Patriotic Pig BBQ

to your review below. I strive to accommodate and make my couples experience as stress free as possible and up until now I have never had a review or experience where my work ethic was not so pleasant. I am truly sorry and feel horrible that you did not have an enjoyable experience with me. Nothing would have changed in your quote if it weren’t for the COVID-19 pandemic. Your VENUE as well as many others ENFORCED NEW COVID-19 POLICIES AND RULES. I tried my very best to explain why we needed extra staff to sufficiently run your buffet because of the covid-19 venue restrictions. All or most of the venues are requiring that all Food and Drinks to be served so the guest are not touching the serving spoons and drink dispensers. Some do not require drinks to be served and some do. So as your guest come through the line, the food will be served on to their plates. You had 3 Meats and 4 Sides to serve, Condiments, 3 Sauces & Rolls to be served to your guest. One staff member will slice the brisket, One will serve the other two meats, One will serve the 2 sides and One will serve the last two sides along with serving all the condiments and rolls and sauces to the best that they can. Honestly it takes about 4-5 people to sufficiently serve all the items and possibly 6 with drinks. If the 4th server was needed on the food serving line to help serve your guest sufficiently, then they could no t have helped with the drinks. I explained this numerous times and explained why more staff was needed outside your original quote. If we had more servers there we could have done so. I believe they did the very best they could have done given the amount of staff that was there. This is a COVID venue requirement. Unless your venue says otherwise the food had to be served (from the buffet). Before COVID-19, this would have never been an issue. Sending just 2-3 catering staff would have been all I needed to do to set up and replenish food because it would have been a SELF SERVE. But because of COVID we now need more hands on the line. I explained this numerous times. Your original quote only allows us to send 2-3 (at our discretion, depending on your headcount) catering staff members out, again before COVID this would not have been an issue. I agreed to send 3 of my catering team and have you hire just one server to help us on the line and the they can bus tables the rest of the night. I tried to explain this the best I could. As far as when your coordinator called me, I was right in the middle of our restaurant rush and trying to pull up your invoice. I just skimmed over your invoice and read off what we had for you. I mentioned the servers to her and spoke too soon with out going back through all your emails and notes. I truly apologize for that mistake and as soon Steven called me to remind me I did see it in my notes and all was good, I thought we had settled the issue and everything was on track. We had 7 weddings that day and I was just making sure I had everything covered with servers and I did not want to be without or not be able to sufficiently serve your guest. As far as the cake cutting. I know that you had at one time had paid for the cake cutting option on your invoice but then asked me to remove it and said you had family that was going to cut the cake. When Cake cutting is declined on the invoice, my staff sees that and thinks that they are to Not cut the cake. With all the food serving and table bussing going on and clean up, if cake cutting was on the invoice we would have stopped and pre pared to cut the cake. I do know about the situation as Jose my lead told me they would help and assist in the cake cutting. I do know that my staff, the one who helped with the cake did say the cake was super moist and the icing was so soft so that could explain the way it was handled. The 4th server/waitstaff is no longer working with Patriotic Pig. After this weekend, we had several complaints from our staff. He is an outside server from the Event Staffing that we use all the time and he was new to working with us. I do apologize for any mishap with that server. I have informed the Event Staffing. Thank you for reading my email and letting me reply to yours. I just wanted to have a chance to explain in detail my side and my why. Again, I am very sorry for any stress this has caused you and I will better my self and my communication with my couples. I sincerely care about all my weddings and couples and strive to be professional, caring and thorough. Not that this is an excuse, however we have had over 350 reschedules due to COVID-19 and having to ask every single one of them to hire on extra staff is really a struggle when it is not in their budget, but they need it because the venues require it and have to explain why. I feel horrible that I made your day unpleasant and hope that you would reconsider my professionalism. Thank you again for having us cater for your special day and we wish you the very best! 😊 Thank You, Gina Smith Owner / Wedding & Event Catering Coordinator

end of 8/29. There must have been some miscommunication and confusion with our staff about the appetizer plates and I sincerely apologize for that. We do offer premium plastic dinnerware for purchase and it could have been added to the invoice at a cost, but was declined. As for the extra buffet servers, we also offer servers for purchase to assist with dinner service, but must have also been declined. Due to COVID all the venues are now required to have the buffet food served. If you did not want to purchase extra servers then yes you could have a family or friend help out on the dinner buffet line during the service to assist with the serving portions & drink stations. Again, we apologize for any confusion or messiness this may have caused. We always strive to have a stress free event for our bride & grooms and their families. We wish you all the best and thank you so much for having us cater on this special day.

ate at 1/2 lb of meat per person. My staff said that everyone ate (even the vendors) and no one left hungry. Your coordinator agreed. One correction: We did not portion control the food. It was self serve and we only ran out of mashed potatoes because of the heavy handed guests and those who came back for seconds before the first guests were served. You had 3 other sides still available. We’ve catered dozens of weddings since your wedding with no issues so I’m still not sure what else to say here. If anyone wants the truth or needs a good coordinator, please call the day of coordinator, Lisa Whitehead with Stressfree Events, 914-456-2211. She's a great coordinator.

sending more of those for sure since people love them so much. Thanks again for the feedback.

given an envelope before they leave. I'm sorry if this came out in a demanding manner to the coordinator. We have it stated in our contracts that gratuities are entirely optional and we won't ever force anyone to tip our staff. We've told our staff to refrain from asking for an envelope going forward so that it won't have a chance to be misconstrued . Sorry again for any miscommunication and I'm glad everyone loved the BBQ and the evening was a success.