Famous Dave's has a catering operation, but the more useful thing to understand is that you can cater a party straight off the restaurant menu using three line items: Meats By The Pound at $16.69, Pint Sides at $6.69, and Corn Bread Muffins at $7.79 an order. Price a job that way and you have a number to compare any catering quote against.
Famous Dave's prices at a glance
The prices referenced on this page, collected up front. They vary by location and change without notice.
| Guests | Meat (⅓ lb ea.) | Meat cost | Sides (2 pints per 5) | Rough total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 4 lb | $66.76 | 4 pints — $26.76 | ~$102 |
| 20 | 8 lb | $133.52 | 8 pints — $53.52 | ~$195 |
| 50 | 18 lb | $300.42 | 20 pints — $133.80 | ~$450 |
| 100 | 35 lb | $584.15 | 40 pints — $267.60 | ~$875 |
How much meat to order
The arithmetic that governs everything else:
- ⅓ lb per adult when you serve two or more meats with two sides and bread
- ½ lb per adult when barbecue is the only main course
- ¼ lb per adult when it sits alongside a wider buffet
- Children under twelve count as half an adult
- Add 10–15% — people eat more barbecue than they plan to
At $16.69 a pound, a third of a pound of meat per head is $5.56 of meat per person. That is the number to hold in your head, because it is the floor under any quote you are given.
Pricing a party off the menu
That lands around $9 to $10 a head including corn bread, which is a perfectly normal barbecue catering number — and notably cheaper per person than eating the same food in the dining room, where a single Texas Beef Brisket Platter is $17.59.
The Feast route, and when it beats the pound
For anything under about a dozen people, the All-American BBQ Feast at $99.89 is the simplest catering order Famous Dave's sells. It arrives on a trash-can lid with a full slab of St. Louis ribs, country-roasted chicken, Texas beef brisket, Georgia chopped pork, hot link sausage, sides and corn bread muffins, and it realistically feeds six to eight. That is roughly $14 a head with five meats on the table and no arithmetic required.
Two Feasts for a group of fourteen is $199.78. The same fourteen people fed by the pound is closer to $135. By the pound is cheaper; the Feast is easier and includes ribs. Ribs are the honest reason to pay the premium — nothing in the by-the-pound column gets you a slab.
For smaller gatherings the Feast For 2 ($55.49) and the Founder's Feast ($32.19) scale down the same idea. If you are comparing chains on this, our BBQ catering guide puts the per-head numbers side by side.
What travels and what does not
- Travels well: Georgia chopped pork, Texas beef brisket, Wilbur Beans, creamy coleslaw, collard greens. Chopped and saucy meats hold heat and moisture better than anything sliced thin.
- Travels acceptably: St. Louis spareribs and Southside Rib Tips — they will not be as crisp at the bark as they were in the restaurant, but they survive.
- Does not travel: Famous Fries, Onion Strings, Sweetwater Catfish Fingers, Shack Shrimp. Anything fried arrives soft. Cheese curds are the worst offender.
- Order extra of: corn bread muffins. At $1.99 each or $7.79 an order they are the cheapest thing on the list and the first item to run out.
Lead time and ordering
Famous Dave's runs roughly 130 restaurants and catering is handled at location level, so lead times, delivery radius, setup fees and minimums genuinely differ from one store to the next. Practical guidance rather than false precision:
- 48 to 72 hours is a safe window for a standard order of meats, sides and bread.
- A week or more for anything over fifty guests, or anything involving multiple full rib slabs — ribs are the constraint, because a store only smokes so many.
- Two to three weeks around Memorial Day, Independence Day and December, when the same smokers are already committed.
- Confirm delivery versus pickup when you book. Pickup is always cheaper, and the restaurant is open from 11am daily.
Three mistakes that cost money
Over-ordering meat and under-ordering sides. Sides are the cheap part here — pints at $6.69 stretch a lot further per dollar than a third pound of brisket.
Ordering appetizers for a party. Dave's Sampler Platter is $27.79 and the Double Winger is $31.99. Two of those is most of a Feast.
Buying individual sides instead of pints. À la carte individual sides are $4.49 against $6.69 for a pint. Pints win outright for any group. The full Famous Dave's price list has every line item if you want to build the quote yourself.