How Coffee Catering Works in Atlanta

Most people who contact us about coffee catering in Atlanta have never hired a coffee truck before, and they ask what it costs before they know what they’re actually buying. So here is the whole thing, in the order it happens.

What we ask you first

Four things: the date, the address, roughly how many people, and how long you want drinks going out. Everything in a quote comes off those four. If the headcount isn’t settled yet, tell us the range you’re working with and we’ll quote against the range.

We also ask what the event actually is, because that moves the drink mix more than the guest count does. A weekday morning is usually office coffee catering, and a Monday for a software team pulls from a different end of our menu than a backyard party in July does.

You pick three things and we handle the rest

You pick the menu, the pricing model, and the spot where the truck parks. We bring the drinks, the equipment, the power, the water and the cups, and we haul our own trash out when we go.

The three pricing models are Per Guest, a flat rate against your headcount; Per Cup, where you pay only for cups actually served; and Post-Pay, where you settle up after the event. Which one fits comes down to how confident you are in the count.

Parking is the part that kills bookings

Our baristas work inside the truck and serve through a window with the awning out. Nothing gets carried through your building and we need no kitchen access. What we do need is a legal, reasonably level place to park within sight of your guests.

Which spots clear that bar changes with the part of town. Office parks in Dunwoody and Sandy Springs often funnel everything into a deck, and a deck with a clearance bar is an automatic no for us. In Midtown and around the Old Fourth Ward it’s usually a loading zone or a roped-off stretch of lot, and the venue has to arrange that in advance.

Driveways and cul-de-sacs in Marietta, Tucker and Alpharetta are the easiest ground we work on, and church and school lots are nearly always fine. The older venues around Roswell and some of the ones out near Lake Lanier have a long gravel approach or a narrow gate, so send a photo before we commit to a spot.

Traffic sets our arrival time, not your start time

We build the drive around 285, 400 and the Connector at the hour you picked, not around the mileage. A downtown window that opens right after rush hour means we leave Tucker hours earlier than the distance suggests.

We get in ahead of your window to level the truck, drop the awning and bring the machines up to temperature. If your venue has a tight load-in slot, tell us when we’re allowed through the gate and we’ll plan backwards from that.

What the window looks like once it opens

Drinks are made to order, one at a time, so guests come to the truck instead of a tray going to them. Park us where people already walk, by the door rather than the back of the lot, and nobody needs directions.

At weddings and seated dinners this matters more than anywhere else, because nobody leaves the table mid-toast. We open the window at a gap that is already on your timeline, like the stretch after the ceremony or while the band resets, so send the timeline early. Open-format events like a market or an open house can take a longer, slower window instead.

What we say no to

We turn down parking decks with a clearance bar, any spot that would leave the truck in a fire lane, and venues where the only route in goes through a building. We’d rather lose the booking than find that out on the day.

We’ll also tell you when a window is too short for the headcount you gave us. A line still forming when the window closes is worse than booking a little more time up front.

Starting a quote

Send the date, the address, a rough count and the hours you want covered through our booking form, and we’ll come back quickly with a price and a plan for where the truck sits. If anything about the site is unusual, a photo of the parking area saves us both a round of questions.