[Sca-cooks] listing of ingredients...

[Adele de Maisieres]

Nick Sasso wrote:

>< < < Err... no thanks.  The last feast I cooked sold out two months in
>advance.
>
>
>
>Cool!  How many were you feeding?  Was this a special event of some
>occasion, or a general event that one would normally expect to see on a
>calendar?  Great to hear such a response and definitive number that far in
>advance.
>  
>
This was during Canterbury Faire (second largest encampment in Lochac).  
We served 136 at the feast (out of around 200 or so event attendees).  
We could have sold quite a few more tickets, but that's all we had room 
for.   Next year, I think we're going to rearrange things a bit so that 
we can have 160,  In general, I would expect around 60-90 people at a 
more typical feast. 

>I would literally PAY for that opportunity.  We generally have our feasts
>limit set around 175ish and have people miander in for reservations all the
>way up to the door.  Our part of the world, for some odd reason isn't so
>much pre-reserve focused.  
>
There's not an "odd reason"--this isn't something that happens by 
accident. People don't book ahead and wander in at the last minute 
because you allow them to.  We have very actively promoted the 
pre-booking system here by putting the booking requirements in the 
advertising and making very few exceptions.  The norm here is now that 
bookings close about a week or two before an event _or_ when all tickets 
are sold, whichever comes first.  There are _no_ walk ins and no 
last-minute bookings. (I will occasionally take a booking in the last 
few days if it's not too inconvenient and circumstances warrant). 

>I have often ended up being asked by event
>steward if I can manage extending service numbers as late as the day before
>the event . . . sometimes day of, in the name of customer
>service/hospitality extended to weary travelers.
>  
>

Once you get people used to the idea that the bookings will close well 
before the event, you probably won't get many of these requests.


-- 
Adele de Maisieres

-----------------------------
Habeo metrum - musicamque,
hominem meam. Expectat alium quid?
-Georgeus Gershwinus
-----------------------------