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Special Note Before you get started
The comparisons discussed here are not to knock the competition or other services you may be looking at but instead to offer a guide for you in making your decision for what you really want for your event and what Hot Shots offers when it comes to our services.
The Coffee Shop
We Are 100% Mobile, They Are Not
From our set-up to even the equipment we use is made to be mobile. This means for us we use less power, create a faster service, and a 100% mobile experience. The last thing you want is for the local coffee shop an hour into your event still trying to figure out how to get their machine to work and figure out how they are even going to fit their equipment in your space.
They Have Employees, Not Mobile Baristas
We only do gourmet coffee catering! No shop, and we dont step to far out of the realm of coffee. Our Baristas only know how to work events mobily which means they look forward to your event every time! The Coffee Shop doesn't hire, nor do they train for a mobile experience. They hire people to work in a coffee shop. This might not sound like a big deal but it really is. Not only do these employees have very little knowledge about setting up events outside their coffee shop and the issues they will experience with equipment outside it. We also must ask the question do they want to? If you were told at the end of your shift that you had to go do more work by working a mobile event that you probably have very little experience with would you even want to? Probably not, what do you think your attitude would be when you got to the event?
Little to No Catering Experience
We have all the experience since mobile coffee catering is all we do. Coffee shops on the other hand don't do catering. If they do they are very new at it. It will be hard to find anyone else with 15+ years of experience of coffee catering like us. There is good reason for this though, here's the secret. "Coffee was never meant to be mobile", gourmet espresso machines are heavy, expensive and demand a lot of water and power. Traditionally these machines have been made to be plumed and hard wired into a coffee shop or restaurant. When someone like a coffee shop attempts to cater coffee for an event they have to take a heavy, expensive espresso machine, (typically out of their store front) and adapt it to some type of cart or table and piece meal everything together at your event. Easy way to think of this is if some said take your kitchen and put it in a nearby park, and they want you to make a 4 course meal, oh and you have an hour to set-up. Sounds like a an easy process right?
The Coffee Shop
The Do It Yourselfer
How Much Coffee Experience Do You Have?
Are you a Professional Barista? Let's say you are, if so how many mobile coffee experiences have you created? How many of them have you done? If you are reading this and are not the competition then you probably didnt make it past the first question. Thats okay, because if you are reading this and you are not the competition you need help. The same reasons that you dont work on your own car, or do your own roofing on your house is why you need Hot Shots to help with your event. The event your planning more than likely is not one that you can do over or one where you should learn to play Professional Barista, am I right?
To Duplicate Would Cost Hundreds More!
Let's face it, the Coffee Experience we offer realestically cannot be duplicated. Though lets pretend it could be. If you could purchase or even rent espresso machines, buy the product, and hire some local baristas, do you think you could do it at a better price then what we would offer you? Even if you could do you think that the experience would be just as good with all the things you could throw together? The truth is as you and I already know that you can't to both of those questions. First, It will always cost more to do things for the first time, with little experience, then secondly when you piece meal everything together for the first time on top of that you get the same problem that was mentioned above with the Coffee shop doing your event, a nightmare. Do it right the first time, save your money, let Hot Shots help!
Are You Enjoying Your Event or Working it...
We have all the experience since mobile coffee catering is all we do. Coffee shops on the other hand don't do catering. If they do they are very new at it. It will be hard to find anyone else with 15+ years of experience of coffee catering like us. There is good reason for this though, here's the secret. "Coffee was never meant to be mobile", gourmet espresso machines are heavy, expensive and demand a lot of water and power. Traditionally these machines have been made to be plumed and hard wired into a coffee shop or restaurant. When someone like a coffee shop attempts to cater coffee for an event they have to take a heavy, expensive espresso machine, (typically out of their store front) and adapt it to some type of cart or table and piece meal everything together at your event. Easy way to think of this is if some said take your kitchen and put it in a nearby park, and they want you to make a 4 course meal, oh and you have an hour to set-up. Sounds like a an easy process right?
The DIY
The Caterer
They Don't Know Coffee
This is very true, and its for a very good reason, they know Food! There is a reason why there is a difference between a Chef and a Barista, Just like a Airplane Mechanic and a Car Mechanic. Not to say one is better than the other or couldn't learn each others trade but they are not the same and don't share the same type of work. Your average caterer sees coffee as a burden because after they complete all the hard work of preparing the great food for your event which they know how to do well, they remember they have to hurry up and make several pots of coffee for your event. They wont be offering the gourmet coffee experience here.
They Don't Like Coffee
To say they don't like coffee might be a little harsh. We are sure alot of caterers like coffee in fact the ones we work with exclusively love it! What we mean by this is that the Chefs and staff with a catering company are excited about their food and the deserts. The last thing they want to do is brew coffee for your event as previously mentioned, because no only is this a difficult task to keep something very hot stay very hot for a long period of time. But also the time it takes the staff away from doing what they do best, serving and making food.
They wont have the BEST product or service for you!
