Caterer Suggestions? Help!

tahill2

My fiance and I are getting married next July and we are currently looking for a caterer for our reception at the Newberry Library in downtown Chicago. 
We're both in grad school right now and have a pretty modest budget--we're hoping to spend no more than $10,000 on foodin total (including labor, non-alcoholic beverages, etc...). We will be providing our own liquor. 
Does anyone have any suggestions or advice on which Chicago-area (city or suburbs) caterers with good food we can look into that are within our budget range? 
Any info you might have would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

kreopolo

Doesn't the Newberry give you a list of allowed vendors?

tahill2

They did but the ones listed were not within our budget-range. 

Miracle520

I would imagine they have a preferred list and then you could contact them all with your budget and ideas and see what proposals you get back.

tahill2

They did give us a list and none of them came back with proposals that were within our budget, even after re-working the menus. So now we're trying to look outside of the preferred list that they gave us. 

Golfer09

Fig Catering, City Provisions, Conn's Catering, D'Absolute Catering, Froggy's Catering, Pure Kitchen Catering

kreopolo

We went with Hearty Boys. It was the least expensive on the list of preferred caterers, and actually, we liked it the most.
But if I remember right, the Newberry either doesn't allow caterers that aren't on their preferred list, or they charge a steep fee. I hope you are able to find something, and good luck!

AshleyK2011

The Newberry allows you to bring in any caterer as long as they have a permit with the City of Chicago, which is pretty much any caterer that ever works in Chicago.  We are also having our wedding at the Newberry and we looked at Froggy's, which was definitely one of the more reasonable caterers out there.  I would recommend looking at them, if you haven't already.  The food was reasonable and Terry was very nice, but ultimately we went with a different caterer. 

You didn't say how many people you are having but I think your budget is do-able...you may need to scale back on appetizers or choose a lower cost entree to do it though. 

Mugsy3

We are using J&L for our wedding in June and have been working with Jim and let me tell you, he has been wonderful!  The food as been awesome and he is great about revising proposals for us based on new ideas we have and has really worked with our budget to make sure we are able to have the reception we want without going completely broke.  He also acts as the "day of coordinator" and will be there all day setting up and coordinating with our other vendors to make sure everything runs smooth.  We feel very lucky to have him!

erehn

We're using D'absolut catering for the Newberry in May. They are very reasonably priced!  How many people are you planning to have for the 10,000?

tahill2

Thanks so much for all of this info guys! I am currently looking into all of the suggested caterers. 

Also, with the guests we originally planned on 100. Somehow, however, the guest list has increased, which means the amount we spend on food will too. 

Thanks again!

joo6758

I am using Marie's Catering! They are in Willowbrook so I'm not sure if they travel out to the city. I am having 200 guests and my food pricing is around $11,000. This includes all the appetizers, served meals and dessert/wedding cake.