Catering & Me

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...