Service area
BBQ Catering in GardnervilleDouglas County
That order of events is still legible on the ground. This town grew along a main street rather than around a courthouse, and what it generates for a caterer is a weekend and evening calendar — private, family-scale, and usually held on land belonging to whoever sent the invitations.
Gardnerville sits inside Douglas County, which we cover as a whole.
- Distance from our base
- about 12 miles southStraight-line from 5110 S Edmonds Dr, Carson City — not a road distance.
- County
- Douglas County, Nevada
- Good to know
- An unincorporated town in Douglas County, older than neighbouring Minden and separated from it by less than two miles of Highway 395.
What gets catered on this side of the valley
Reunions, milestone birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, memorials and wedding receptions at a family place: the events here are personal ones with long guest lists, held at a house, a yard, a shop building or a pasture with the hay cut for the occasion. The person you are talking to is the host, not a department, and they are paying for it themselves.
These are also gatherings where the guest list stretches. A ranching valley has long practice at feeding people in numbers, and the practical consequence for a caterer is that the figure you are given is an estimate with room in it. The serving line has to be built for a surge rather than a tidy queue, and the food has to hold while the last of the family finds the gate.
The cooker parks where the party is
A yard, a pasture and a shop building all work the same way for us. The trailer comes in, the tents go up, the serving line is built where you want people to eat, and the cooking finishes there instead of at our premises. Nine mobile units and a crew of up to thirty are what make the size of the party your decision rather than ours.
Ribs, chicken, tri-tip, brisket and whole hogs are all on the printed menu, and the menu itself is customized per event — every one is quoted individually. What does not vary is the two-hour serve window standard service covers, and the fact that nothing turns up reheated.
Two miles further south than the county seat
About 12 miles south covers both of the valley towns, and the extra couple of miles changes nothing about the run itself. What changes is where the trailer ends up. An address here is far more often a private one — a gate, a gravel drive, a yard behind a house — than a public building with a loading door and a facilities manager attached to it.
So the questions are different ones. A twenty-foot trailer needs a gate it fits through, ground firm enough to park on and room to turn; the serving line needs somewhere reasonably level and, in July, some shade or a tent over it. None of it needs a kitchen. Describe the ground when you enquire and we will tell you what we need from it.
Full service is what these events want
A party at somebody's own place is the event the full cater was built for: 40 people and up, the rotisserie parked where the guests can see it, the meat coming off the rack and onto the plate rather than out of a tray that has spent the afternoon in a van. Tents, tables, warmers and the serving line arrive on the same trailer.
Drop-off exists, and its minimum is 20 people, but it suits a small indoor event on a fixed clock far better than a Saturday in a yard. Our terms add a travel fee to drop-offs in any case, which at this distance is usually the fact that settles the question.
What we usually suggest here
Full-service catering
20-person minimum for drop-off and pick-up · 40-person minimum for a full cater. Every event is quoted individually.
Travel fees are added to caters outside our immediate area.
Also nearby
- MindenDouglas County, NV · about 12 miles south of our base
- Douglas CountyDouglas County, NV · about 12 miles south of our base
Not sure any of these is the right page? Start with what a full cater involves or read the menu.
A date, a gate and a rough headcount
Tell us where the gate is, what the ground is like and roughly how many are coming. If the number is still a guess, say so — we would far rather quote the range than be surprised by it on the day.