About this vendor
Rustic Event Venue & Catering
Located in Fort Atkinson, WI, Fort 88 Smokehouse + Bar is a rustic, elegant wedding and event catering company specializing in Texas-style smoked BBQ cuisine. The full-service bar features 20 beers on tap, craft cocktails, and more. The first of its kind in Fort Atkinson, the venue is a one-stop shop for all things smoked and delicious, making it a unique site for your wedding celebration.
Established in 2017, Fort 88 offers on-site cooking for weddings up to 150 guests, rehearsal dinners, and more. The company also provides off-site catering services for events of any size.
Fort 88 Smokehouse + Bar has a welcoming outdoor patio space with fire pits and an overall atmosphere that encourages socializing among guests and loved ones. While we specialize in smoking our own meats in-house and making all of our sauces from scratch, we can customize any style menu or cuisine to cater to your event.
Details
Cuisine
- American
- BBQ
- Southern
Dietary Options
- Dairy Free
- Gluten Free
- Nut Free
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
Food & Catering
- Buffet
- Catering Clean Up
- Catering Delivery & Setup
- Menu Tastings
- Passed Appetizers
- Seated Meal
Pricing
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Reviews
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4.5
out of 5.04 reviews
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We received so many compliments about the food at our wedding. The staff at Fort 88 came to our venue. They setup everything, butler passed our appetizers, cleared all our guests tables and managed our buffet. The coordinator was knowledgeable and helpful and the day of staff was very pleasant.
The food was delicious! We had it delivered quite a ways, and it travelled really well. The staff that we hired to serve the food were excellent. However, the communication prior to our wedding date was not great. It took a long time for emails and phone calls to be returned, so it took awhile to get questions answered. We also signed a contract for a price per plate over 9 months before our wedding, and then a month before they emailed and said they were raising the rate (despite the contract). It raised our quote almost $500. We were thankfully able to come in at around our original quote due to a lower than quoted guest count and we hired one less server, but we were very irritated that they raised the rate even though we signed a contract. The food is really good, but I would not hire them to deliver food for catering again.
Response from the Vendor on 11/15/2022
Rachel, thank you for your review of Fort 88. We're so pleased that you highly enjoyed the food and had a wonderful wedding. In regards to the increase that we discussed, the total was $2 per person for a wedding of 90 guests, and therefore n...
ot an increase of almost $500. As we shared with you, the impact of substantially rising costs of food and delivery that all food service businesses have endured (as well as individual's costs of food and fuel country-wide), we were faced with the tough decision to raise the price nominally of our products in direct response, in order to maintain staying open as a small business. We were fortunate enough not to have had to extend a price increase of our catering menu to our customers for the previous 3 years. This is not a decision that we took lightly, as we shared with you, and are always open to two way communication. We additionally offered to discuss options to keep you at your current planned budget, yet you did not respond. We are always open to working with our clients to offer them the best experience and for a budget they are comfortable with. While the world encountered pretty substantial price increases, we explained we had to make the decision to pass them along in order to keep our doors open and our staff employed and making a fair and livable wage. In spite of the rising costs passed along to us as a business, we still split the difference with you vs. the new catering menu pricing, which we shared with you as well. Your happiness and satisfaction are important to us, as are the decisions not to compromise on the quality of our food and to ensure that all of our staff was able to remain employed through the current economic challenges at hand.
We used Fort 88 as our wedding caterer and serving and bartending staff. We chose them after our tasting where we fell in love with the food and already felt really at ease with the planning process. The coordinator did a great job answering all of our questions and then some. She even helped us with suggestions and guidance for our wedding not related to catering and helped make sure we had things in place I hadn't even thought of so that nothing was overlooked when the day arrived. The serving staff was so friendly and really went above and beyond. They were even helping with some non-catering related things on the day of that were falling behind to help our day go smoothly. Our guests still rave about the food! The bartenders were so great and personable. They even stayed later than the contracted time since the guests were having such a great time. I'm glad I chose Fort 88. I really didn't have to worry or follow-up at all and felt very at ease with the whole process and organization from the coordinator and all the staff who helped make our day perfect.
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Amazing food, reasonably priced. Organized, simple planning process. Professional staff. Glad we chose Fort 88 as our caterers. Highly recommend.
Contact
855 Lexington Ave., Fort Atkinson, WI | Southern Wisconsin
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Fort 88 Smokehouse
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