My wife and I had our wedding party at Clover's in June, after doing the ceremony on Governor's…read moreIsland. I'd been meaning to write a good review here for a while, and arrived to see that someone had a very different experience in August. Our arrangement and expectations were different, for sure, but it also sounds like Murphy's Law may have been in effect that night.
For our part, we knew that it was a gallery with a small staff, and not a regular event space, but the price was reasonable enough by NYC wedding standards and we liked dealing with Rosette and Clover in the weeks leading up to the event. We arranged food ourselves--from Mile End around the corner and sweets from Dough and Mia's (also all recommended). Clover's handled drinks, service, and setup.
We had problems with the ferry schedule on Governor's Island and people started heading back early; my brother-in-law hustled to Clover's and told everyone they might not have as much setup time as anticipated. I'm not sure how they managed, but everything was running smoothly by the time my wife and I arrived, not long after the party was scheduled to begin. The rest of the event went just fine; things that weren't necessarily our ideal vision for the evening were almost all stuff we could have nailed down if we'd had a little more foresight and planning time.
If you're considering hosting an event there, here are all the benefits we saw:
* A colorful, spacious setting with cool art with a space-rental fee that was very competitive with other estimates we got in the neighborhood.
* Wine and beer at a decent per-head price. We aren't connoisseurs or anything, but Rosette checked with us a couple of times about what kind of wine we wanted, and we ended up with a Malbec and a Sauvignon Blanc that we were very happy with--not Chateau Lafite, but definitely not Two-Buck Chuck. Initially they hadn't realized we wanted beer, but when we clarified that not long before the event they made it happen, providing Red Stripe and a couple of other varieties.
* The service was great. We were a little surprised to arrive and find Rosette and Clover were working the bar themselves, but for us it was a nice bonus to have on-hand the people we'd done the planning with. We got several comments that the staff was nice, most importantly from my parents.
* Reasonably flexible set-up times and no hassles bringing in outside (licensed) caterers.
* A good two-zone sound system. We had hoped to have dancing, but ran out of time to properly prepare a playlist and come in ahead of time to test out the volume control. (The receivers are old, but there is a cable for phones/iPads, etc.) Also it was effing hot that day and everyone was pretty zonked by the time we all got to the gallery. The A/C worked fine for us, and the staff kept the ice water vats filled and flowing.
The drawbacks?
* There is only one bathroom, and we had a lineup going for most of the night. It's probably not suitable for more than sixty people for that reason alone. We had 80 or more at peak.
* Per-head prices are bound to cause disputes sometimes, as they did for Jenny J. In our case we probably had fewer people, staying less long, than we paid for, but we didn't feel as though the price ended up out of hand.
* They're not (and don't claim to be) full-service big-event planners. They have the capacity to do modest events really well. Ours was on the big side, and we ended up glad that we'd done outside catering. We badly underestimated how many chairs and tables we needed, but that was our fault--we thought people would be mingling more and didn't realize quite how much space there would be for furniture.
If you're aware of the limitations, this can be a terrific place for an event. We don't have any regrets. The only reason I hesitated to give the place five stars is the bathroom situation--even for smaller parties, you'd ideally have at least two.
