Boston Corporate Caterer Exceeds Expectations for Brighton Massachusetts Commercial Multitenant Campus

The Best Corporate Caterer Can Deliver Whatever the Client Wants and Can Grow with the Client’s Needs

Companies and building managers are realizing the benefits to having onsite food service amenities for their tenants. It’s great to offer employees and visitors delicious food options at prices that keep them in the building all day. And when the food service provider also offers various levels of corporate catering for any size or type of event, employees can stay focused on the business and be worry free about hosting a meeting or an after-hours function.

The multitenant campus, Brighton Marine in Brighton, Massachusetts, is partnered with Café Services and has experienced various levels of food service that includes corporate catering for meetings and events ranging from casual to formal and small to large.

A large benefit to having an onsite corporate caterer is that they can offer a wider variety of services than an offsite caterer, simply because the onsite vendor becomes familiar with the people and the facility.

An onsite corporate caterer develops relationships with tenants and gets to know their food service preferences and needs, which leads to minimized dining costs, making great impressions on visitors, and delivering an all-around enjoyable corporate dining experience – even for an all-day inhouse meeting.

Brighton Marine is a non-profit veteran service organization primarily focused on serving active military, retirees, and their families. Bob Notch, the program development officer at Brighton Marine said, “We are focused on two things. The first is that we’re offering a growing physical hub of provider services and programs to veterans, including affordable workforce housing. And second, we have a virtual hub – an electronic platform – where veterans can let us know what they need help with and we can connect them with a provider within the network via electronic referrals.”

Brighton Marine and Café Services have been partnered for over a year. The onsite cafeteria with seating for 60 serves breakfast and lunch to all corporate staff working onsite, as well as guest and clients who are on the campus for services. Current tenants and providers on the Brighton Marine campus include US Family Health Plan, Steward St. Elizabeth’s Hospital Outpatient Clinics, Brighton-Allston Mental Health, Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund, Addiction Treatment Center of NE, Nueropsychological Assessment, American Legion Veterans Services, and several doctors.

Brighton Marine wanted a corporate dining provider that could meet their existing food service delivery needs in the cafeteria, offer catering options for meetings and events, and also be able to adjust to the growth that would come as new veteran services providers moved to the campus.

Corporate Catering Is More than Food – It’s the Full Dining Experience, No Matter the Size of the Corporate Function

Bob is also a co-chair of the Greater Boston Veterans Collaborative and as such, he hosts steering committee meetings in the Brighton Marine offices. He said, “We have the small meetings catered. But we also host ‘summits’ where we invite all of the service providers to come in, share best practices and ideas, and network with each other. We’ve had a couple of those bigger events of 50-75 people catered quite successfully.”

The biggest event Bob has had Café Services provide corporate catering services for was the Boston Mayor’s 8th Annual Welcome Home Breakfast for Veterans in March, for about 90 guests. Bob said, “They did a fantastic job and blew it out of the water. They put on a great setup, display, and the food was fantastic. They are a hands-on company in general, and for this event, the senior managers that came in from outside pitched in and did the work to make the event successful. It’s all hands on deck when needed. I continue to get compliments about that breakfast, and it’s months later now.”

From the start, Bob has found the Café Services staff friendly and easy to work with. “They can work with adjustments in the moment; they are very proactive and every time, it doesn’t matter how small the function is, whether it’s a group of 6 or much larger, the food has a great display. For example, cookies. They don’t simply drop off a tray of cookies – they deliver an appetizing arrangement of cookies and fruit, which provides a healthy alternative for some. And they always provide the common things that we might not think about – napkins, plates, or silverware – whatever we might need, whether we remember to request it or not, is always part of the service provided. Food service is their business and they know it well.”

Another example is the food considerations when people are sitting at tables or desks, versus simply sitting in chairs without a place to rest their food. Bob said, “The type of hand-holding food and plating to offer could be challenging, but Café Services is great at helping us figure out what those options might be and what can work in different circumstances.”

Not all the corporate catering requires a food staff person in the room. Café Services also offers drop-off catering, where the food can be prepared and delivered to an office or meeting space in boxes or bags, or picked up at a convenient time.

Bob said, “We’ve had bagged and boxed lunches for staff and guests on several occasions. The food is always nicely packaged, ready when we want it, and it’s easy to move around. It works very well. We’ve been pleased every single time.”

“Having Café Services here to provide corporate catering is a benefit to existing tenants and a draw as we continue to build this physical hub and bring new partners to the campus,” Bob said. “I know Mass Military Heroes Fund has used the catering a couple times now for some of their meetings with Gold Star families and some of their board meetings.”

Some other benefits to having an onsite corporate caterer include the ease of requesting services and paying invoices, which in Brighton Marine’s case is handled through e-mail. Bob said, “Another benefit to them being on campus is that I can just walk down and have a conversation about what I want or need and I rely on their experience. For instance, I’ll tell them about an upcoming event and what we want to do and ask what they think would work best. They’ve always been right. They make everything related to food service very easy.”

Bob said, “I can’t say enough good things about Café Services as a food service dining provider and corporate caterer. They know what they need to do to make you successful with your program. They’ll find the staff for larger events, they’ll find the resources if needed. The people are great in how they always go above and beyond our expectations, and the food is always fantastic.”

I’ve been born and bred corporate dining and corporate catering from the very beginning of my career in the Silicon Valley and now, since 2001 in the Boston Metro Area. While working my way up through the ranks, all the experience has led up to my current position as the Corporate Executive Chef for Café Services, based out of Manchester, NH. I have the privilege to be able to utilize creativity, research and technology to dream up our company’s new culinary programs and custom menus for corporate cafeteria clients and bring them to life. Café Services supplies the resources to ensure success of our ever-evolving companywide culinary initiatives and I’m very grateful for the opportunity. Seeing the success of new programs in the field is my motivation. It’s a win win.