Food at your Flying Events
 

Other than the standard cookout fair, ie Burgers, Dogs, and Brauts, what are folks serving up at your flying events?

We did a pulled pork sandwich that were a big hit, but that had to be cooked ahead of time and then heated at the field. We do chili in the Fall and winter, but I'm looking to try something different for our summer events. Although not the primary reason for the food is making a profit, we would like to see some funds come from the sale as well. We are also limited to a gas grille, and probably a charcoal one too.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Due to concerns about safety we have stopped preparing food at our events. What we do is contact the local Subway and order their 6 inch subs which our local guy will deliver to us at lunch time. we have been ordering around 75 ahead of time and then giving any left overs to club members. Saves a lot of hassle. We charge for the food but call it a donation:rolleyes:
Larry

Now that is an idea, and certainly easier than planning and buying the food, then cooking, then cleaning. Thanks!

Be carefull of Subway. The Cd ordered the meals I think about 60 and was given a price. When the treasurer picked them up the next day the price was nearly doubled at the last minute and unknowingly about one forth of them was a veggy sub (no meat just bread lettice and a bit of cheese) a lot of very unhappy people!

John

Wait what...VEGGY subs....ugh! I'd be outraged too! LoL

But good to double check, for sure.

Yup just make sure of your deal with them. That was our warbird race two weeks ago and for our inaugural Jet rally this June 2,3 and 4th one of the days the provided food will be pizza:cool:

John

I hate Subway food, it's all overpriced crap. Talk to a couple local grinder shops, see if they have those 4 foot long grinders available. That generally works out pretty well and is cost effective. IIRC, Big Y does them as well, plus they have those gynormous sheet pizzas.

Good idea...nice!

If you have good community of food trucks in your area, invite them out, and you don't have to mess with it at all.

Yup, a great idea. I've contacted a few though, and most won't come unless I can guarantee them a certain amount of sales, which of course I can't. And, they want to charge a fee just to show up. I get that they need to make it worth their while, but I can't make that promise. Some of them have some real good food too!

I'll trust myself and fellow " Club Chef's" before I'll trust some kid at a fast food place to handle the food at our events. Normal menu at our events is Brats and Burgers. Haven't had a issue or complaint yet ( short of running out of food now and then). Is it more work sure but you have control over quality and cost. We had a Open House last year hired a BBQ guy to do it and it worked out well but I noticed his food handling safety was no better than ours. He had use commit to 90 plates at $6.50 a plate ( which we sold out on)
Mike

I like the idea of a BBQ guy, we have a few of them around here as well, but the cost is prohibitive. I also went to one event where they hired a bbq truck guy and not only was he expensive...but slow. Real slow, and it ticked people off.

We try to keep our prices super low, 2.00 for a hot dog, 3.00 for a burger, 4 for pulled pork. We also have an arrangement with the seniors who live behind our field and share space with us that they get a free lunch, so we usually give away 40-60 dogs/burgers and drinks. It's a balancing act to project sales/turnout etc, and for the past two events we had just enough for each day and it worked out perfect. Weather and a decent idea of who is coming to the larger events help too. I used to get the food at Costco or Sams, but we have a place that popped up here a few years ago called Aldi's, and there prices are insanely low. We made a pretty penny last year on food sales, over $1000.00 for a two day event, and even at $2.00 for a hot dog we were still making out on the deal, even after the bun and condiments. I did add brauts last year and those went like wildfire. One had cheese in it, the other jalapeno and cheese.

"Walking tacos" are also usually pretty popular and easy. Snack size Doritos bags, shredded lettuce, cheddar, and diced tomatoes plus taco meat dumped into the bag. Served with a fork.

At the Lake Land R/C club in Oconomowoc we hav 1 or 2 Fun Flys each summer July and September.
Don't even charge a landing Fee. Club members set up all the facilities thenWe have had a boy scout troop and their parents do all the Parking (Suggested $3 Donation) and we buy the food and they cook and sell it. For this they get to keep all the Profits, over our expanses. Works great we get good Public relations and the boy Scouts get around $800 or their efforts. and all our club members get to fly.

Another club Pebble Creek Flyers charges a $3 Parking donation and sell Burgers Brats and Hot Dogs. All the Profits are put in the clubs considerable operating fund. $245/WK to do the Grass cutting and service the Portia John. Now with standing 6 new solar charging stations.

The most expensive operation to which I am a member is the Arizona Model Aviators. 4 years ago spent 53 Grand just resurfacing the 100'x 760' runway this year another 9 grand to reseal it and most recently 3 grand to repair the pit area. We have 6 main event per winter. From Jet rally to electric Festival and Big Bird, 1/8 Air Force and Masters Scale Qualifier. All of our Events are Catered by locals with Set ups that can service more than 100 pilots their crews and 500 to 800 spectators over a 3 day event.

It's a lot of work to put on any event and I don't know about your club but it always seems to be the same people doing most of the work. Got a little off topic but what the heck.

I'm intrigued by the walking Taco suggestion....might need to try that out at home a few times to make sure it will work. :)

Smash the chips a bit before you open the bag. If you want to go all Gucci with it, you can have Jalapenos, cheese, salsa, sour cream, etc. My kids love them. They sell them at the local single A baseball park as well. Especially if you don't live in the southwest, where you get a ton of great food, these are a real novelty.

Ya...folks up here get excited with real cheese on a hot dog. Not a fan or Doritos but will try this with Fritos!

To be honest, I don't like doritos either, but I think the taco type seasoning really does make this much better. Trust me.

This sounds like something I will have to experiment with...Doritos, Fritos,...etc etc. :rolleyes::o

We farm out the food to the Boy Scouts. They take care of everything so we have one less thing to worry about. They keep everything they make so if your looking for income, probably a bad idea.

Yup, we've done that as well, works well. Thanks for the suggestion.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/imag...quote_icon.png Originally Posted by bolar http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/imag...post-right.png
We farm out the food to the Boy Scouts. They take care of everything so we have one less thing to worry about. They keep everything they make so if your looking for income, probably a bad idea.
We let the boy scouts do the Parking too that's where they make out like bandits. last year between the profit from the Food along with the parking they cleared almost $900. We set every thin up and tore it down too.
The other club here in Wisconsin does the Food and the Parking for club profit. Both clubs have about 75 members each.
The large 275 to 300 members in AZ have different caterers come and sell there wears. We charge $6 Parking, of witch the Park System gets $1.
Each has it advantages and disadvantages, but mostly works out when the weather cooperates.