Fourth of July Catering

The fourth never moves, which is why the week around it does. Where a fixed date stops in the week decides whether that week works at all.

Monday or Friday gives a clean three-day weekend. The middle is where offices get caught. A Tuesday fourth empties the Monday, because most people bridge it. A Wednesday fourth leaves two short stubs. A Thursday fourth takes the Friday with it.

Weekends have their own rule: a Saturday fourth is commonly observed on Friday July 3, a Sunday fourth on Monday July 5. Settle that first, then read the year ahead off the rest of the dates an office feeds.

This is the deepest vacation stretch of the year, and whoever is at a desk is covering support, on-call and month-end for colleagues who are not. That group notices a lunch more than a full floor does.

It is also tiny, which helps: a dozen people is not a company lunch.

Order for the days they are in and keep portions individual, since the count moves by the hour. These get decided late, so it helps to know which kitchens still take a short-notice order. Hand CaterAi a small headcount, and the kitchens it names are the ones that will accept an order that size.

Cater one thing that week and make it the last day everybody is still in. Which day that is depends on where the fourth falls. Wait until the office fills again and it is just a Monday lunch.

Half the room is already gone in its head. People leave early and hand work over, so the line has to clear fast and the food has to hold for stragglers. Anything fried or carved fails on both counts.

This is cookout food without the cookout: pulled pork with rolls, grilled chicken, corn salad instead of cobs, watermelon, a cobbler. The on-site version and the weight math sit on Memorial Day catering and Labor Day catering. What survives a warm room is in our summer menu guide.

Every other date hands you a dish. This one hands you a flag. There is no ham and no mole here, so the theme goes to the produce or the party-store shelf.

Take the produce. Early July is peak season for exactly the right things. Strawberries, cherries and raspberries carry the red, blueberries the blue, and the white is cream, feta or corn.

Props do the other version. They photograph, then go in the bin, leaving the plate you already ordered. An outdoor party in that heat is a separate build, laid out in summer party catering.