I get calls about this maybe twice a month now. Restaurant owner runs a decent BBQ joint, maybe been at it three or four years, finally getting some traction. Then somebody asks them to cater a wedding. They say yes, pull it off somehow, and suddenly they're wondering if there's real money in catering. The answer is yes. But the path from "we did one event" to "we run a profitable catering arm" is where most folks get themselves into trouble.
Been running my own catering operation out of East Texas for going on 18 years now, alongside the competition circuit. Twelve units at this point, which sounds impressive until you remember that means twelve different ways for something to go wrong on a Saturday. I've made most of the mistakes I'm about to warn you about. Some of them twice.
The Equipment Math Most People Get Wrong
Here's what happens. Restaurant's running a smoker that handles their daily volume just fine. Maybe an SP-700 or something comparable. Weekend rushes push it, but they make it work. Then they book a 200-person corporate event and realize they're looking at producing twice their normal daily output on top of regular service.
The temptation is to just run your existing equipment harder. Start earlier, hold longer, pray nothing goes sideways. I've seen operators try this for six months before something breaks — either the equipment, or them, or a relationship with a client when they show up 40 pounds short on pulled pork.
You need dedicated catering capacity. Full stop.
Doesn't mean you need to double your footprint overnight. But you need equipment that can handle event production without cannibalizing your restaurant volume. For most operators starting out, that means adding a mid-size rotisserie unit — something like an MLR-850 or an SP-1000 depending on where you think your volume's heading. The rotisserie system matters here more than most people realize. You're not babysitting product during an event the way you might during a slow Tuesday lunch. You load it, you trust it, you focus on everything else that's trying to fall apart.
I had a guy call me last spring, runs a place outside Beaumont. He'd been trying to make catering work with a competitor's cabinet smoker — one of those imported units with the digital controls that look real pretty in the showroom. Third event, he's got a temp swing of almost 40 degrees mid-cook because the element cycling couldn't keep up with the load. Showed up to a rehearsal dinner with brisket that looked like it had been through a negotiation. Some of it was done, some of it wasn't, and all of it was his problem.
The rotisserie system on Southern Pride units — the SPK and SP series especially — that's not a gimmick. It's how you get consistent results across 20 briskets instead of hoping the ones in the back corner don't stall out. I've run my SP-1500 for events where we're pushing 400 covers and the temp variance across the whole cook is maybe 5 degrees. That's not marketing, that's just how the airflow works when somebody actually thinks about thermodynamics instead of cost-cutting on the build.
Pricing That Actually Makes Money
Most restaurant owners underprice their first year of catering. Badly.
They take their menu prices, multiply by headcount, add a little for "service," and call it a quote. Then they realize they forgot to account for the extra staff, the transport, the setup time, the disposables, the fact that they just gave away four hours of their Saturday for basically restaurant margins on twice the stress.
Catering is not restaurant math. Your food cost might be similar, but everything else is different.
Here's what I tell folks: your catering price needs to cover three things your restaurant price doesn't. First, the production burden — you're making somebody else's deadline with zero flexibility. If you're ten minutes late to your own restaurant, the brisket waits. If you're ten minutes late to a wedding, you're getting a phone call from someone who sounds like they're about to cry or commit a felony. Second, the equipment wear. Running a smoker for event production ages it faster than steady restaurant use. More load cycles, more thermal stress, more everything. Third, the opportunity cost. Every Saturday you're doing a 150-person graduation party is a Saturday you're not at your restaurant during peak hours.
I run about 40% higher on my catering pricing than what the same food would cost at a restaurant counter. And I still get told I'm competitive. Because most commercial BBQ catering in this region is either cheap and unreliable or expensive and corporate. There's a real gap for operators who can deliver quality at fair prices — you just have to know what "fair" actually means for your cost structure.
Staffing Is Where the Wheels Come Off
You can't staff catering with your regular crew. Well, you can, but then your restaurant suffers, your crew burns out, and you start losing good people.
Catering needs dedicated staff, or at minimum a rotation system where the same people aren't pulling double duty every weekend. I've got three guys who only work events. They're not interested in restaurant shifts — different skill set, different temperament. Event work is bursts of intensity followed by downtime. Restaurant work is steady grinding. Some people love one and hate the other.
