Quick Buffet Poll (Help please!)

[Buffetornot]

OK everyone, quick poll here.

Hosting a party for about 50 people next week. It's at a venue and the time is from 7-9pm so not over a meal time.

Not many drinkers, so providing tea and coffee, cash bar if anyone wants a drink.

I have a large cake, brownies, selection of crisps, a sweet station so everyone can make a pic n mix. Is this enough, would you expect a full buffet?

YABU- Yes, provide some sandwiches and sausage rolls you miserable git.

YANBU- Everyone will have eaten already, snacks are fine.

I think the fact you've put the word 'party' in the thread has meant lots of folk have gone for the answer of "Yes, you have to offer food at a party"

So, if I'm going to a party in the evening, I'd expect there to be a bar, and yes, I'd hope / presume there would be some food when I'd had a couple of drinks.

Personally we tend to eat around 6.30 , but you have to remember that if the 'do; starts at 7, even us earlier eaters won't be able to have had a proper meal before hand, then travel etc.

But it sounds to me like this is more of a 'social gathering' at a time when people would be at a meeting. I go to lots of things in the evening, and it is quite common to have a bit of a 'social' coming up to Christmas or at the end of a series of things. In which case - tea / coffee / squash and some cake would be fine.

Pie and peas is your friend here

Pic n Mix indeed!

Could always do a massive cheese board too

It'll get eaten

Agreed

Personally I’d drop the pizza maybe other stuff too
and go for a selection of cheeses, grapes, bread and crackers.

( think vegan cheese too just in case )

Ooo
i see @coxesorangepippin has already mentioned this. Like minds and all that 😁

It does depend somewhat on what the occasion is!
if you are all turning up at the scout hall to celebrate a scout leader gaining a long Service award, then tea/coffee/squash and cake is all that will be expected (unlikely as they don’t usually have cash bars!)
If it’s at a social club celebrating a member of the community receiving a local hero type award, or the reopening of the refurbished library etc a broader demographic will be attending and will likely appreciate more nibbles, savoury & sweet but not a full blown meal
If it’s somebody’s 80th birthday party, a full-blown buffet will be expected
what do the invitations say?

Nobody will expect anything fancy. A cheeseboard is lovely but also potentially expensive.

I'll stick to the 'safe' traditional buffet foods (sandwiches, wraps, sausage rolls, veg alternative, crisps, fruit)

Cake, tea and coffee.

@olympicsrock there have been a few buffet / catering threads lately where the meat eaters have been very pissed off at the idea that the non-meat options should be just for vegetarians, because they want to eat them too - either as mains or as sides with their meat. And the vegetarians get even more pissed off because then we risk having nothing to eat.

So making most of the food veggie with some meat for the people who want it seemed to make sense. I get that it wouldn’t work everywhere though.

After your last update I think what you're now planning sounds perfectly fine.

7-9pm is definitely a meal time for adults. Having said that I would be fine with snacks as long as I was made aware. However, I'd like something a bit healthier than crisps and sweets.

Is it for kids?

For who?

For 2 hrs only?!

How on EARTH do you know what time every adult of your acquaintance eats their evening meal?
What kind of weird inquisitorial (and boring!) conversations do you have for that to have been a topic of conversation even once, let alone to the extent you can say with confidence for every person you know?
I couldn't even tell you what time my best friend or sibling generally eats unless I'm having a meal with them!

I would ditch the sweets unless there's children there. Sandwiches and wraps are a faff to make for 50 people - I'd buy lots of French sticks and some cheeses & pate, grapes, celery and a couple of chutneys?

Pick and mix still sounds slightly strange for an adult event. I’d want savoury buffet ideally. No sweets.

Sandwiches and sausage rolls are a must. Agree with pp saying it’s a mealtime

I would assume full meal if served at that time. You must say on the invites if that’s not happening.

I agree that you need a good amount more savoury and less sweet.

Even my primary school children haven't had diner by 7pm. Unless they are in hospital, I don't know any adult who has diner by then either.

You must have a pretty small and limited circle of people you know then.
Over the last 2 weeks, I've been out at meetings / groups / a choir / something I volunteer at / exercise class for 10 out of the last 14 evenings. All starting at either 7.30 or 7pm, having travelled there. I can assure you, no-one was eating their evening meal at any of them. Many, many people eat before 7.
When my dc were at Primary school, we ate around 5.45, so they were then able to go to cubs, football training, drama, etc after their meal.

Imagine! People who live their lives slightly differently from you!

Yes this, OP is being vague about the occasion but does sound as though the word 'party' in the OP is maybe misleading people. If it's more of a meeting or linked to a club or hobby or work based thing, held in a public venue (which the cash bar kind of implies) and it's acquaintances linked to that who are coming rather than family/friends I think that massively changes the context and people's expectations of getting fed. A 'party' at someone's house over that time period you'd definitely expect a full meal, but a hobby-linked gathering in a pub's back room or a meeting in a village hall with chat/social time afterwards you'd be more thinking tea and biscuits and would be delighted to receive fruit and sandwiches and sausage rolls as well. If it's that OP I think your plans sound fine...

Not really. I imagine they just mostly know people who work for a living.

I don’t know anyone who’d be home to eat at 5pm, for example. I’m sure they are many people who do so. But nobody I know; they are all at work.

Knowing people who work to support themselves and their families isn’t really a limited circle of acquaintance.

@MissTrip82 I have always worked.
I used to start at 7am, leave work at 4.45, pick up the dc from the Childminder, get in by about 5.10 and then feed them.

Nowadays, of course there are a lot of people that wfh, too.

Why do you think people can't work, and eat at a time that means they can then go out in the evenings ?

Knowing people who work to support themselves and their families isn’t really a limited circle of acquaintance.

WTAF? What a bloody stupid comment. You do realise that plenty of people work and don’t work 9-5 or whatever hours you do? That other working patterns are available and that some people WFH or live close to their workplace?