Unfortunately, it comes with being the manager of the Ale House. Yay me!
I am not resistant to different ideas. Just saying what was thought of. If I had it all worked out, I wouldn't have come here asking for ideas & input.
I just talked to a place that can provide Turkey or Ham dinners, including 3 sides and cost is $75 for a "meal" that serves 6 - 8. I can get just a Turkey Breast or Spiral Ham $35. So if we need to serve 60 people that is $750 without the added costs of proving the soft drinks, appetizers, and desserts plus everything else looks to be close to $1,000. I am not counting any cost for the beer because that is minimal. Maybe the boss will be okay with this but it seems like a lot to me.
The bosses reason for having this get together is to say thank you for sticking by us during the hard times. There is no way to do it during the day, during working hours. After work hours is the only feasible time. I get that having the Friday before what is a four day weekend for us is not ideal. And I will bring this up to him again when we finalize things.
You don't need a catering company or restaurant or even the Honey Baked Ham store.
Call your local grocery store & see how much 3 pre-cooked spiral sliced hams are. For 60 people, you may need 4.
I was the secretary for a number of years for a small church. At Thanksgiving, we had a church-wide meal where the church provided the turkeys, & everyone else brought the sides. I would ask for 4-5 volunteers to cook turkeys, & I'd go buy the large 22-25 lbs turkeys at our local grocery store along w/ roasting pans. My turkey volunteer cookers would cook the turkeys at their homes & bring them to the church fellowship hall about 30 minutes before the dinner. I also had 2 men who would carve the turkeys for me. And we always had leftover turkey to send home w/ people.
Have you ever tried cooking spaghetti for 60 people? When you first posted, I thought you were talking about 20-25 people. For one of my kids' birthday parties, we once served a baked pasta dish, toasted French bread, & salad for about 25 people in our home (no transportation required) & that was difficult enough.
Are you going to have the afternoon off in order to cook? Otherwise, when are you going to cook the spaghetti & prepare the salad & how are you going to keep the spaghetti warm? How are you going to transport spaghetti, salad, & rolls for 60 people?
Trust me. Turkeys or Hams are going to be so much easier, &, if you're only buying the turkeys or hams, the cost is not going to be that much different.
As a company, provide the hams, rolls (like slider-type rolls), drinks, & plates/napkins/cups/plastic-ware.
Send around a sign-up sheet for salads (potato, slaw, pasta, etc.), chips, baked beans & other hot vegetable side dishes (like green beans or hashbrown casserole), & desserts.
Done.