Coastal cooking, run like clockwork from the Santa Cruz kitchen out.
Santa Cruz Catering Company exists because catering here should taste like the coast it comes from — produce picked in the Pajaro Valley, seafood-friendly menus, salsas and dressings made by hand the morning of your event. Our own crew preps, cooks, loads, delivers and sets up every order, whether it is a 25-person standup lunch off Mission Street, a cliffside rehearsal dinner in Capitola, or a 200-guest reception under redwoods in Scotts Valley.
A Santa Cruz crew with a production kitchen behind it
Santa Cruz Catering Company operates under Fresh Pulp Holdings LLC, a Bay Area catering group of regional brands that together cater well over a thousand events a year and have served more than a million guests.
In practice that means two things you can feel on the day. First, the people running your event know how Santa Cruz County actually works — beach-season traffic on 1 and 17, permit and load-in rules at coastal parks and county venues, elevator-only access downtown, and how long a hot line can hold under an ocean breeze. Second, the food behind them comes out of a kitchen with real production capacity, so a twelve-person board lunch in Aptos on Thursday and a 180-guest wedding in Bonny Doon on Saturday both get a full prep list, a packing check and a named lead on site.
Grazing Table
Full-Service DinnerThe cook behind the menu
Jason has spent more than a decade proving out this menu in the only place catering can be honestly tested — mid-service, with a line already forming. A dish stays on the menu only if it still eats well forty minutes into a chafer, survives a run over Highway 17 or down to Watsonville, and sends people back for a second plate.
That standard is why the menu stays wide — coastal California plates alongside Italian, Mexican, barbecue and Mediterranean — and why vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free dishes are written as real entrees, not afterthoughts. Proteins are butchered in house, sauces and dressings are made from scratch, and the seasonal sections follow what Pajaro Valley and Central Coast growers are actually cutting that month.
Outdoor BuffetWhat we cater around Santa Cruz
Our Santa Cruz County work runs from a standing Tuesday team lunch to a full black-tie reception. The formats we handle most:
- • Wedding catering — plated, buffet or family-style, with staffing, florals and rentals on one contract
- • Full-service events — fundraisers, galas, conferences, company milestones and holiday parties with uniformed staff
- • Drop-off catering for Santa Cruz offices, UCSC departments, clinics and neighborhood gatherings
- • Individually boxed meals for trainings, all-hands days and beach-adjacent group logistics
- • Holiday catering — Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and December workplace parties
- • Event florals and rentals as add-ons or booked on their own
Cocktail Hour Service
Mediterranean Buffet
Wedding Dessert DisplayWhere we deliver
Santa Cruz is home base, and we cater across Santa Cruz County and the north Monterey Bay: Santa Cruz, Westside and Eastside, Live Oak, Capitola, Soquel, Aptos, Rio del Mar, La Selva Beach, Scotts Valley, Felton, Ben Lomond, Boulder Creek, Bonny Doon, Watsonville and the UCSC campus — plus the wider Bay Area for larger full-service events. One flat delivery rate covers our core Santa Cruz service area, so a downtown office pays the same as a house up in the San Lorenzo Valley.
Themed Event Styling
In-House Floral CenterpiecesLet's plan your Santa Cruz event
Send us your date, guest count and venue and we will come back the same business day with a fully itemized proposal — menu, staffing, rentals, florals and delivery, with nothing left vague.