So we have talked a lot about how the caterer is not prepaired nor excited about handeling coffee for your event, let alone a gourmet coffee experience. Though to take this one step further they wont be investing in coffee for your event. In most cases and we have even had caterers tell us this, that they use the cheapest coffee possible like Folgers. They tell us this because when we work an event they come over to our bar and grab a gourmet latte and explain how bad their coffee is. This is sad but, caterers make some amazing food and some do decent coffee, but most will invest in your meal not your coffee experience, that's our job!
The Caterer
The Venue
They Dont Know Food or Coffee...
So the last competitor we talked about was caterers. Venues could be worse because not only are they not trained in coffee, they are also alot of times not trained in food service either. Your venue that you book with will more than likely have staff that are not much more knowledgable than turning on the lights of the venue and knowing how to answer a phone. We dont say this to be mean but instead just to be factual. There are hundreds of venues in the DFW metroplex, the #1 thing most vendors struggle with is working with the staff at these venues alot of times becuase they have a high turn over rate and training is mainly based on the basics of the venue. Not catering, or setting up a coffee bar.
No One Trained to Create a Gourmet Coffee Experience
As mentioned the staff that works at most venues knows only a few things, booking events, and basic operation of the facility. This staff is normally at a high rate of turn over, meaning that most staff doesnt last more than a year if not 2-3 is high. This means it is very hard to train staff to do more than the minimum which is why we see this so often. So even if a venue offers gourmet coffee it will definitly be an after thought at best, and even if it could be good more than likely it wont be very good for long. Is your event worth that risk?
Set-up and Service will be Lacking...
Our Set-up is fantastic, quick, and comes with professional Baristas that know how to set-up and work your event. The venue's option when it comes to coffee if not just a table with urns on top will be lacking compaired to anything Hot Shots will provide. For the simple reason that this is not there business, they are in the business to creating a beautiful venue to hold your event and not anything to do with a gourmet coffee experience.
The Venue
The Coffee Caterers
(The Other Guys)
Focused on Old Traditional Methods of Making Coffee
Let face it, the traditional way to make coffee is great! When you go in to a boutique coffee shop and watch the barista working by grinding beans, tamping espresso, and pouring the latte art swan at the end is something magical. The sad reality is though its not practical for anywhere else but the coffee shop and here's why, too slow and not consistent. Have you ever seen a line at a coffee shop? Of course you have, lines are part of the theme at coffee shops. you place an order and wait. Do you know how long the average wait time is at a coffee shop? by our count 5 grueling minutes, and that's not including a holiday season. Guess how long it takes to get a Latte from Hot Shots? 30seconds - 1 minute, pretty cool huh! In a constant environment traditional coffee making is great but in catering where as we have already mentioned power is an issue, water availability is an issue, even the temperature and humidity come into play. In a coffee shop you can control that. At an event that you can be literally anywhere... you cant.
They Are Hobbiest, Not Real Professionals
We have 15+ years of experience in the mobile coffee business and throughout that time we have seen our fellow coffee caterers come and go. The one thing that is different we have found in this industry compared to most is what we have said previously that Espresso and Coffee was never meant to be mobile. So that being said most people get a machine and are excited to start the business in coffee catering but soon find out that it's incredibly difficult to grow since there is not support to do coffee mobily. This is where they become Hobbiest, They know they can only do coffee a certain way, and are maxed out because in most cases they invest in an expensive machine and to be honest just dont have the experience in the business to know how to grow or have enough equity to expand the business fast enough. Don't get us wrong these are very hard working and good intentioned people but sadly the truth is that they end up working the business as long as they can the way they can until they unfortunatly go out of business. We cant tell you how many times people end up coming to us
Will Not Have The Best Service or Products
Mobile Coffee catering is not an easy task as stated. When you have to take traditional ways of making coffee and do it at a mobile and faster pace it doesn't work long term. We know that you like all of our other clients don't want an experience where you or your guest will be waiting in long lines for a coffee experience like you see at your favorite coffee shops. There its okay you are in their shop and probably going to sit down and have time to enjoy it. At your event when you may have a meeting or even at a wedding where you are trying to serve many people in short period of time you need a quick but efficient service with high quality products, this is not the traditional way which hurts quality of service as many mobile coffee caters do. Not only that when many start out in this business they are not buying high quality, why? they cant risk paying a lot of money on a machine and great roasted beans to make little money to cover costs starting out. Like most things everyone wants to start with a cheap product so that they can make the most money or try to be competitive in a tight market place. Many of these mobile coffee caterers are in competition less with us but mostly with each other because they all use the same machines and same products, even the same local roasters. So when you go with us rest assured that you are getting something completely different and very high quality!
The Coffee Cater
The Biggest Problem If You Book With Someone Else....
You won't Have Us!
What you will get with Hot Shots:
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Industry Leader
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Professional Service with over 15 years experience!
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Professional Baristas, fully trained by us
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Fast and Quick Set-ups
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Unlimited Servings, No need to worry about counts
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True Italian Coffee and Equipment
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Menus built to offer something for everyone at your event
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Several Offerings, not just Coffee
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100% Mobile service, (not just carts or a truck)
Don't Question
Don't Worry
Don't wait
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