Blue Ridge Hospitality Group

We went for a tasting and everything was amazing. Tom said we would get everything we wanted after agreeing on a menu and we payed in full. We also booked a rental car through his rental car company (which no longer exists). Tom seemed like a nice trusting man. However, within a couple months he stopped getting back to us and became very spacey. Two days before our wedding he told us the car we wanted to rent that we had already paid for crashed. Which we totally understand things happen. He told us he would give us a check and provide us a refund which he never did. After not receiving the check for a couple weeks we continuously tried to contact him and he kept ignoring us. It wasn't until we started mentioning getting other people involved, he responded to tell us it was an issue with a third party payment system "Honey Book". We contacted the third party and they cleared things up real quick and said he had never even tried to refund us through them. Since then we have tried to dispute the amount of money he stole from us through our credit card company. Tom of course fought back against this even though he knows we still have not gotten out money. We are still out money and still very disappointed among the others who you stole from. Do not use him or his new company the munch box. This is just one of the many things that went wrong while booking him. He also gave us an entirely different food at our wedding and forgot water and bread. Very disappointed.

The food and service was INCREDIBLE at our tasting back in February and we really clicked with Shauna so we told her we were likely to book them. Almost as soon as we left, some dude named Tom (owner) messaged us on the knot with an invoice to book and it felt very pushy by him. We ignored the small red flag because of our tasting experience. Fast forward to May when we were preparing for our wedding in October, and we noticed difficulty getting in touch with Tom or Shauna about details for sending invitations (like how they wanted our guests to specify for their plated meals, etc.). We eventually reached Shauna who was helpful and answered my questions. Fast forward again to about August when we were ready to iron out last details. At this point, Shauna redirected our questions to Tom after we had a phone call with her about said details. When we started to rely on Tom for communication, it became apparent we wouldn’t reach him when we needed and we felt worried about how the reception would go. My (now) husband managed to get him on the phone the day before our wedding and gave us a little peace of mind. HOWEVER, he showed up to reception without the rolls, salad, or desserts, had food served that wasn’t even close to the food we had at the tasting, it wasn’t the sides we picked, and our vegans were served asparagus and potatoes (basically everyone else’s meal minus the meat) which isn’t what we were told they’d be served. It wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been (at least guests ate, I guess) but it definitely wasn’t what we discussed, tasted, agreed to, or paid for. 0/10 do not recommend.

With the turmoil Tom Makowski is facing in his business life, I decided to relieve him of his duties as the cater for my wedding. At our tasting, he let me know that he would not be able to provide glassware and flatware - which was stating in the contract. Leaving me to rent it from someone else. At the risk of him not fulfilling the rest of his duties, we decided to let him go as our caterer. Tom was made aware of this over a month before my wedding. I had already paid in full at his request and prior to tasting any of his food. During the conversation about letting him go, I requested a full refund since his services are no longer needed. Since asking for the refund, Tom has blocked my number, my email, and blocks any other calls from my fiancé and my family. I have messaged him on Facebook, to which he has blocked me on. I have also messaged his wife and his new business account - The Munch Box located in Brevard. I literally have no idea how I am supposed to get my $7000 back. He has also shut down his catering website. If he had catered my wedding, I would understand about the refund. However he isn’t so what’s the problem? Tom Makowski is a scammer and will screw you over at any chance. I plan on frequenting his new restaurant, The Munch Box, until I get my money.

Review We hired Tom and Blue Ridge Hospitality Group for our wedding in June 2023. If I go into details about all the issues that they had it would take 5 pages to write it all so I have to keep it to the main points. 1)they used a trailer that was not for catering so when they showed up the food was spilled everywhere and GUESTS had to help them clean up and try prepare enough to serve the wedding 2) this caused wedding to get delayed over an hour and half 3) we (wedding couple) had to miss dinner as a result of the delay and having to leave for photos before sunset 4) since food spilled we didn’t have all the food that was agreed on 5) Tom forgot cups, napkins, plates which then ruined our cocktail hour because of not having cups and we had to serve dinner on stuff purchased down the street that mismatched because they didn’t have enough for all of us last minute 6) untrained bartenders couldn’t even open a bottle of wine let alone make a mixed drink 7) coffee bar was never brought even tho we paid extra for it 8) appetizers that were agreed upon were not served at the cocktail hour because of the delay 9) food was terribly cooked and had multiple guests comment on the poor taste, display and overcooked meat 10) Tom admitted and apologized for all the mistakes saying that the person responsible was fired 11) Tom agreed to a refund and then lied about paying it back 12) Tom forced us to dispute the charges with the credit card company 13) we paid extra for additional services that were never provided like upgraded silverware and plating, coffee bar, appetizers that weren’t served and many more. Like I said I can’t go into detail on each item above because it would be 5 pages long. I cannot stress enough to use a different caterer, I have even read other reviews of Tom agreeing to a refund and then going silent and never paying so the other clients had to file a credit card dispute as well. We are still fighting for our agreed upon refund and are having to resort to the credit card disputes and hiring an attorney. I am still at a disbelief in the lack of professionalism and simple human decency shown by Tom and his team. Tom has agreed to pay a refund (even have this in writing) and said it was sent or agreed to send at a certain time and then all three times either lied about sending it or went quiet and stopped responding. In the last attempt he tried scare us by including a lawyer to force us to sign an agreement stating that we couldn’t leave a review. I couldn’t leave 0 or negative stars or I would have.