We had my daughter's communion reception there a few years ago in the smaller room in the basement. Let me start with the good. The room was nicely appointed for a small party and the food was good and has always been good. We have done pickup catering here plenty of times.
On to the bad......my daughter's communion mass was scheduled for 11:30am and I told Joseph I wanted the party to begin right after church ended. I was estimating 1:30pm. He insisted that we needed to have everyone there by 1:00pm for some reason(I'll tell you the reason soon, as I found out later). I specifically told him, I don't have any control of how long the mass is and we would be traveling about 25 minutes to get to Joseph's after church. We left it at that and I was confident the timing would be fine because we were in the same ballpark? We arrived at Joseph's after church about 1:15pm which I thought was pretty good for an 11:30am mass and traveling 25 minutes. As soon as I arrived, I was greeted with a panic from Joseph and his staff. He asked me when everyone will be here and I need to get everyone seating immediately because he was going to start serving food. At this point, my parents have not arrived yet and I was not going to start without them. My Dad at the time(he has since passed) had Parkinson's and had trouble navigating stairs and walked very slow. There was about 8 stairs if I remember correctly to get down to the room. So as people were trickling in for the party, I had the staff looking over my shoulder telling me they needed to start serving. I finally asked someone what the big hurry was since we have the room until 4pm. They told me, and Joseph told me eventually, they had a big wedding they were preparing for in the large banquet room. So I guess rushing me the whole time I was there was OK because of this? My parents finally arrived and as I mentioned, my dad moved slow. AS I'm trying to help my Dad down the stairs, Joseph comes over and tells me he's starting to serve the buffet. Now it was about 1:40pm. I told him, we need to say a prayer first and he walks away. Talk about stress. I was so stressed at this point, I was literally speechless. I finally got my Dad situated and got through the prayer and people were called up to the buffet. As soon as the last table was served, the buffet was torn down, as dessert was being served. After the buffet was down, we never saw the staff or Joseph again. I had to go in the back to find someone to give them a check and pay for the party.
With all this being said, it has taken me a few years to write this review, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. I have never been treated so rudely by an owner and a staff(not their fault) in my life. And I have paid for a lot of parties in my day. It's unfortunate that I was made to feel this way because management doesn't care enough about a small party to staff it properly. We have never been back since and I will never give them one dollar of my business in the future. Sorry, but I was completely offended and wish I would have said something on that day. I totally regret not telling them how I felt at the time. Live and learn. read more