Bottle & Bottega by Painting with a Twist — Attraction in Campbell

Nickname used to post: We hosted a team building event at this location. The reason we chose this shop is because half of our team members live close by in South Bay. We had a few other options that would probably be better fit than this shop.

The good: They let you bring your own bottled drinks (charging a reasonable $15 corkage fees) and catering food.

The difficult/ downside: They are family owned small business and are very short staffed. The owner's attitude is we're not going to be able to do anything more than teaching you to draw the print you chose. We'll charge extra per person to send painting kits if you want us to do it. So I myself had to go to FedEx to get empty boxes for sending the painting kits to my remote team and drop them off at their studio. Then after they packed them, I had to pick them all up and send them by myself at FedEx. I spent hours of my weekends including on my wedding anniversary dinner day at FedEx because they had to key in each address manually. I barely made it home to go to the anniversary dinner with my hubby without a shower or any preparation. Other studios that in our list offer free service of sending the kits to the remote teams. So be aware corporate team building organizers. I had a very hard time to get receipts for the transactions made on my corporate credit card. Not like all other merchants, they don't send you a receipt immediately after a transaction was made. I need the receipts to submit my expense report, Stacy couldn't provide it and couldn't understand what's needed even after I sent over the screenshot of the 4 transactions for which I needed receipts for. She provided 1 invoice at first, then 2 that don't match the transactions. The owner's attitude: At one point she had to apologize to me for her angry attitude. That explains itself. The instructor: The instructor did a good job walking through the painting. However, there is almost no interactions with us. The experience could've been very different if the instructor is more friendly, fun and interactive. Fairness: We signed up for 23 people to participate in person. Due to the weather condition and other reasons, only 15 people showed up. So 8 set of tools/ materials were not consumed and the cost for 8 people is $296. There is no compensation for that, which we understand. However, they charged corkage fees and tip for the instructor as usual without any waiver. For a business that's fair and wants returned customers, they probably will offer to waive some of the fees especially we left all the leftover unopened wines, sodas and waters to them...

I was invited as my spouses plus one for a corporate event. When I first stepped foot into the establishment I was rudely greeted by an employee that was adamant in ensuring I followed their wine corking policy. However, I was simply bringing in a case of wine that was for the party, which I was asked to carry in from the parking lot. The employee stated, with some frustration, that she had already told someone else about the policy, but she didn't realize that I didn't know, and also don't even work for that company. In that case, how would I know what she had told whomever, whatever. Putting that aside, we began to paint. Everything was going fine until a fellow painter asked for some more paint. After having to wait several minutes, that same employee came over to resupply the needed paint. However, the employee decided to top my paint off too, which wouldn't really be a problem outside of the fact that I already had enough paint. When she was dispensing the paint she spilled it on me. I originally went to go have an enjoyable night, but got reprimanded and had paint spilled on me by their employee instead. I wouldn't be bothered about the paint on my clothes considering it is a painting class, however since it was by that same employee, that was the final straw for me. I was unable to enjoy my FIRST painting experience, to the point I had got up and left my painting unfinished. What a disappointment. This was also a buzz kill for the...

It was fun painting a Stellar View, but the teacher mismanaged the class time, so we were rushed through painting our trees at the end. At this point, the teacher claimed our paintings were complete; however, this was not the case. We still needed to be walked through completing the reflections in our lake water, so I raised my hand and asked about this. The teacher said that we wouldn't be finishing that part, as there was no time left. I have taken other Bottle & Bottega classes and appreciated leaving with a completed project.

For folks with fragrance sensitivities, like me, I want to mention that the studio has a residual "old Pine-Sol" smell, ugh. Wearing a KN95 mask helped me reduce exposure to this obnoxious smell. Also, we were fortunate and found seating near the instructor, allowing us to clearly see & hear her. Many people were left sitting at the end of a long rectangular table, far away from the teacher. I have no idea how they could effectively see or hear what she was doing. I guess you'll want to arrive early to get...