“Fun food is in,” says Terri Kufel, senior catering manager at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel. And we’re not talking about the popcorn and peanuts circus station. Chefs are finding guests more open to clever twists in their banquet options.

“We serve shrimp corndogs on a stick, or mini-grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup shooters.” The shooter may end up becoming the martini glass of the ballroom—put anything in a shot glass and call it a shooter. It is a great way to spotlight individual presentation.

“We display the shooters in a block of ice with holes cut out for the shots,” says Kufel. “We might have bloody mary shrimp with a shot of cocktail sauce and a large cocktail shrimp resting on the glass, individual crudités arranged, and melon balls in another. The hotel has a successful station presenting different soup shots, including bite-size sips of gazpacho and tomato bisque.

Another fun food station is their China Bistro. “It’s a Chinese takeout theme, complete with Vietnamese rolls with peanut sauce, steamed Peking pot stickers, crab Rangoon, chicken yakitori, spring rolls, spicy noodles, a variety of sauces, mini takeout containers and chopsticks.