Catering & Me

My nephew in front of his dad's cookshop. I spent the past 4 days helping my brother Jon at his recently opened business, Chive Cafe & Catering. Located adjacent to Peddler's Village in Bucks County, Chive is a great place for breakfast and lunch. One of Jon's goals is to have the best sandwiches in Bucks County and he is definitely a contender if you listened to the comments of his guests.  And of course I must mention his catering. As most know, Jon was Max's partner at Max & Me Catering way before I joined the team. He was as responsible for the growth, quality and success of the business as Max was, it just wasn't his name on the door. In positioning Chive's catering, Jon will hold to the same high quality standards he had at Max & Me, but he is aware of the new reality of the catering buyer's need to be much more budget conscious than many were from the mid-'90s through 2008. My buddy Erin Lambert with Duff from TV Food Network...

One excuse for no recent blogs. Mountains to climb, Mt. Evans CO 14,264' I was going to do this on the first anniversary of my first blog post but I didn't get around to it. That was back in mid-June. I think it will be good for those of you who are just starting to read my blog to look over some of the old posts. I have selected some of my favorites for you here, with brief recaps, and links to the original posts. A new post is coming, probably tomorrow, lots to catch up on: travels, events and new projects. It's been a great summer so far, hope you are enjoying it too. First blog post, June 13, 2011.  Link to blog post #1  This post discusses why I started blogging and what I intend to cover. Back in the dark days before I figured out how to put pictures in the blog. A great new venue, featuring farm to table at it's freshest! This blog post from October 11, 2011 is where I explain what I do for a living in the world of catering and special events. Learn h...

Andalusia on the Delaware. To see the most updated version of the really cool virtual site inspection video that I produced click on this link:  video tour now please.  There are ten venues featured in the video and were chosen for their variety, usability, and perhaps most important for planners, not one has an exclusive catering contract. Electric Factory PhillyVenueFinder.com will be a live website in the next few months, for now the link will take you to this blogpost. If that is how you got here, contact me for more info at email below. For more information and to book an event or actual site inspection, contact me at harryspivak@gmail.com, if you need my cell number, email me. Also, if you own or manage a venue and you would like a quote on producing a virtual tour for your place you can contact me as well. Girard College, Founder's Hall Special thanks to Rich Levering whose idea this was, and Colin Comstock of Arsenal AV, the gifted videograp...

ICC's truck unloading under the Barnes' iconic overhang About a month or so ago, my good friend Tia Triplett asked me to coordinate vendors for interesting food booths on the terrace at the new Barnes museum on their free ticket Memorial day weekend. Tia is the on-site GM for 1st & Fresh Catering the food service provider for the museum. Due to the extremely heavy load of catered events and opening their restaurant and coffee bar, they needed some relief for their staff and that is why they decided to subcontract this project. Tia chose me to do this because of my museum experience and my knowledge of what the best vendor solution would be to make it special for the guests. My immediate thought was to involve all my catering clients, but since only one of them has an ongoing vending component to their business model, I decided to work on this with Rocco Gallelli, Joe Divon and Steve Mastero, owners of Innovative Catering Concepts. Field kitchen and grill station ...

Charlotte NC Skyline  One of my favorite songs is the Taj Mahal version of this classic road song. I listened to it about three or four times on my recent trip to Charlotte NC and Tampa FL. It's on one of my i-pod play lists that I named "Kind of Country" It was just a coincidence that I was on the road from last Wednesday to this Tuesday. Six days on the road. Center of Charlotte. Tryon and Trade Streets. Two blocks from Time Warner Cable Arena where the DNC will be held Bechtler Museum and Knight Theater in the "CLT" I went on this journey to scout venues and catering options for the upcoming political conventions. When I get to a new town I usually start to walk all over, and talk to as many people as possible. Get my bearings, learn about what I may not have picked up in my readings before getting there, and most important, find venues that I might not have found without happening upon them. I fell in love with Charlotte. I spent time in NC as...

I love to watch cooking shows. I started with Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet s a child, and instantly fell in love with the Food Network when it started. I got to collaborate on some Book & The Cook events (remember that?) with The Two Hot Tamales when I was at Arroyo Grille in the late 90's, and in the kitchen at the time was a budding new talented chef by the name of Jennifer Carroll. These days my favorite show is Rick Bayless's  Mexico, one plate at a time , and I really like the competition shows, Top Chef, Next Iron Chef, and Chopped. Here are two lesser known cooking shows I hope you enjoy as much as I do. Okay, next blog post will be back to covering catering world. There is lots to cover including the opening of the Barnes Museum and a new Facebook group, Philly Catering Stars. Also, I am compiling my thoughts for  chapter two of "Do the Right Thing", so today let's all do some good.

Battleship NJ, once exclusive, now semi-exclusive. Contact me for details The concept of exclusive catering contracts is a topic I have planned on writing about since I began this blog last June. It is a very interesting subject, the pros and cons are numerous and the consequence of exclusivity can make or break a catering company. My personal feelings and analysis of exclusivity has evolved over the years, and I will mostly withhold my own thoughts until I have covered the topic a bit more thoroughly. I would like you, the reader, to draw your own conclusions. Sigma Sound Studios, an iconic Philly venue, exclusive to Feastivities I would like nothing more than lively, spirited feedback on this and I will include good comments in the coming posts on this topic. This one will be short and sweet with only a brief exploration of the topic. I have a very busy day culminating in a very exciting dinner in DC with the Creative Coalition. Why do public and private special event ...

