Food and Beverage Service in Long Beach Hotel

These are the four main traditional methods of table service, although variations do of course occur within the different styles. Service carts, for example, are not used exclusively in the French style of service; they may be used in a number of the other service styles, although not perhaps to the same extent. Some of the following food service methods are also, in the strict sense of the word, table service, but they have been included here by the titles under which they are more commonly known, as within these following service methods different types of table of table service may be used.

Banquet Service Banquet Service is usually associated with large hotels although today many food service operations are employing this type food service as a profitable sideline, for example hospitals, colleges and universities and small restaurants.

The variety of table arrangements used in banqueting service are numerous, using either round, square, rectangular and other interlocking-shaped tables, if there is a top table on which sit the host and the most important guests these table is usually served first. The number of people that may be catered for in banqueting service can be as small as six to eight for a private dinner party, to a large convention of several thousand people. The food served to the customer may either be pre-plated in the kitchen (American service) or portioned on to the plates in front of customers (Russian service). A further service method is to use on of these types of service for the meat or fish main course and to allow customers to help themselves to the vegetables and accompaniments placed on the table in service dishes with the necessary serving equipment.

The advantages of food service method are that the number to be catered for is known well in advance, and a set menu for set price is established. This enables the service of large numbers of people to be undertaken by a comparatively small number of service personnel, usually one waiter serving between ten and twelve customers.

Room and lounge service Room service is a method of food service which, like banqueting, is most commonly associated with the large hotels although some motels and smaller hotels to do also offer degree of room service .Today however, even in the larger hotels it is not a method of service that is as common as it was in former years.

From the customers point of view, hotel guest do not usually choose to eat their meals in their rooms they prefer either to use the hotels restaurant facilities, or to dine outside the hotel .The high cost of providing a floor service includes the basic problem of a fluctuating demand with the need to have staff always available to provide the service, the lifts to transport the food from the kitchen, as well as the need for trolleys table tray, heating plates etc.

Today, the provision of lounge service is almost exclusively confined to up market hotels and to resort –type establishment .With many of the larger middle market hotels offering day long coffee shop service ,they need for hotels to offer food and beverage refreshments in the lounge areas has been reduced .Like room service ,the provision of lounge is highly labor intensive ,distance from the production area may be considerable , and demand uptake by the customer can fluctuate greatly .