What We Learned Running
Catering at Patika
Caterbaby is a simple way to take catering orders online and manage them in one place — built at Patika Coffee, now shared with a few Austin restaurant friends.
In 2025 we ran our entire catering program using this system.
Most of our catering comes from offices that already know us — which is why keeping those relationships direct matters.
Why we built it
For years the options were the same:
- manage catering manually — email, spreadsheets, phone calls
- or use a marketplace taking 15–18% of every order and owning the customer relationship
We wanted to keep the relationship direct — and we were determined to find pricing that’s actually fair for restaurants. We’ve felt the pain of marketplace commissions at Patika firsthand.
So we built a third option.
Customers order from your real menu online.
You review every order before confirming it.
You keep the customer relationship.
What it actually does
Customers order online from your real menu.
No account needed. Carts persist. Returning customers are recognized automatically.
You review every order before it goes to the kitchen.
Nothing auto-fires. You see items, totals, event details, and confirm when ready.
Invoicing and payment terms are built in.
NET-30, cards, ACH, split billing — whatever your customers need. No workarounds.
Custom proposals replace email threads.
Build a proposal, send it for online review, customer approves, order confirmed.
Manage your products and categories yourself.
Add a seasonal item, update a price, mark something sold out — live in seconds.
Kitchen gets a clean prep sheet.
Quantities, items, dietary notes, delivery details. Printed or on-screen.
Run limited-time events.
Holiday menus, special occasions, pop-ups — set availability windows and let customers order within them.
What Caterbaby looks like day to day
Two sides of the same system.
Your Customers
Customers order from your real menu.
They browse your catering menu and build an order on their own time — no account required. Carts persist, and returning customers are recognized automatically.
Your Team
You manage everything in one place.
Review and confirm every order before it goes to the kitchen. See what’s coming up, what needs attention, and what’s awaiting payment — all from one dashboard.
A couple things that surprised us
Offices will order online if you make it easy — especially for repeat orders. We thought everyone would want to call. Most don’t.
The group planning tool gets used a lot. A customer can say “lunch for 25, some vegetarian” and get suggested quantities from the real menu. We didn’t expect how much this would matter.
How it compares
If you’re currently using a marketplace, a POS add-on, or just doing it all manually — here’s how Caterbaby is different.
| Caterbaby | Marketplaces | Manual / POS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Fair, restaurant-friendly | 15–18% per order | Free (you do everything) |
| You own customer data | Yes | No | Partially |
| Payment terms (NET-30) | Built in | No | Manual |
| Order review before confirm | Yes | No | Varies |
| Menu changes | Instant | Days | Varies |
| Custom proposals | Built in | No |
Interested? Let’s talk.
We built Caterbaby for Patika, but it works for any restaurant that wants to run catering online without the overhead.
If you’re curious, we’d be happy to show how it could work with your own menu and rules — no commitment and never any contracts.
Or email nick@caterbaby.com — or just reply to the GWA thread.