Catering for restaurants: quoting, deposits, minimums, and a page that converts

Quoting: per head, per hour, or a flat price

Most restaurants quote catering one of three ways: a per-person price that scales with headcount, an hourly staffing-plus-food rate for a served or staffed event, or a flat price for a fixed menu and quantity. Per-head pricing is the easiest to explain to a customer and the easiest to protect your margin on, since it moves with the actual order size. Whatever you pick, put your real food cost and labor into the quote before you send a number — a catering order priced like a dine-in check, without accounting for delivery, setup, and extra hands, is the fastest way to lose money on your biggest tickets.

Deposits: protect the ingredients you already bought

A deposit exists for one reason: by the time you've confirmed an order, you may already be buying product for it. There's no statewide figure to point to here — it's a business call, not a regulation — but the logic most operators use is to set a deposit that at least covers what you'd actually be out if the event cancels close to the date, with the rest due before or at the event. Put your cancellation window and your deposit terms in writing before the deposit changes hands, not after a cancellation forces the conversation.

Minimums: headcount and lead time both matter

A headcount minimum keeps a five-person office lunch from eating the same prep time as a fifty-person event. A lead-time minimum keeps a same-week request from displacing orders you already have on the books. Set both based on your actual kitchen capacity, not a number you saw somewhere else — a food truck's minimum and a full-service kitchen's minimum should look nothing alike.

Tax on a catering order

Texas has no separate "catering tax." A catered order is still prepared food, and it's taxed exactly like a dine-in or takeout sale: 6.25% state sales tax, plus up to 2% in combined local city, county, transit, and special-purpose district taxes, for a maximum combined rate of 8.25% anywhere in Texas. If alcohol is part of the event, remember it runs on its own returns — the Comptroller charges permittees a 6.7% mixed beverage gross receipts tax, plus an 8.25% mixed beverage sales tax on the drink itself, separate from the food total. If you're planning to serve alcohol somewhere other than your own licensed premises, check with TABC about what that specific arrangement requires before you commit to the event.

What a catering page needs to actually convert

An enquiry-first catering page works when it removes friction, not when it tries to close the sale on the page itself. State your minimum headcount and lead time up front so someone self-selects out before they waste your time or theirs. Say plainly what you cater — drop-off trays, a staffed buffet, a fully served event — so the enquiry that lands in your inbox is already roughly the right shape. Keep the form itself short: event date, headcount, and a line for what they're picturing. A form that asks for a full menu selection before you've even talked to them adds friction without adding useful information at this stage.

What LuperIQ's catering page does today, and what it doesn't

Be honest with yourself about where the tooling actually is. Today, the catering page on a LuperIQ restaurant site states your headcount minimum and your lead time and sends the enquiry straight to you — you follow up, quote the event, take the deposit, and confirm the date yourself, outside the product. Quoting an event online, collecting a deposit through the site, and putting a confirmed booking on a calendar are on the roadmap; none of that is built yet, so don't plan your catering operation around a self-serve booking flow that doesn't exist today. What the page does do well is remove the "how do I even ask" friction — which, for most independent restaurants, is most of what's actually costing them catering enquiries in the first place.