Ellen’s Catering caters to safe events

Ellen’s Prestige Catering enforces a strict alcohol policy for its catered events and trains its bartenders extensively.
“We feel a responsibility to society,” said Steph Zilli, operations director for the three-generation-family-owned business. “(The policy) gives our company and family piece of mind. We know that we’re not sending people out who have had too much to drink.”
Bartenders must go through the basic customer service and sanitation training that all employees do, as well as attending an alcohol awareness class. The training encompasses approximately 12 hours of classroom and hands-on instruction.
Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher plays a role in the education of Ellen’s bartenders by speaking at training sessions.
“I make sure that they understand the law and their responsibilities and the consequences if they fail to abide by the law,” Bucher said.
Ellen’s has been strict about alcohol since adding the beverage service to their catering service three years ago, Zilli said.
Additional classes became required for bartenders about one-and-a-half years ago after a person left a holiday party at a country club drunk, drove and killed another person, Zilli said.
Ellen’s alcohol policy includes:
* No serving of shots
* No serving of doubles
* No serving of children, even if accompanied by parents
* Carding anyone who appears under age 26
* No serving more than one drink to young adults
* Not allowing pitchers of beer to be taken to tables
* Not allowing guests to tap their own beer
Zilli finds that their bartenders follow the alcohol policy well and a lot of managers are at the events to make sure that they are.
“They’re very good about carding, not serving doubles,” Zilli said.
If a bartender is found to be violating the policy, they are verbally disciplined and if it happens a second time, they are not scheduled to work any events.
“We have had a few,” Zilli said.
If a guest at an event harasses the bartenders for adhering to the alcohol policy, the bartender will tell the person that if her or she continues to cause problems, the bartender will take it up with the person hosting the event or shut the bar down completely.
“That usually scares them off,” Zilli said. “We have safety (in mind) first. People don’t appreciate that when someone is trying to cut them off, but we hope the next day that they do appreciate it.”
The goal of the company is for everyone at an event to have a good time, not for everyone to get drunk, Zilli said.
Zilli is not sure that Ellen’s strict alcohol policy really takes care of any liability issues they might face.
“If there is a problem, we can provide documentation that we did this,” he said, “but drinking is a gray area.”
The problem arises in that people can go to other bars after leaving an event catered by Ellen’s and continue drinking.
Bucher hopes that his involvement with Ellen’s will give themselves a better idea how to prevent from getting involved with a legal dispute.
If a liability issue did arise, “By attending classes they are helping the court or the judge to see that they took responsibility,” Bucher said.
“From a community safety standpoint, it’s good to have someone like Ellen’s out there,” Bucher said.
Ellen’s employs 35 salaried managers, 20 full-time and 125 part-time workers. They have a database of over 7500 corporate clients, as well as a number of one-time customers. The bulk of their business comes from Milwaukee, but have also catered events in Madison, Lake Geneva, Fond du Lac and Illinois.
Aug. 17, 2001 Small Business Times, Milwaukee