For all your venue and catering sourcing needs.  Service is free for event planners, DMCs, and anyone  looking for the right space to have a party, meeting, shindig or festival. Need help now? Call or email me:  harryspivak@gmail.com 610*955*8001

This blog post has been brewing in my brain for years. When I decided to go to business school and focus on the hospitality industry for my career, a very big part of my motivation was not financial but humanitarian. I had been out of high school for 5 years, had a few interesting jobs, a few crappy jobs, went to three different colleges for one semester each, ski-bummed for two winters, and felt I was beginning to learn enough about the world to decide on a path. Being a child of the '60s I had always wanted to do something to make the world a better place. As an adolescent, civil rights/poverty and the environment were the big issues for me. At one point I contemplated law, another thought was marine biology another was solar energy engineer. Then as I watched the world and learned more about how it worked it seemed to me the people who had the most potential influence both good and bad were the entrepreneurs. So I returned to school at CU Boulder, got my business deg...

Innovative Catering Concepts, a high capacity mobile food experience Here are some images of my catering clients from the event today. Above is Innovative's mobile food trailer which differs from most food trucks you see as they can feed up to 1000 people per hour where most trucks max out at around 100 per hour. It's a real kitchen on wheels and can be wrapped in a client's logo if desired. ICA Caterer of the year, Feastivities Events The folks from Feastivities are promoting two of their exclusive venues, Sigma Sound Stage, the iconic studio where some of Philly's best music was recorded and the Stotesbury Mansion, a classic venue on Rittenhouse Square. Yours Truly promoting my new website: PhillyVenueFinder.com The new website will be up soon for all your venue needs. Look for my venue video on You Tube in the next few days. Feast Your Eyes served Fresh made Honey Lavendar Ice Cream, YUM!!! Front and Palmer is Feast Your Eye's home base and a reall...

LOVE was in the air last night! I'm packing all my brochures, books, and nick-nacks, stocking my event emergency kit and preparing to hobble off to the Pennsylvania Marketplace Tradeshow. This is one of the signature events that is part of the three day Philly LOVEfest called Meeting Metropolis. An incredibly talented group of event planners, PCVB, PACC, and GPTMC staff are hosting this three day Grand Opening of the Convention Center expansion. There was a phenomenal opening reception last night with great food, diverse entertainment and Major League networking. I am very lucky to have been invited. I will try to post again later today, let's start the day with some more love:  All you need is love.  Click it, enjoy it.

Spring in the Rockies Is there anything better than Spring as it begins to unfold? When my daughter was little we used to stroll around our neighborhood in Blue Bell and hike in Bucks County and I would point out to her the earliest subtle changes, and then the increasingly obvious "Signs of Spring". As as she got older it became a  little joke and cute reference to her childhood: look Katie, "Signs of Spring". I returned from my trip to Vegas (Catersource Convention) and Colorado (visiting Katie) last week. Weather in Colorado was beautiful and I recalled a quote from one of my University of Colorado professors: "Spring in the Rockies is a phenomenon that occurs with increasing frequency from January to June", anyone who has spent time there knows how true that can be. Here in Philly it looks like this week will be a nuclear explosion of Spring, temps in the 70s, St. Patty's Day, March Madness and many great events on the horizon. Bring it on! F...

Mardi Gras Indians "Down in New Orleans where the blues was born, it takes a cool cat to blow a horn" Those are the opening lyrics to the song "Mardi Gras Mambo" Here is a sweet version:  Hawketts do Mardi Gras Mambo . I have a long history with New Orleans and I just woke up and felt the need to share on Fat Tuesday 2012. I graduated from the University of Colorado in May of 1985, after I went and helped my mom move from Massachusetts to Mill Valley California, the plan was to move back to Philly and find a job. Once arriving, my brother Jon and my cousin Adam had begun crafting a plan to take one of our families restaurant locations in Bala Cynwyd, and turn it into our own place. They made a deal with our uncles, which let us get in for a very small investment, and then they decided that we should do a Cajun-Creole restaurant as the cuisine was very popular, we all loved it, and there was only one other similar place in the area at the time. Also a high schoo...

Piazza Party People Partying Properly Brains of NYE, Brian Nagele, Sofia & Jen Happy MLK day y'all and Happy New Year too. I had to start my blogging year with my own personal recap of New Years at the Piazza. I'll try to give some insight on what it took to produce this extremely successful event. Ever since the Piazza opened I have viewed it as a very viable large event venue and had looked forward to someday being involved with something big, cool, fun and profitable there. Piazza management wisely turned the event over to four of the anchor restaurants at the Piazza to promote and produce the event. I was lucky enough to be hired to coordinate food & beverage service in the 20,000+ square foot tent. The owners of King's Oak, PYT, Raw and Gunner's Run were the event promoters/producers, and their diverse talents, connections and staff was a huge contributing factor to the event's success. This was truly an all-star team of event and hospitality p...