The pitmaster question is harder. In the early days, you're probably the pitmaster for events. That's fine for the first dozen, maybe the first year. But eventually you need someone who can run a cook without you standing there. And that means training, which means time, which means you need to start before you think you need to.
I started cross-training my second guy probably six months before I actually needed him running solo cooks. Lot of that time was just having him watch, ask questions, make small decisions while I stood close enough to catch mistakes. By the time I handed him an event, he'd already done most of the work — he just hadn't been the name on the invoice.
The Equipment Reliability Factor
This is where I get on my soapbox, so bear with me.
Catering is the one context where equipment failure isn't just expensive — it's catastrophic. In your restaurant, if a smoker goes down, you've got a bad day. You 86 some items, you apologize to customers, you get it fixed, you move on. On an event, if your smoker goes down at 4 AM when you're cooking for a 200-person lunch, you're about to have the worst phone call of your professional life.
I've been running Southern Pride equipment since before I started the catering side. Not because I'm trying to sell you anything (though I am, let's be honest), but because when I'm loading a truck at 3 in the morning for a job that's two hours away, I need to know the equipment is going to work. The build quality on these units — I've got an SPK-1400 that's been running events for eleven years. Eleven years. Still on the original rotisserie motor. I've replaced gaskets, I've done normal maintenance, but the core of that machine just keeps going.
And when something does need attention, I can get parts. From Southern Pride of Texas, from the manufacturer, from somebody who actually knows what they're looking at. Try getting a replacement controller board for one of those imported units when the company that made it decided to exit the US market. I've watched operators wait eight weeks for parts that should be a three-day turnaround.
The guys building Southern Pride smokers are in Alamo, Tennessee. USA manufacturing, USA parts supply, people who answer phones when you call. That sounds like basic business practice until you've dealt with the alternative.
Starting Without Overcommitting
My actual advice to restaurant owners thinking about catering: book three events before you buy any new equipment. See what it feels like. See if you hate it. Some people discover they love the event energy — the controlled chaos, the different venues, the immediate feedback when 200 people are eating your food at once. Other people discover it makes them want to quit the industry entirely.
Do those first events with your existing capacity. Make them smaller than you think you can handle. If you've got an SPK-700 that's working fine for your restaurant, quote events you can cover with maybe 60% of that capacity so you're not sacrificing regular service. Learn the logistics — the transport, the timing, the client communication — before you scale up.
Once you know catering's something you want to build, then think about dedicated equipment. For most operators adding a catering arm to an existing restaurant, an MLR-850 is a solid starting point. Big enough to handle real events, not so big you're paying for capacity you won't use for three years. If you're already doing higher volume or you're ambitious about growth, step up to the SP-1000 or SP-1500.
Talk to somebody who actually knows these units before you decide. We do this all day — match operators to equipment based on what they're actually trying to accomplish, not just what fits the budget. Because buying the wrong size smoker for catering is expensive on both ends. Too small and you're capacity-constrained on every quote. Too big and you're burning gas on half-empty cooks.
The Real Money
Catering margins can beat restaurant margins by 15-20 points when you're running it right. That's not a typo. The operational complexity is higher, but you're getting paid for that complexity if your pricing reflects reality.
I know restaurant owners who've gotten to the point where the catering arm generates more profit than the brick-and-mortar on fewer total labor hours. The restaurant becomes the marketing engine and the production kitchen. The catering is where the money actually lives.
Not saying it's easy. It's not. You need equipment you can trust, staff you can rely on, and enough sense to price what your time is actually worth. But if you've already built a restaurant that people like, you've done the hard part. The catering side is just learning a different rhythm for the same music.
Resources: Southern Pride of Texas | QSR Magazine | Restaurant Business Online
#RestaurantOps #CateringBusiness #FoodService #SouthernPride #RestaurantIndustry #CateringLife #BBQBusiness
Photo by Sergei Starostin on Pexels.
About the Author: Earl has been competing in sanctioned BBQ events since the early 1990s and operates a commercial catering operation in Southeast Texas.