Thanks for considering a Cafe Morso Event. The following is some detailed Information in frequently answered question format that we hope will shed some light on event planning aspects at Cafe Morso and assist in the smooth running of your proposed event.
Starting any night at earliest 5.00pm and finishing latest at midnight, Cafe Morso Events has a Canape-Cocktail capacity of up to 130 guests and a Seated-Dining capacity of up to 60 guests.
Your personalised date-specific quote will detail the gst inclusive breakdown of food, beverages, additional item costs based on your the individual requirements of the event brief and the minimum spend for the night.
Aside from this Cafe Morso charges a small room hire fee to cover private room setup, including ambient outdoor and indoor lighting, votive candles and lanterns, lounge furniture, cocktail tables, coffee tables and table cloths if necessary.
Other decorations can be added by yourself or your florist, however we prepare the venue for most groups as walk in walk out.
Please discuss your ideas with us so we can meet on site and plan and assist in setting up on the night.
Depending on length and start timing of your canape cocktail event, full service food and beverage costs range from $110-$160 per head. Full serviced seated dinner parties range from $150.00 – $190.00 per head.
All these details are available in our event planning documents on www.cafemorsoevents.com.au or ask us for a quote and we will customise something for you.
Yes, we pride ourselves on best practice canape service and a substantial 18 items per person to avoid the usual Canape party pitfalls. Not only the number of items but the pace at which we serve them ensures that no one goes hungry.
As described above the venue is practically walk in walk out with little requirement for decoration to dress it up. With its character of timber and steel architecture, candles of different styles, festoon lighting outside and subtle dimmed lighting inside you may only need a few small touches to stamp your own style on the event.
Please ask us for images of the the event set up and a tour of the venue for a first hand appraisal.
For private dining and events at Cafe Morso, and based on a 5 hour event timetable, minimum overall spends apply at different levels throughout the year and also on different days of the week. The Range is from $4,400.00 during the winter months to $9,900.00 on some daylight savings/ summer thursday friday and Saturday nights.
These amounts are always included in the costs are at times negotiable. Most groups meet the minimum spend easily (guest numbers x cost of food and beverage package), while others with smaller group sizes requesting a ‘premium’ night may pay a top up room hire figure to make up the difference. We offer to pay part of this room hire fee back into value added or package upgrading methods.
Once we have quoted you for an event on a specific date we will hold that date for a short while to enable some unpressured decision making. We realise that you might need time to arrange most other aspects before committing.
However if we do get a legitimate request from another party we may contact you to ascertain your intentions. If you are still ‘not sure’ or we don’t hear back from you we will reallocate the date as available.
Most events we host run for 5 hours, with a bar for the first 4.5 hours and cooling down last 1/2 hour. Events can start as early as 4.30pm or start as llate as 7.30pm. The latest the bar can run until is 11.30pm (music must strictly finish at same time as bar) and latest exit for anyone on premises is midnight. If you are planning a much shorter event and are happy for the date’s minimum spend then please let us know.
We are happy for you to extend the night if you would like. The pricing is $500.00 room hire per half an hour, plus the drinks on consumption for the last half hour of the evening. This must however be pre planned. Requests to continue later made during the actual night may not be at all possible.
Many couples elect to hold their ceremony on site to remove the fuss of moving from church or park to venue and otherwise filling in hours before the start of the wedding party. With an element of bridal party photography sacrificed, drinks are normally served as soon as the celebrant announces Mr and Mrs ——!
We recommend the Bridal party spend 15 to 20 minutes in and around the Jones Bay Wharf for photos (no permissions required) and return to the party just before the first canapés are being served.
Cost involved works on $500.00 per half hour plus drinks additional if required before the start. Cafe Morso provides some simple seating for a % of guests and recommends a discussion about theming should you wish to customise. Please see our image gallery on www.cafemorsoevents.com.au for some ceremony on site imagery.
Yes, they are definitely welcome and we have a few options for children’s meals. If they are old enough to enjoy the Canapes/Sit down dinner menu we charge them for that food package and an $11.00 drinks package which includes soft
drinks, mineral water, lemon lime bitters, freshly squeezed orange juice or a hot chocolate.
For younger children we offer a children’s meal, which is either fresh battered Fish and chips, or house made chicken strips and chips for $25.00 and includes the above drinks. This will be served earlier on in the evening once we have
corresponded with the parents. For really young children not requiring food or beverages there is no cover charge.
We are happy to cater to any dietary requirements as long as we are advised at least seven days before the event. Any “easier” requirements such as gluten free or vegetarian can easily be worked into the normal menu, or may in fact be
included already. Anything a little more specific or broad ranging and we can have the chef’s prepare something different or “lean’ the menu more one way or another.
We are happy to set up your cake, move it to the designated speech area and then cut and serve it, either canape style on platters or on small plates with spoons depending on the cake. This is part of the event and does not cost any extra, however, if you are having a sit down event and are substituting dessert with a bring your own cake, then the cake cutting fee is $4.40 per head.
