Has anyone standardized a 3-station buffet (hot line, cold composed, carving) to keep plate time under 90 seconds? I’m trialing color‑coded pans and a 12-minute batch cycle with 1 runner per 40 guests, and I want to mirror the same flow in two venues on the same night — curious what staffing ratios and contingency steps have held up in the wild.
the same flow in two venues on the same night — curious what staffing ratios We held 90s by running 1 captain per station, 1 runner per 30 (40 was too thin), and a shared floater bouncing venues on a 10‑minute radio check. If queue hits 12 or your 12‑minute batch slips, have expo gate release, pre-slice the carve to 6‑minute holds, and flip hot line to two‑item plates for 10 minutes to clear the jam.
Short answer from my side: I’m seeing the same pattern — one concrete thing that helped was writing down the exact handoff and timebox it to 15–20 min. Does that match what you’re running into?