Category / OnCue Consulting

31
Dec

Thanks for the memories!

17ST-Dream-is-Free

We’ve been  reflecting on a pretty monumental 2013. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Over 150 barbecue entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals traveled to Murphysboro and Cape Girardeau, MO to listen to our OnCue seminars where we shared thoughts, ideas, cooking procedures, and business wisdom. You can read about some of those classes here and here and here.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch covered our Whole Hog event and wrote this great article.

We traveled to Florida, Michigan, and New York City to work onsite with OnCue clients.

We supported Operation Barbecue Relief and helped raise over $21,000 for their relief efforts.

Mike and Pat Burke got the band back together and we cooked at Memphis in May and The Jack and King of the Smoker {more about that experience in a future post}.

We were blessed with lots of great press … a favorite write up was this Food + Wine post naming our wings among the best in the U.S.

We celebrated all that is good about barbecue at the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party. Read about that here and here and here.

Trips to Foodways Texas Symposium in Austin, NBBQA convention in Mobile, and Southern Foodways Symposium in Oxford were highly educational and tons of fun.

Praise the Lard was bigger and better than ever. We’re already planning 2014’s event.

Our Smoked Amber beer became available in bottles.

New York City was a frequent destination … one of the trips was for the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que opening in Brooklyn.

Cheers to 2013 … and thanks for the memories!

17
Oct

Catering Display Inspiration

Beautiful display inspired by personal collections and Pinterest

Becky Streuter, our catering manager, has a large collection of vintage and retro items from which to choose. These layered linens, cut glass dishes, and jadeite serving pieces create a beautiful table. The damask-covered slipper chair belonged to my grandmother.
© Ken Goodman

We eat with our eyes first and when people attend 17th Street catered events, we want our guests to be delighted when they see our set-up. From events held in our private rooms and Warehouse facilities to OnCue seminars, we love setting the stage with unique items from our collection.

When you hold an event at The Warehouse, you can rent almost anything in our prop room with which to decorate and add a signature touch to your celebration. We can also suggest  local event planners who can help create a special look. Here are some of my favorite tablescapes from recent events.

fresh fruit on a tiered jadeite stand

A jadeite cake stand atop a brass plate holds a variety of fruit on the breakfast table.
© Ken Goodman

One of the topics of our OnCue Catering Master Class discusses how to properly set up a catering line and how to make it look fabulous. These photos are from various OnCue Consulting events.

Cut glass, jadeite, vintage linens

Photo © Amy Mills

Vintage linens create a colorful backdrop for a breakfast table. Weathered wood, old tin canisters, an antique scale, and cast iron create texture and interest.

The kissing booth

Photo © Ken Goodman

Clever, colorful, and sweetly delicious – this kissing booth display was both a candy bar and a photo booth where guests could pose for pictures.

Bulleit bottles, twine, fresh rosemary and mason jars

Photo © Ken Goodman

Sometimes simple is best. This display uses Bulleit bottles tied with twine, slices of wood, and mason jars filled with sprigs of rosemary clipped from a huge bush that grows outside our back door. The tablecloth is layered with a kraft paper runner.

Inspiration for one of my favorite displays came from this photo of painted antlers I saw on Pinterest. I couldn’t justify paying $78 for one painted antler, so we put out the call for antlers and taxidermy to our family and friends. Turns out that these trophies are precious to some and they didn’t want us to paint them? Go figure! We ended up with an abundance of them and here’s how we used them.

Serve-yourself wine and bourbon tables

Photo © Ken Goodman

Our serve-yourself bourbon bar and wine station featured old wooden tables and boxes, a vintage Stag sign, and lots of antlers, both loose and mounted.

Buffet table with light fixture made with an old ladder and several pairs of antlers

Photo © Ken Goodman

There are so many layers of goodness on this buffet table designed by Becky and local event planner, Cindy Wilson. They suspended an old ladder and tied on antlers, illuminating it with a string of mason jar lights. Natural elements such as pine cones, fresh rosemary, and wood slices mix with cast iron and tin.

While this display is fairly masculine, I did get my painted antlers, reinterpreted just for me by Cindy …

Antlers that have been painted and bedazzled

Photo © Ken Goodman

Not only are they painted, she fancied them up with a bit of iridescent sparkle, rhinestones,and marabou trim, and tucked them in and about several displays to add just a little girly touch amongst all of that manliness.

What are your favorite items to use in catering displays?

To book your next event at 17th Street, please call Becky at 618-684-8902.

For information on our upcoming OnCue events, email Amy. Just a few spots remain in our Catering Master Class on November 4–5, 2013 and the Whole Hog Extravaganza/Brisket Bonanza/BBQ MBA on January 20-21, 2014.