Lake Norman Catering

Deception - Or in the judges words, "You may have been deceived" however the contract says what it says.... So here we go... On September 3, I had a beautiful wedding at the Charles Mack Center in Morresville, NC. Charles Mack requires you use their list of preferred vendors in which Lake Norman Catering was listed. Due to the type of food I wanted prepared for my event (brunch style), Lake Norman accepted the request and immediately a tasting was scheduled. May 24th, my husband to be and I enjoyed a tasting with Chef Nathan Grice who prepared what we requested - Shrimp and Grits and Chicken and waffles. That was ALL we said we wanted and Chef Grice prepared his version of the 2 items and we were pleasantly please. His version of these items included shrimp in a creole sauce with andouille sausage and yellow stone grits (you now the kind that stick to your ribs for like 4 days) and then fried chicken tinders and a Belgium waffle for the request of chicken and waffles. I mean is there ANY OTHER way to prepare Chicken and waffles? lol, Well apparently there is... Let's fast forward to the day of my wedding. This is the perfect example of bait and switch. So at my wedding instead of what we had at our tasting, what was served was cooked shrimp in white grits (no creole sauce) and PANKO BAKED chicken and ego waffles... yes, you read that right, EGO WAFFLES!! Did I mention that I paid on average $50 a head for all of this? Lake Norman Catering thought it was OK to prepare EGO WAFFLES among all the other wrong items that was served at a WEDDING!!!! Clearly Mr. Cruz had my event twisted as a high school campsite. My husband and I didn't eat because what we were expecting we didn't get and it took EVERY piece of me to continue to enjoy my wedding. Immediately after my wedding and requested a meeting with Mr. Cruz to discuss my disappointment which he was glad to meet and resolve. We met at a Starbucks because the office that he claims to have, actually doesn't exist cause I guess it's under renovation... I know because I went by there, but I digress. I shared my issues with Mr. Cruz and asked for a refund on the food portion and received a "let me think about it" request. No issues, I know if you have to do your due diligence, check with your staff and get back to me. He gets back to me several days later just due to scheduling conflicts and offered to pay $2,000 towards the $7500 we paid. Now maybe it was in good faith to pay half of what I originally asked to be reimbursed but nah...I lost sleep over this. I was EMBARRASED by what as presented especially after my husband and I bragged about how good the food was going to be. Of course I said that was BULL SHIT and Mr. Cruz hung up on me and I decided to take him to court. ....... Please please PLEASE when working in "contract" be sure you are VERY specific in what you want. With Lake Norman Catering you need to have the full recipe LISTED on the contract so they know exactly what you want because I was bamboozled and unfortunately the court sided with the catering company because it only listed shrimp and grits and chicken and waffles but didn't specifically say FRIED Chicken with flour batter, Belgium waffles cooked with a crisp, shrimp prepared in a creole sauce, yellow stone grits and thick bacon. Use them at your own risk. Now he'll respond with this "whoa is me" - I'm a veteran, I'm Latino, I've had 12 surgeries, I'm passionate about my work, I've been in business for years, but where was that COMPASSION when you realized you were wrong. You're right, your not a restaurant. People specifically request certain items during a catering job and when there's a TASTING they should get what they signed off on the TASTING!!! Sometimes being in business you take the good and bad and just admit that you messed up. He'll also want to throw in how the reception ran late but what does that have to do with the quality of food and providing what we expected? I would have NEVER selected Lake Norman had we tasted what they served at our wedding. The Charles Mack Center should reconsider them as a preferred vendor....