New Year's Eve - what would you pay?

[VeryFoolishFay]

DH and I run a little monthly supper club at home, been doing it 6 months and its starting to get rather popular. We only have 8 places and are now starting to sell out about about 3 weeks in advance.

We live in the middle of nowhere, so not much competition and have 5 * food hygiene certificate. We currently charge £35 ph, that's aperitif/canapes, soup and soda bread, starter, main course, dessert, coffee and truffles. Everything is handmade by us and ingredients are locally sourced. Because we are not licenced, guests bring their own wine, we provide glasswear and there's no corkage charge.

Now, we were thinking of having a New Years Eve celebration, because we don't usually do much, the evenings are rather convivial anyway and it would help boost the coffers after a family Christmas.

There is a nice pub with rooms that people could walk to (or I could drive them) and perhaps they could even come back for a full English in the morning.

We both love doing it but it is a huge amount of work and it also impacts on our DC's so I would like to charge accordingly. And our reputation locally is getting rather good. There is also a cost benefit to guests that they won't have to pay inflated alcohol prices. They will obviously stay till after Big Ben so it will be quite a long evening for us.

My main issue is that I have such an overwhelming fear of looking like a massive CF, I am liable to sell myself short, just to be polite.

So, if it's the sort of thing you might like, how much do you think it would reasonable to pay?

In terms of accommodation we do have a spare double room which I was thinking of offering for the night. I think probably too cold for glamping but certainly for next summer, we're thinking of offering a pitch your own tent arrangement. Some guests actually asked about it last week. We had a party here for our teenage DS in June and it was like a mini Glasto!

I really think if you more than double your price for NYE you’ll piss off your base.

A friend of mine does something similar and she overcharged for an event. Not good.

I tend to agree, atalune, I just want to reflect the effort involved. Also, I don't think prices in the south west are going to reflect the south east or other more cosmopolitan areas. But this has given me the confidence to go for a few extra bits and pieces and enhance the usual price, within reason.

If they are bringing their own booze £50 sounds right

I think £50 - 60 seems reasonable particularly as you're offering to ferry people to local accommodation as well.
Most people will understand that a premium is charged for a special occasion but too much and you will look a bit grasping

£75, with a few little extras

If no one books you can always lower the price

Well I’m from the south west and I go to private dining things and parties and events in lovely manor houses and what not and I think anything above £60 would be too much. Especially if it’s byob.

You could put something in your foyer for tips, I have been to things where this was done very unobtrusively and they got LOADS in tips.

What about fireworks at midnight?

Great idea about fireworks! We live half a mile from the nearest house and there is loads of space and no light pollution.

Also tips is an interesting one - we have started to receive them in the last two events - £40 last week!

Fireworks are a fantastic idea and would make the evening really special. You'd need to be especially careful on your pricing though - it costs a surprisingly high amount to have a decent display and means that at least one of you would be occupied with setting that up (although could be done in advance) and setting off the fireworks at the time.

I've never heard of a supper club. Do most guests not know each other?

I think the fireworks would be an expensive faff. Your set-up sounds lovely - do you cater for vegetarians?

You could hardly charge extra for fireworks though and they are hellieshly expensive. I bought a few for a NYE party I did a few years ago. I forget what I spent but two pops and they were gone.

Most guests come in pairs (friends or couples) and usually there are 4 separate pairs and they sit around the one table. But we have never had a problem with people not getting on and they are often swapping contact details at the end of the evening! There is a mix of people from within a mile or two who see it advertised in the parish newsletter and those than come via Twitter and Facebook. There is also quite a mix of ages from around 25-65 so far!

We do cater for vegetarians - usually the canapes, soup and starter are veggie or pescatarian anyway and we will do an alternative veggie main course. In rural Dorset, the majority of guests are well and truly carniverous (or ominverous, I suppose!)

I still like the idea of fireworks; will cost them out but they would have to be in a fairly ironic way!

The dining room has been cobbled together with second hand painted furniture, car boot silverwear, a mirror I found discarded in an outbuilding and my parents cast off linen. We've also finally used the posh canteen of cutlery from my first wedding 30 years ago...

