Fourth of July Party Trays in Brooklyn When You Are Grilling Yourself

You want to grill. That part you enjoy, and you aren't looking to hand it to anybody. What you don't want is to also produce a mac and cheese, a potato, a green, a rice and a salad while managing a fire and a yard full of people. That isn't one job. It is two, and the second one is the one that ruins the day.

A half order fixes it. You cook the meat. We cook everything the meat sits next to.

Can you order Fourth of July catering in Brooklyn without ordering any meat?

Yes, and it's a more common request than people assume. Our catering menu is priced by the full pan on every item, including all four sides and both rices, so nothing about a sides-only order is unusual on our end. You are simply ordering from two sections of the menu instead of four.

The sides and salads run Pan Caesar Salad at $60, Pan Collard Greens at $60, Mashed Potato at $80 and Mac & Cheese at $90. The rice section adds White Rice at $40 and Pan Jollof Rice at $85. Every one of those is a full party tray, not a plated portion.

A sides-only Fourth of July order has a simple shape. Two starches, one green, one cold thing, and your grill doing the rest.

Which side trays do you need if you are running the grill in Crown Heights yourself?

Start from what your grill will not produce. A grill gives you hot protein and, if you are ambitious, some charred vegetables. It gives you no starch, no green cooked slow, and nothing cold. Those three gaps are exactly what to buy.

White rice or jollof rice for a grilling host

This is the decision that changes the character of the table more than any other.

White Rice at $40 is neutral. It sits under anything off a grill without arguing with the seasoning, it is the cheapest tray we sell, and it stretches further than people expect. If you have seasoned your meat heavily, neutral is a feature.

Pan Jollof Rice at $85 is the opposite choice. Tomato and pepper cooked into the rice, and a tray that people notice and comment on. It's a dish in its own right, not a base. If your grill is doing something fairly plain, jollof gives the table its personality.

Plenty of orders include both, one to carry and one to be interesting. We went further into that trade-off in choosing between white rice and jollof rice for a catering order.

The two sides people forget until the day before

Mashed Potato at $80 is the one that gets skipped and then missed. It's the side that makes a plate feel like dinner instead of a snack, particularly for anyone who isn't eating much off the grill.

Pan Caesar Salad at $60 is the other. Everything else on a Fourth of July table is hot, heavy or both. One cold tray changes how the whole spread eats, and on a hot day it is the tray that empties fastest at the start.

Pan Collard Greens at $60 sits in between. Greens are the Southern half of what we cook and they anchor a plate the way nothing else on the sides list does.

Mac & Cheese at $90 needs no argument. If you are ordering sides at all, it is on the list.

What does a sides-only Fourth of July order cost in Brooklyn?

You can build the number yourself from the prices above, which is the point of publishing them. A minimal version is one starch and one green. A full version is both rices, both of the softer sides, the greens and the salad.

A common middle shape is Mac & Cheese at $90, Mashed Potato at $80, Pan Collard Greens at $60 and Pan Jollof Rice at $85, with White Rice at $40 added if the crowd is larger than you first thought. That covers a grill entirely without you touching a second pot.

What we won't do is turn that into a headcount. How far a full pan goes depends on how much meat you're putting out alongside it, whether people are making a plate or picking, and how long the party runs. A printed number would be wrong for most tables, so we work it out with you on the phone at 718-799-7160.

What should you ask before ordering sides for the Fourth of July?

Two things, both of which need a person on the other end and not a page.

What time an order can be ready on a given day is the first, because a grilling host has a very specific window and the sides need to land inside it. Ask us directly about the day you are planning.

Whether the food comes to you or you collect it from 1172 Park Place in Crown Heights is the second, and the answer depends on the order. Neither of those is something we will state in writing and then have be wrong for your situation.

The shortlist for a grilling host

If you want the decision made for you, this is the order to read down the phone.

• Mac & Cheese, $90. Non-negotiable at a summer party.
• Pan Collard Greens, $60. The green that holds up next to grilled meat.
• Mashed Potato, $80. The side that makes it a dinner.
• Pan Caesar Salad, $60. The one cold tray on the table.
• White Rice, $40. Cheapest tray we sell, stretches everything.
• Pan Jollof Rice, $85. Add it when you want the table to have a signature dish that did not come off your grill.

The full list with every tray price is on our catering menu. If you host across the whole year rather than once in July, the same sides show up again in a very different order for a Kwanzaa Karamu table in Brooklyn, and the earlier summer version of this problem is covered in Memorial Day cookout catering with a rain plan. The year as a whole sits in our guide to holiday catering across the Brooklyn calendar.