Burger Catering Ideas for Parties, Tailgates and Backyard BBQs
According to Tastewise, 50 million burgers are consumed annually – and that’s just in the U.S. From grilling hamburgers at home to choosing a favorite steakburger from the Freddy’s menu, there are many opportunities for people to enjoy eating burgers throughout the year. Burgers are also often one of the first menu ideas that comes to mind when planning to serve a crowd or holding an outdoor event, like a tailgate party or a backyard BBQ. With burger catering, you can offer this popular meal option and relish the convenience of having it prepared for you and your guests. If you are considering having burgers catered for your next event, you may be wondering about the following:
● Ideas for incorporating burger catering into your event
● Setting up your space to enjoy your catered offerings
● Other dishes to accompany your burgers
Keep reading to learn more about burger catering ideas and other setup that may be needed for this menu selection, as well as dishes to serve with your burgers.
Burger Catering Ideas for Indoor or Outdoor Events
Skip the potential stress of grilling and cooking, simplify your meal planning and satisfy hungry crowds with burger catering. From corporate events to tailgate parties, burger catering lightens your workload while still enabling you to offer and enjoy a crowd-pleasing meal for various occasions. Rain or shine, burger catering services ensure that burgers are ready for you and your guests. Here are 4 exciting ways to make burgers part of your indoor or outdoor events:
1. Invite your guests to build their own burgers.
In evaluating burger trends, Datassential highlights that people often appreciate the opportunity both to customize their burgers and to enjoy familiar and creative burger components. For your next event, honor these preferences by choosing a burger catering service that enables your guests to take a DIY approach to their burger construction. For example, Freddy’s burger bar catering includes 10 doubles and 10 servings of our own kettle chips, as well as an assortment of toppings like ketchup, mustard, sliced jalapeños and a bottle of our special fry sauce. To provide even more variety to this spread, you might offer alternative choices of buns or even more condiment and topping options.
2. Host a “Best Burger” competition.
If the number of people tailgating before the homecoming game seems to increase every year, then you may need multiple catering orders of burgers or any other dishes. For sizable groups or smaller ones, consider making your burger catering choices part of the event festivities. For an upcoming gathering, encourage a bit of friendly competition or plan for the experience to be more of a tasting event. While a tasting approach (competitive or otherwise) can certainly work with homemade burgers too, one idea for catered burgers is to have each challenger bring an order or two from their favorite provider. Then, you might vote on the favorite burger of the day or simply enjoy trying several of the top burger choices from fellow event participants.
3. Offer a variety of mini burgers or burger bites.
One of the great things about burgers as a meal choice is that utensils are typically optional instead of a necessity. Having mini burgers catered makes this food item even easier to hold and enjoy. Offering small bites can be especially helpful if seating is limited or if the event or setting is such that people are likely to be walking around and eating versus sitting around a table. While this burger catering idea is a fun approach to this meal idea in general, kids particularly may be excited to find burgers that are just their size! As with burgers of regular size, you might again offer diners the option to customize their own mini burgers or simply select platters of different varieties from your caterer. If the caterer near you doesn’t have mini burgers as an option, then one easy alternative is to cut regular burgers into smaller bites and toothpick individual bites to try.
4. Opt for choose-your-own burger catering.
Burger bar catering offers guests the opportunity to customize their burgers and have some interactive fun in doing so. While individual bagged lunches do not offer the same kind of hands-on engagement as the burger bar approach, they do provide guests with the opportunity to choose their preferred meal selections. For graduation parties on the beach, back-to-school luncheons, and a variety of other events, burger catering orders that offer everything that they want and need in a single parcel help make delicious meals easy, from initial pickup or delivery to final cleanup. At Freddy’s, our bagged lunches feature selections like veggie burgers, Bacon & Cheese Doubles, and the California-Style Double. Plus, each meal comes with chips and a brownie!
Letting someone else prepare the burgers for your event means that you can check this main dish off of your to-do list. Depending on the event, homemade sides and sweets made by you or family and friends may complete the food offerings for the day, or you may want to find a burger catering service that can handle those parts of your menu as well. For example, Freddy’s catered burger bars already include a side for each burger, as well as a variety of toppings. However, items like chicken tender trays, fresh garden salads and rich chocolate brownies are also available, as well as a selection of drink options.
Preparing to Enjoy Your Burger Catering Order and More
As shared in this outdoor party planning guide from Real Simple, a lot of thought, preparation and planning goes into hosting a great party. Making decisions about or related to the food is one important part of these efforts. After determining the burger catering idea that works best for your event and the catering service near you that can fulfill your needs, your food choices may also influence how you set up your event space, what other items you need to have and more. In addition to the location of the event, number of guests and potential theme, here’s how your burger catering choices may impact other party preparations.
