Gabriella A.
Yelp
Incredibly rude and condescending manager and front door staff ruined my wedding after party. I have never left a review for a bar/restaurant but I can't let this go:
We chose this place 6 months in advance to host our wedding after party and we were so excited to enjoy the unique space and Betsy the bull. Our package included a space and a base number of alcoholic drinks. We were very clear that our party would be ~60 guests. Kayla and Colly said that our space would fit 40 and the rest of our guests would float closer to the bar and share in the alcohol / event. I specifically asked, "I know you [Colly] said the Dolly's Corner easily fits 40, but would we work be able to have more people come and partake in our drink package, etc, even if they're mingling around the bar?" Colly answered, " Yeah we can fit 40 and the rest of your guests can partake in everything you are availing of - it's just that that space is more private on a Saturday but only fits 40ish, the rest can squeeze and mingle and still be part of the celebration." We booked the space and couldn't wait!
Our guests started over at 11:30 pm (the time we reserved), but we hung around at our wedding venue just to make sure everyone left ok. When we arrived, most of our guests had been waiting on a "VIP line" as they were told our guest count was above 40 and they wouldn't accommodate. After another 15 minutes of arguing they told our guests to go to the back of the general admission line, a 45 minute wait. NEVER was this possibility communicated to us in any of our email exchanges. We knew Dolly's Corner held 40, but they never said our guests would be held in a separate line where they could never actually be admitted. Even had they sent the rest of our guests to the back of the GA line when we hit 40, they would have eventually gotten inside, but instead they were told after being held outside for a half hour that they needed to go to the back of the other line.
They could have apologized for the confusion (caused by their emails!) and blended our group into the GA line instead of forcing them to the back since we paid $3K for a space already. Perhaps our guests beyond 40 people (we probably had about 15) would have only waited 10 minutes, which would have been fine. But there was simply no attempt to rectify the situation. The door person actually said to me that if I wasn't okay with the 40 person max, we could just cancel our reservation altogether (obviously not helpful and extremely rude as we booked it 6 months in advance, told all our guests, had people inside already, etc).
The icing on the cake: Betsy the bull was not up and running! That was 75% of the reason we chose this bar in the first place! Not to mention we only got 3/4 of the alcohol offered in our original package.
I am sad to have wasted so much time and energy on this place and these people. It is a shame that I couldn't end my wedding night with all my friends, but I hope this review can help someone in the future avoid the same issues.
TLDR: Do not choose this space for any event you're thinking of hosting; even though you will be told it is easy for any of your extra guests to "mingle and still enjoy the celebration", they might just leave half of your guests out in the cold. Desert 5 Spot/managers Colly and Kayla) ruined my wedding after party and were unwilling to find helpful solutions to the confusion they created by being unclear about what we should expect on our event night. I regret not choosing another bar, as we were considering several options. I would really like to prevent any future brides from crying at their own wedding after party. Instead of apologizing that this was not clear (I offered to review the entire email exchange we had had in that moment), they argued with us, were incredibly rude, and had no helpful solutions to the issue. To top it off, we watched their bouncer let in several people under our head count that weren't part of our group and then deny it to our face.
Save yourself the trouble and choose literally anywhere else for an event.