We recommend providing a meal for any entertainment you have working with you for longer than 3 hours on the night. We charge $25.00 for a meal which will be organised between us and the entertainer depending on set times and dietary requirements.
As we are a working restaurant to which you have access for breakfast or lunch at any time as a customer, we hope that a tasting of your proposed menu is unnecessary. Saying that, we understand that you may be uncertain about what we are suggesting.
Canape menus have been honed and perfected over the last 12 years and we have had feedback in the 99/100 range of how great the menu is received by all guests.
Canape menu tastings are usually held on a saturday afternoon coinciding with another event later that night. Timing is best at 1.00pm through to 2.30pm. tastings on an equivalent sunday would start at 2.00pm and finish at 3.30pm.
Cost of this is $60 for two people or $90 for 3 and $120 for 4.
A wine and beer tasting at the same time is $22.00 per head. Seated dinner menus always consist of a choice of meals for your guests on the night and thus alleviates the risk of alternate drop. There is no definitive process for tasting the seated dinner menus as this may involve serving up 8 meals.
Our suggestion is to discuss any concerns you might have and we can narrow down the tasting to those dishes or their alternatives if available.
As we are a working restaurant to which you have access for breakfast or lunch at any time as a customer, we hope that a tasting of your proposed menu is unnecessary. Saying that, we understand that you may be uncertain about what we are suggesting.
Canape menus have been honed and perfected over the last 12 years and we have had feedback in the 99/100 range of how great the menu is received by all guests.
Canape menu tastings are usually held on a saturday afternoon coinciding with another event later that night. Timing is best at 1.00pm through to 2.30pm. tastings on an equivalent sunday would start at 2.00pm and finish at 3.30pm.
Cost of this is $60 for two people or $90 for 3 and $120 for 4.
A wine and beer tasting at the same time is $22.00 per head. Seated dinner menus always consist of a choice of meals for your guests on the night and thus alleviates the risk of alternate drop. There is no definitive process for tasting the seated dinner menus as this may involve serving up 8 meals.
Our suggestion is to discuss any concerns you might have and we can narrow down the tasting to those dishes or their alternatives if available.
Although we may have meet or spend some time on the phone, it is worth planning another face to face meeting for at least 4 weeks from the event date. This can be a good time to focus our order of service(s) and ensure we each have the same key timings. We can also walk through all aspects of music and or entertainment, food service and known dietaries, drinks service, special requests, decorations, bump in and out arrangements. We are of course available 7 days a week on the phone or by email for any random questions that might need an immediate answer.
We have a simple set up of a 50 Inch Plasma screen and HDMI input for a slide show or small movie. Cost is $110.00 additional. A cordless microphone is also available at no cost however a band or Dj may also supply.
Although it may depend on the experience of the individuals, For a seated dinner we will roster a staff member for every 15-20 guests. For a canapé cocktail event we will roster a staff member for every 20-25 guests.
If your night has a distinct order of service with several key moments to time correctly we may need to include an additional event manager who is separated from the food and beverage service.The rostering of an additional event
manager is an additional cost of $275.00
Unfortunately we do not operate as a casual bar ahead of your official start time. You should inform your guests to either arrive right on the start time or grab a drink at a local Pyrmont hotel or at Flying Fish past us on the end of the Jones Bay Wharf. If your advance organising party arrives early to set up decorations we will offer mineral water up until the agreed bar open time.
We require final numbers 7 days prior to the event, immediately after which the final amount is also due to be paid. We will of course advise any adjusted pricing and balance due. The Final payment is thus due 6 days from the event date.
Please note: After this time we cannot change aspects of the planning or costs, however, if you do have any last minute changes please inform us.
For any children we offer a $11.00 beverage package that includes non alcoholic drinks.
However we do not dissect the beverage packages into light drinkers or non-drinkers. Inherently the cost of the beverage package per head goes broadly to all associated venue costs.
Spirits are not available as part of the standard drinks package, however, we do have a few options to incorporate spirits into the evening for the whole party or just for a few who don’t drink anything else. This is tailored to the evening
specifically so please advise and we will let you know the pricing options. Please also note we do not serve any doubles or shots. We will also be more wary of responsible service of alcohol, and may need to make decisions about ending spirit service should it be legally necessary. Our guideline would be a maximum of 6 standard bottles of spirits per 100 guests.
We are located in a residential area and do have to abide by noise restrictions. We are unable to have any music outside beyond background music or light jazz. We are able to cater for one or two special songs on the deck but nothing loud for a long period of time. Party style music and dancing in the outside area is not suitable.
We have a semi- commercial 6 speaker sound system for an alternative to hiring a third party. We also have hundreds of great mid to uptempo lounge music tracks on various playlists that we can play in the first few hours of your night.
