Megan P.
Yelp
This review is for their New Years Eve Party and facilities in general as I have not stayed as a hotel guest. I questioned giving 2 stars not staying as a guest but the hotel had two chances to wow me and both fell flat. See my review of the adjoining restaurant which was also meh.
During an event at the hotel, which was poorly under-serviced at the rooftop bar, I was convinced by the events coordinator to come to their NYE party. I mean, the hotel is gorgeous and brand new. They'll blow this one up! Wrong. I convinced 6 friends to pay $100 a ticket for this mess (one visiting from NYC).
There is a ballroom on the 12th floor which during my first tour, they described using the view as the backdrop for the bar during weddings. You can see all of Grand Ave and the FOX marquee. It's a lovely ballroom. Instead, for the NYE party, they used a ballroom down a dark corridor, up a service elevator to the 2nd floor, and window-less.
My friends and I were so excited to see what the Angad Arts would do for NYE to showcase that they are new and fresh and ready to host! They advertised PREMIUM open bar. Now, I know how this NYE hotel party thing goes. They all pretty much suck. They all advertise premium liquor and serve crap with long lines and bad music. I thought Angad could rise above. It was an open bar you'd see at a Soulard pre-Blues game. Gin and vodka brands I did not recognize. ONE bartender. 25 people in line when we got there. Rest assured they couldn't make a manhattan or anything like that. Why is it so damned hard to get good drinks at a NYE party?
We immediately left the "ballroom" to look around the hotel. They have a beautiful area on the 12th floor near the check-in with a small bar, velvet chairs and games. The rooftop bar is decent as well. Now, for $100 and a long line at the party, you'd think maybe we could get a drink at one of these bars? Nope. Gotta pay up for those. We came back up there around 11 PM and they were packing it all up. No one was there, no one. Eventually deciding we needed a decent drink, we paid $60 for cocktails (in a plastic cup!) on the rooftop. Again, ONE bartender on NYE. Total for the night: $660 + fees and really nothing to eat.
I shared all of my opinions with every manager I could find, wishing I was able to catch the woman that convinced me to come to this. Multiple people were complaining to them about the situation. The party was lame, the lines were long (they eventually added a bartender), the booze was cheap, and the "entertainment" dancers were awful. Hors D'oeuvres were three tiny items ($100 worth, eh?).
Taste Bar has a great NYE event with an actual full open bar of their delicious cocktails and it's about the same price, just sells out very quickly. Here are my recommendations to the Angad, who had every change to WOW all of those guests, and fell absolutely flat:
- Open the entire hotel to the party. All 3 bars and areas. The ballroom-style-only is old and lame. Be dynamic.
- Serve actual premium liquor and make real drinks, not vodka/crans and gin/tonics with no name booze. Yuck.
- Get burlesque dancers or drag queens or something actually entertaining.
- Serve some sort of dessert or chocolate and more hors d'oeuvres
- Hire a real event coordinator
Props to employee Justin who commiserated with us, hypothesized a good party, showed us the green room suite and gave us some good laughs. Put him in charge. The GM of the "hotel side" also seemed concerned about all the issues but couldn't do anything about it. The organizers easily could have said "ok your wrist band gets you a drink at any of the 3 bars" and that would have greatly improved the evening. Alas, it fell flat and I don't think any attendees were impressed with the hotel. Onward and upward with future NYE parties. The rooftop bar has a great view and could potentially be lovely (turn on the outside lights, add a bartender on busy nights and warm up the outside with plants).