The Cabaret is located at the same site as the popular wedding venue Inn at Fredericksburg Square, but the Cabaret is located upstairs and performances are sometimes held in the Washington Ballroom. This is a lovely place, and is probably the nicest and most upscale venue in Fredericksburg. It offers live music performances (such as jazz or big band) with couples dancing, along with dinner or hors d'oeuvres, drinks for purchase, etc. The way it works is you purchase a ticket through their website - cost is typically $35 - $45 for the performance alone; when optional hors d'oeuvres are offered it's an additional $15, or if they are including dinner with the performance the cost is typically around $70 all-inclusive of performance, dinner, and gratuity. If you purchase wine, beer, mixed drinks, etc., that is paid on a separate tab at the event. The food served in the past has been excellent.
Why do I give only two stars? I have attended several performances at Cabaret, and honestly this place is not ready for prime time. Most recently I attended the Doc Scantlin and Chou Chou performance on Saturday, Oct 1, 2016. The show started at 8:00 PM, and upon arrival at 7:30 we found the front entrance door locked! This was extremely puzzling and we looked around for another entrance but there was none. We went back to the main front entrance and actually had to knock on the door - they opened it and let us in.
The server we had was very nice and courteous, but not knowledgeable at all about the limited wine and beer selections that they offered. Twice she had to go and check for an answer about their wine and beer. We each ordered an alcoholic beverage and we knew we would be dancing so we asked for some water - she brought two $3.00 glass bottles of fancy spring water with glasses. I said, "Oh no, we just wanted regular tap water in a glass." She told us they don't serve that! I'm sorry, that is just RIDICULOUS that this establishment does not provide regular, complimentary ice water to its customers who have already purchased a ticket for the performance. In any case, we said we would keep the glass bottled water. However, about 10 minutes later when we wanted to pour the water into our glasses, we discovered that the bottle caps were not the twist-off type and required a bottle opener! So here we are in this fancy place that doesn't serve regular iced water and makes you purchase the fancy glass bottled water and I had to flag down our server and ask her to open our bottles. Along with the locked door I feel that this is simply tacky and not an acceptable level of service for this type of establishment.
Additionally, a friend that came with us on Oct 1st decided he wanted to partake in the optional hors d'oeuvres which we had not purchased tickets for and did not come early for. When he inquired if he could purchase the hors d'oeuvres buffet, Cabaret said yes and took his $15 but failed to mention that the buffet was ending in 20 minutes. So he ended up paying $15 for one small plate of hors d'oeuvres. Upon leaving the ballroom after the performance, the manager asked me how everything was and I mentioned this incident. No attempt was made by Cabaret to remedy the situation or offer a refund to my friend. Poor business practice, for sure.
In summary, this is a very nice venue that has a lot of potential, however for the ticket prices they charge I feel that the service level is severely lacking. (Carlyle Club in Alexandria is the same type of venue, yet they typically charge $25 - $30 per performance ticket.) I feel that Cabaret is not quite ready for prime time and has a lot of bugs to work out before it can merit five stars. read more