Dim Sum Inspiration: From Restaurant to Drawing Board

We are constantly finding inspiration from unassuming, everyday sources. The challenge comes in transforming our inspired ideas into viable event concepts.

A lunch trip to a dim sum restaurant inspired the concepts for our own branding event – food served in unconventional ways. We envisioned push cart food stations, hanging bars, marshmallow trees for s’mores, and serving from sandwich boards instead of trays.

Our event had three levels, which enhanced the look and feel but created a lot of logistical challenges. We found the greatest logistical challenges in the hanging bars and the push cart stations.

Incorporating Food Carts

With the carts, we had to consider: How would they travel between the different levels? How easily will they move on carpet? How do we ensure they get replenished? We had to consider how the space we were creating would affect the moving stations.

To make this concept feasible, we created paths from the catering kitchen to guest areas on each level. To address replenishment concerns, the caterers used an ice-cream style cart that could house food items and allow for quick on-the-spot replenishment.

The hanging bars had their own challenges… How could we make them functional, yet visually appealing? The bars needed to be sturdy enough to hold drinks and ice, and be heavy enough to create stability. An hour of wandering the aisles at Lowes’ Home Improvement lead us to diamond-cut metal sheets and attach them over top of white wired closet shelving.  We then suspended them from the truss arches with chains.

The hanging bars created a wow factor for guests – none of whom could tell they were made from construction and closet materials!