Then, from your device we can play your own playlist in a “set and forget style”
We are also happy to change your (clearly marked) playlists, play specific songs at certain times, however there is no access for guests skip songs or choose the next song.
No guests can walk behind the bar to access the music. This will contravene our license provisions.
It is also highly recommend to copy your playlists onto a second device in case your original fails or gets left in a taxi on the way here! (Yes, this has happened twice) Please note that some Samsung devices do not operate on our input cable. Apple devices are best, and we have chargers for both iphone 4 and iphone / ipad 5 and use a 3.5 mm (headphone) jack to connect.
Also, we are able to have the sound system reasonably loud inside to accommodate a non dancing but uptempo atmosphere.
So often the quality of music can actually overstress the sound system when on maximum volume and it has at times overheated and shut down.
We can also arrange the hire of professional DJ equipment without the DJ. This is the best option for an intermediate dancing arrangement without a full blown third party band or DJ.
Using your device and playlists this will cost $250.00
If you are holding a Canape cocktail party and would like more independence from the above option please contact someone from our prefered supplier list. They still have limitations on bass and volume but may be better able to manipulate the music to suit the dynamics of the evening. A dj or band will also be more of a focal point for your guests to dance to.
For a seated dinner we have some very limited room for a dance floor. please consult us ahead of booking a band or DJ so we can discuss in detail floor plans, and timings for order of service.
In summary, small bands and DJ’s with a more mature mindset and understanding of the Cafe Morso environment work well.
Large speakers and amplifiers are totally unnecessary only adding to noise issues. Whatever we do we have to keep in mind that the venue is very open and although covered, the deck is outdoors.
Music with too much bass or excessive volume can leave us with licensing issues and upset local residents. Often a happy medium is found with dancing definitely possible!
There is no access to have anything dropped of or stored on premises until strictly 3:00pm on the day of the event.
Please make sure any cake deliveries and florist are informed of this timing before you book their services. We are happy to discuss delivery and access if they contact us directly on 9692-0111 or by events@cafemorso.com.au should they need clarification.
We do have temporary access to the wharf for any musicians setting up, for deliveries or drop of of any guests who may need assistance. Please advise them to drive into the wharf, intercom security at the lower boom gate and let them know it’s a drop off for Cafe Morso. From the boom gate drive 150 metres then take the first and only left hand turn (in the middle of the wharf) and drive to the top of the sloped driveway. Double park in the middle. You will find us located on the left hand side of the drive. Please do not park in any vacant car spaces. These are privately owned and in use 24/7.
We do not have any parking on premises for any longer than the set up / drop of time security is very strict about these rules and will ask for the car to be removed, or have authority to clamp vehicles parked in private spaces.
Third party entertainers must be informed of this to avoid confusion on the night.
Unfortunately we do not have any storage place for any presents, flower vases or leftover decorations. Please arrange for members of the party to collect all of these things on the night and take them. We do not have the space nor hold any
responsibility for anything left here overnight.
We have cordless microphone for short informal speeches but recommend hiring a more comprehensive Audio solution should you be making a serious company address for example.
Please note that it is vital for the smooth running of the event that we have a full understanding of the formalities that you have planned, who the speakers are and exactly what time and for how long they will be speaking. Food service needs to be complementary to this but can easily falter if we are not involved in the details. A meeting with a few weeks to event date should cover these details.
We have a broad selection of wines on our list and access to many others.
However we may not be able to supply anything specific that you request.
Let us know what your general preference is however we will try to utilise products that we might also be able to sell to other customers in the advent of stock being left over. Otherwise your favorite beer may be stocked, with a limit of stock
and a handling fee for left over stock.
There is a Wilson car park on Pirrama road just opposite the west side Jones Bay Wharf. Come out of the Carpark, cross the road and walk 150 metres and you at Cafe Morso.
Unfortunately taxis are difficult to call due to our private location, however they are always passing on Pirrama on their way to the casino cab ranks. The Casino itself is a 5 minute walk. Otherwise we also recommend booking an UBER from your phone app.. For VIPs, Limos and mini buses can standby at the door for a swift departure
There are some great images in our photo gallery of events set to the back drop of a rain soaked afternoon or night. The outdoor deck area can be seen as a dry and comfortable.
Yes, we have outdoor heaters, very effective on cooler but still nights. Inside we are heated and airconditioned. We also have sun shades to shield some of the westerly sunsets on hot days.
For June, July and August the additional hire of ‘area heaters’ for a small additional fee may be an option.
Yes, relatively informal but effective and set up in the inside corridor.
We have a nominal service charge of 10% on the final overall event cost. This is a service and event management fee, and is aimed to reward quality staff employed at cafe Morso and for their friendly professional focused and attentive service for you and your guests.
There is approximately 30 lounge style seats for a cocktail party. Please ask us for images of these seats and or a tour of the venue set up for another event.