, shrimp, and cod in a white wine sauce and apple and juniper-scented chicken breast with a maple bourbon glaze. Thai spicy duck pizza is just one of the night’s passed hors d’oeuvres.
Liquidnet’s party sounds like it’s going to be sort of a wintry sophisti-lounge. The evening will feature a wine bar complete with sommelier to recommend pairings; a full bar with liquor representing the many outposts of the global operation in France, Germany, Finland, the U.K., and beyond; and a frozen vodka bar with two triple luges.
For entertainment, aside from a DJ, an aerialist “Mirror Man”—a dude wearing a suit made up of tiny mirrors—will be suspended from the ceiling for two acrobatic sets.
Posted 12.13.06
Well, we’ve found at least a couple of companies that are going upscale all the way with the night’s food. “Often clients will trend down to the lowest common denominator,” says Joan Steinberg, president of Match Catering and Eventstyles. “This year they are going higher expectation-wise and are happy about it.”
Their employees are likely to be pretty happy too. On December 13 and 14, Credit Suisse will hold back-to-back parties at Crobar for 1,300 people, and let’s just say they aren’t serving jalapeño poppers. The menu includes a buffet of filet of beef with rosemary butcher-cracked pepper crust in a merlot demi-glace, herb-roasted chicken breast with roast pear Armagnac sauce, and pan-seared striped bass with spiced red and green tomato chutney. Among the appetizers is a presentation of poached shrimp coated in green chili pesto and a barbecue sauce-marinated shrimp of a deep red hue.
Over at Eyebeam on the 14th, institutional trading broker Liquidnet—whom we must learn more about—will also serve the filet of beef, in addition to seafood pot pie with scallops, shrimp, and cod in a white wine sauce and apple and juniper-scented chicken breast with a maple bourbon glaze. Thai spicy duck pizza is just one of the night’s passed hors d’oeuvres.
Liquidnet’s party sounds like it’s going to be sort of a wintry sophisti-lounge. The evening will feature a wine bar complete with sommelier to recommend pairings; a full bar with liquor representing the many outposts of the global operation in France, Germany, Finland, the U.K., and beyond; and a frozen vodka bar with two triple luges.
For entertainment, aside from a DJ, an aerialist “Mirror Man”—a dude wearing a suit made up of tiny mirrors—will be suspended from the ceiling for two acrobatic sets.
Posted 12.13.06
