“Tailgate Gourmet was wonderful from the first exchanged email, to the last plate was cleared! The owner, John, and his team truly exceeded all expectations. They are informative, educated, and friendly. John's experience reflects in his dish pairings and suggests for scheduling, and his staffs' skillfulness reflected in their work and presentation. The lead crew member on site as our wedding, Julie, was incredible, scanning the crowd for me to bring by husband and I snacks directly amidst formal photos and mingling. The tasting was well thought out and professional. The menu selections are vast and customizable to your needs, while also being reasonably priced. The option to have our menu cooked to order on charcoal grills right beside our tent in live-action was superior; there were no soggy reheated trays of food, the meat timings were perfect, no limitations due to not having cooking equipment as with some catering. Our guests are still raving over the food, and I think about placing a smaller-scale order at least once a month! Many couples say they didn't get to eat their dinner as they were too busy - we MADE SURE we ate our whole plates full. Just thinking back on our prime rib, mac and cheese, bacon-wrapped scallops - I'm starving for more! If you want a catering company that doesn't blow smoke, feels like an extension of your wedding immediately upon meeting, is mindful of allergies and ingredients, with enthusiasm and pride in their team, don't shop around, just do it!”

“I cannot recommend Soraya (and her team)’s catering more enthusiastically, for any event but especially if you are looking for cuisine that isn’t your typical banquet fare. When my wife and I first started planning our wedding, we agreed that delicious and personal were our top priorities for food. We’d had so many wedding meals that were *nice* - lovely service and presentation - but kind of boring and uninspired. We love to feed our friends good food that they can’t easily make or get elsewhere and wanted to reflect that in our wedding. We agree that the North African food I’d grown up eating is the best cuisine on earth and we wanted to serve that, but worried that a wedding caterer couldn’t do it justice and we might have to navigate the hassle or no-frills approach of working with a restaurant that doesn’t really do weddings. Thankfully, we’d found an incredible wedding planner (Rachel of One Bell Designs) who assured us no compromise was necessary, because she knew just the caterer. When she shared the vast menu for SYB Events I was still a little bit skeptical, since while I saw some intriguing dishes there was still a lot of the usual wedding fare—but then I googled Soraya’s name and found the Soraya Events site with its more focused menus, and knew we had to meet with her. And we didn’t talk to any other caterers after that, because Soraya heard the vision and met each of our ideas with her own. We asked about a number of my favorites we hadn’t seen on her menus and she affirmed she could provide them with absolute confidence, and she was more than happy to tailor the service and timing to fit our very particular vision. One of my favorite things about working with Soraya was the at-home tasting she arranged and dropped off at our house (with a complimentary bottle of wine!), which fed us for most of a week and affirmed with dish after delicious dish that we’d made the perfect choice. When it came to the wedding day, she and her team seamlessly worked with Rachel’s to set up a kitchen in our unequipped venue. Soraya’s timing was incredible; she turned up at the exact moments we needed sustenance bearing coffee, hors d’oeuvres, and full plates when we arrived at the sweetheart table that were still hot. From the iced coffee welcome with cardamom and rose water syrups to the mezze spread reception to the couscous and tagines and kofta at the buffet, every bite was delicious and distinctly North African. We lost count of the number of guests who told us it was the best wedding food they’d ever had! My slightly jaded heart really didn’t expect our wedding to feel as special as it did, and Soraya was a huge part of that—we are so grateful!”

“Nikia did an Amazing job for my son and nephews graduation party! She provided us with several menus to choose from to create a wonderful spread for our guests! When I tell you the guests could NOT stop talking about the food, they could not stop raving about it all! Everything was so delicious! Not only did she do an amazing job with the food but it was truly a full service experience! She handled everything from the decorations, set up, linens, and breakdown! We didn’t have to worry about a thing! Her team was personable, professional, and super efficient! Thank you for such a beautiful send off for our boys!”