Hosting an Outdoor Event in the DMV? How Our Coffee Cart Handles the Elements

There is nothing quite like an outdoor event around Washington DC. A spring wedding among the Loudoun County vineyards, a summer company picnic in Maryland, an autumn garden party in Georgetown: the backdrops are hard to beat.

Any experienced planner will tell you that outdoor events come with one wild card, and it is the weather. When you bring specialty catering into the open air, you need vendors who are adaptable and self-sufficient. Here is how our cart handles it.

1. Quiet power

Power is one of the biggest worries with outdoor catering. Plenty of mobile vendors run large gas generators, loud enough to spoil a ceremony or an acoustic cocktail hour.

Our cart runs from one standard 110V outlet, an ordinary one, with no dedicated circuit needed. If your venue or backyard has one within reach, we run a discreet cord to it. If it does not, we bring a silent inverter generator, so there is power without the noise or the fumes.

2. A plan B for the weather

In the DMV a sunny afternoon can turn into a downpour quickly, and every outdoor event needs a plan B.

The cart is mobile and compact. The cart needs a 5 ft by 5 ft area. If the weather turns, we can roll it under a tent, onto a covered patio or indoors into a dining room or a barn, with no staging area or outdoor ventilation needed.

3. A menu for the weather

The temperature changes what guests want, so we shape the drinks to the day.

• Hot days: the ice comes with us, for iced vanilla oat milk lattes and iced espresso drinks. Cold brew and a layered iced matcha can be added to the booking.
• Cool spring and fall evenings: hot cortados and lattes as the sun goes down, and a warm roasted hojicha latte if you add the matcha and hojicha station.

For a summer event, iced coffee and cold brew catering covers the cold menu in detail.

4. A clean footprint

Outdoor venues often have strict leave-no-trace rules. The cart is self-contained, with no prep station and no running water hookup. We bring everything with us, serve in compostable cups, and roll out leaving the grounds as we found them.

Let your outdoor event bloom

With a little planning, an outdoor espresso bar can be the highlight of the day, under a tent in Northern Virginia or in a backyard in Maryland. Our coffee catering service sets out everything that arrives with us.

Tell us about the site and the season. Get a quote. Every event gets a custom quote based on guests, hours, location and add-ons.