Catering offers a big opportunity for fast-casual and quick-service restaurants, but the effort to exploit it is often an afterthought, according to participants in a Restaurant Leadership Conference session focused on building sales.
"Right now for off-premise catering, your customers are going to the grocery store—Costco, Safeway, etc," said Erle Dardick, a former restaurant operator who now serves as CEO of a company that markets catering software, MonkeyMedia.