And a Laura Ashley lampshade from Gumtree!

It's lovely. I think seeing as it's your first NYE £55 would be a good price.

That's what I am starting to lean towards; it feels enough to feel recompensed but I think £60 might just be the proverbial straw!

Am already thinking of menu items, possibly a chocolate ganache tart with gold leaf...

I’d advise about £65, not double your usual price but we’ll wnough above to be worth the extra 2 hours (I can’t see anyone leaving before 1am), the cheese course and possibly some midnight canapés.

Found a recipe for pheasant and tarragon sausage rolls which would fit the midnight munchies brief. We'll be metaphorically knee deep in the birds by then!

Any more thoughts OP? Have you found anything helpful from the thread so far?

I've been giving it more thought as I think while you don't want to seem CF, quite rightly, or alienate your regular diners, you do need to make sure you're not subsidising to a silly degree, so as you know, it's a fine line.

So far we now have

aperitif/canapés
soup and soda bread
starter
main course
dessert
coffee and truffles
midnight snack and toasting glass the pheasant rolls sound luxurious
goodie bag

The commercial rule of thirds doesn't apply so strictly as you're not incurring an additional cost for the premises, heating, lighting and cleaning even, you'd have that to do anyhow even if not to a timetable.
You'd have to food shop anyway too. It's a matter of being time savvy and as the supper club goes on, probably a bit more of a savvy shopper too.

You're using quality produce and of course that costs, but £110 out of £280 income is high. That's £13.75 per head for the raw materials not counting the planning, prep, cooking, serving and cleaning up and hardly including any alcohol at the ordinary monthly meal.

I suppose what I'm saying is that for an ordinary monthly supper club and for a special Gala Evening, you need now to get a real handle on your ratios and costing so that you give people a quality experience, which is value for money, but also worth your while, even if it's a sideline and not a work commitment as such because you are still working.

Can you tell I love a spreadsheet?

I don't know how people can eat all that. I'd want a starter or soup, not both - especially if I'd had canapés.

Hi Haquina, thanks for your advice, really helpful. I've been cogitating on it all. I'm working on getting a good balance to providing a lovely experience which people enjoy and talk about and setting that against the time/ cost. What's gratifying is that the places are getting easier and easier to sell. We are trying to work out if we could seat 10 or perhaps 12 which would provide a much better return for much the same effort / cost.

There's been an interesting development this week; a family coming on holiday locally had booked a chef to come to their cottage and cook a special birthday dinner. They were let down and through a friend of a friend, we're stepping in. They only want 3 courses, though we're going to throw in some canapes as a little extra. £45 per head and much lower food costs and we don't have to fuss over making our own house guest ready! It's made me think that if we could do that occasionally, that would be a good counterbalance to the supper club.

In terms of courses, they are all quite dainty, we have learned to tone down the size of the main course. Very little ever comes back to the kitchen!

That sounds like another string to your bow

In terms of quantity of food, I don't have a huge appetite and yes, usually these more course events have dainty portions and the menus are balanced in terms of both taste and compatibility. It's not like a cream soup, steak and kidney pudding with vast quantities of veg followed by fruit crumble and custard. On the other hand, I have friends who genuinely do eat much more and not just through greed.
So it's a balance again isn't it, making sure people feel they've had value for money and don't go home peckish, without over facing the diner or having much waste.

When a higher number of courses are on offer it feels more like a special occasion and is a reflection of the effort, work and attention to detail that's expected at the ticket price.

As an example, our New Year's Eve meal out involved some marinated olives, warm nuts and crostini with an aperitif while we looked at the menu. There were three regular courses involving dessert or cheese preceded by a cauliflower soup amuse bouche. The soup was not much more than coffee cup sized, served with a tea spoon and had a little truffle oil sprinkled with a kind of baked crumb dusting on top, it was very tasty but not filling.. Coffee or tea was served with little almond biscuits half decorated with chocolate and some edible glitter. It might sound a lot but it was over a long period of time and wasn't overwhelming.

The one thing I'd say is be careful not to overcrowd the room too much if you have additional guests, the table looks a bit tight for place settings in the photo above?

£100 a head and make it very special