Account for the timing of your catering order. You may plan to pick up your order or have your burger catering delivered before your guests even arrive. Alternatively, to ensure that food is fresh and warm for your guests enjoyment, you may also opt to have that order arrive during your event. In addition to how and when you’ll get the burgers, you’ll need to decide where your burger catering order will be placed. That way, you can make sure that there is no interference with setting up this food, whether you are doing it yourself or the catering service will take care of it upon arrival. If you are electing onsite burger catering, there will likely be even more logistical considerations, such as how to ensure the necessary power or where to locate a food truck or grills.
Determine your tableware needs. Tableware such as serving platters, plates, glasses and utensils may be available from the catering service. However, you may also choose to or need to provide those items yourself, especially if you are offering both catered and homemade food items. Depending on the other details of the event, you may also want to organize other items in advance like tablecloths and napkins, warming or cooling equipment, or maybe even trash disposal.
Organize tables (or tailgates) for specific purposes and with movement in mind. If you opt for a bagged lunch, your event design may be as simple as distributing the right meal to the right person. However, if you are serving mini burgers or offering a build-a-burger bar, more consideration of your space may be needed. For example, you’ll want to think about how to organize your table or tables with the burgers, toppings, sides and drinks so that the flow of diners moves easily and logically. So, you might designate tables for different purposes, such as one for beverages, another for sides, a table for gathering the choice of burger as well as plates and napkins, and one with all of the sauces and toppings. In addition to thinking about any movement that will occur between tables, also consider how to provide the greatest amount of access to various items, such as placing tables so that people can access the contents from either side.
Have a backup plan. For outdoor parties in particular, designing a backup plan now can make it easier to avoid greater headaches in the future. Often, the greatest concern in hosting a backyard BBQ or other outdoor event is the weather. From the sudden heat wave to an unexpected storm, these conditions and others can jeopardize the work you’ve done to throw a great party, as well as your food. Fortunately, you can prepare for many potential issues in advance, such as having canopy tents and fans available or ensuring clear paths to shelter and space inside. In short, planning for problematic scenarios now helps avoid snafus with your burger catering orders and other aspects of your party on the day of the event.
Dishes to Pair with Your Burger Catering Order
Especially for outdoor events, burgers and chips are both a smart pairing, as they are easy to eat, and a delicious one. However, once the burger catering plan is decided, you also may be thinking about appetizers, sides and sweets that are similarly simple to serve or eat and that go well with burgers. Below, find 3 ideas to consider!
Skewered sides: From marinated chicken tenders to fresh fruit, many delicious bites can be served on skewers. For example, while it’s hard to compete with slices of ripe watermelon, colorful fruit skewers can be a similarly refreshing choice. As in a recipe like this one from Ambitious Kitchen, you might assemble skewers in advance for an easy grab-and-go offering or provide a fruit-filled station where guests can make their own skewers – yet another opportunity for guest customization. For a fun dessert idea, consider offering warm chocolate or other sauces for dipping too! Looking for a similar preparation that includes vegetables instead of fruit? You might want to check out these “salad-on-a-stick” ideas from Allrecipes!
Stuffed appetizers: In addition to skewered choices, one or two-bite stuffed selections like peppers and deviled eggs are great for parties because they are often easy to consume and can often be made ahead of time. For example, instead of serving hummus and crudité on a platter, you might put them together ahead of time, as in this recipe for hummus-filled peppers from Peas and Crayons. For even more sweet and savory small bite ideas including both stuffed and unstuffed preparations, this guide to over 40 recipe ideas from Taste of Home may be a helpful resource!
Create-your-own sweets: Even after enjoying delicious catered burgers, your guests will likely still have room for sweet treats. While you or your chosen catering services may offer platters of cookies or brownies, another option is to plan a customizable and interactive dessert experience. From a pick-your-own candy bar to a cupcake decorating station, there are so many incredible ways to provide an awe-inspiring conclusion to your next party. In addition to burger catering at Freddy’s, we also offer sundae bar catering. Each order comes with two quarts of our creamy frozen custard and multiple toppings like candy pieces, cookie dough, strawberries and hot fudge, so people can create their own frozen custard treats.
Whether you are looking for burger catering for a backyard birthday BBQ, tailgate party or any other event, Freddy’s offers burger bars and bagged lunches with multiple burgers, as well as many other savory and sweet menu selections. Our catering orders are available for carry out or delivery, so you can choose the option that will work best for you and for your event. Plus, although no catering-specific rewards are currently available, members of the Freddy’s Rewards program can earn points with any catering order, if they are logged into their account when placing that order. Make sure to download the Freddy’s app and sign up for our rewards program today!