Mess Hall

I can't recommend Mess Hall enough as a wedding venue! From the moment we first reached out, Al was incredibly responsive and helpful. He made the planning process much smoother by always being available to answer questions and give suggestions. His professionalism and attention to detail ensured that everything went off without a hitch. The venue itself is a gem—unique, versatile, and full of character. The space allowed us to get creative, and we were given carte blanche to design a wedding that truly reflected our vision. Our guests gushed about the atmosphere, and we couldn't have been happier with how it all came together.

Hosting our wedding at Mess Hall was one of the best decisions we made! The space is just what we wanted: industrial chic near the MBT with a covered outdoor area and access to amazing food. As a culinary incubator, they have a ton of great vendors on site, and while you don’t have to use one of their partners, that was a huge draw to us because we wanted to support small business and do something different than the standard chicken/fish/vegetable offering you get from most wedding caterers (shoutout to Kam & 46 for incredible Hawaiian/Filipino food!). While there was some staff turnover during the planning process, Al’s consistency and guidance gave us confidence that everything would run smoothly on the day of. The space is very customizable, it’s easy to choose what kind of furniture and lighting you want, plus the digital screen and sound system (both indoors and outdoors), helped us fully transform the space to achieve everything we envisioned. Our only concerns during the planning process was the size of our party – we had over 120 attend – so we didn’t do the traditional assigned seats and tables, but nevertheless there was plenty of seating space indoors and outdoors, it didn’t feel too crowded at all, and there was never a line for the two single-stall bathrooms the entire night. Not only was the space great, but the service was superior. During our wedding reception, Al was incredibly attentive to us and anticipated our needs even before we did. For example, he regularly offered to fetch us drinks from the bar when he saw us finishing our beers and when he saw one of standing with friends, he immediately brought over a standing table so we could rest our food and drinks. Our guests were really impressed when we told them he was the owner of Mess Hall. I’m sure there’s a lot of things he did that we didn’t even see – all of which helped our wedding go smoothly. Overall, we were extremely pleased with Mess Hall and hope you will be too!

Mess Hall is a gorgeous venue and Al was incredible, extremely professional, and accommodating, I highly recommend Mess Hall for your events.

After our original venue backed out at the last minute, Al & the Mess Hall community came through and helped us host a hugely successful 100-person fundraiser at Mess Hall. Especially given the urgent/last minute nature of our event, Al was incredibly receptive, responsive, and supportive as we worked with him to fully realize our fundraising event. Mess Hall is a great space - cozy, well-located, and, importantly, a 'blank canvas' with lots of options to make your event come to life. Al & co have a selection of furniture (tables, chairs, etc) to rent if you prefer to streamline the process; you can bring your own decorations and furnishing if you had something more specific in mind. Furthermore, they have an incredible group of local and upcoming caterers that use the kitchen space there, making catering incredibly easy (and delicious). We were able to easily accommodate vegan and gluten-free dietary restrictions with one of their caterers (Kam & 46). Finally, their bar features hyper-local drink options from the DC area; our bartender for the event was great. In short: Mess Hall is a great venue, with a great mission, and great people behind it. The pricing was also incredibly reasonable; we went for the open bar. I would gladly collaborate with them again! Thanks for everything, Al!