Parcel 32 — Attraction in Charleston

I don't know if I had a bad night or something but WOW - what a difference between what BOH is pumping out and how FOH works. The food was phenomenal. The service was awful. Like, some of the worst I have ever received in almost 10 years of living and dining in Charleston. We were sat 10 minutes after our reservation...no big deal...but we also had to go up to the hostess station to remind them we were there - it was clear they forgot. Not a huge deal, but then sat for another 10 minutes before being greeted, and then beverages took a really long time to receive. Our server came up almost immediately taking our appetizer order claiming the cauliflower would be right out - we didn't order that, you were just here? What is going on?

Our appetizers arrived and were amazing - get the roasted oysters and the charcuterie if they have it. Glass of wine sat empty for a while and another server heard me mention looking for another glass of wine and said he'd find our server - that's how long it had been since we saw our server. Our server finally arrived after my wine arrived and said, okay great, you have your wine.

Dinner arrives and yes, I can see why some people may say the portions are small but if you have a snack, I thought it was plenty of food. My husband's duck was cooked beautifully and that puree it comes with, which I assumed was sweet potato and was not, was incredible. I had the cavatelli special and again, looked small to the eye, but was more than enough. At one point, I'm sitting with my second, almost completely full glass of wine and someone approaches with a little carafe and says, "Your wine?" - no? And my server had already acknowledged that I received my second glass of wine, again, what is going on here?

Here's where it gets really bad. We sit with empty plates and empty drinks for almost 15 minutes. We finally find our server and ask for our check as we were hoping to stop some place else before heading home. We wait another 10 minutes. The check arrives and that phantom cauliflower that we never ordered was on there as was the third glass of wine I never ordered. So, someone got some stuff for free, clearly. Again, wait for our server and finally a busser comes to take our check because it was so blatant that we had been sitting there for a ridiculous amount of time. She goes to take the check and we're like, NO WAY! She goes to get it corrected (again, server is MIA). Server finally comes back and hands me the corrected check - at this point we had been waiting forever and future plans are now not happening which really sucked. I go to put the card down and the server goes over to an empty table and starts puttering around - like, dude, come on. Help me out a little. I just want to get out of here. He goes to walk by me again without taking the check and I have to literally say, "Hey! We can pay now!".

Disappears, again, and at this point, it's just comical. Finally, what I assume is the manager (bald guy) comes back with the bill and quietly says, "thank you." No, I am sorry for the inconvenience, nothing.

Anyway, while the food is awesome, the service is a joke, and there are plenty of other places...

We were so lucky to have our intimate wedding reception at Parcel 32 on 6/3/2022 (we had 43 guests for cocktail hour at the large bar, a plated dinner in the seating area, and dancing upstairs with the other bar and porch). When searching for our venue, we wanted a place that captured the charm of Charleston but also wouldn't cost us a fortune. After looking at many locations, we were introduced and given a tour by Rachel and the rest is history. Rachel, the venue coordinator, is just amazing at her job. The most responsive, helpful, thorough, and all-around wonderful person! She made the decision so easy, as did the venue itself which is gorgeous. They handle so much in house (bar, food, cake, tables, chairs, plates/glasses/silverware, and even helped with linen rentals as well). It makes the day effortless! The food is beyond amazing (both the tasting and the day of- and the extra food they sent us home with), the drinks were phenomenal (including custom bride and groom cocktails), and everything in between ran smoothly. Everyone that came in from out of town loved the location and venue (and food!). Not to mention we got the best photos inside and out. The layout of the venue works perfectly for a cocktail hour, dinner, and reception. I wish we could do it all again! Rachel also let us run with any ideas we had (champagne wall seating chart, hanging a lit last name sign over the swinging couch on the porch) and was genuinely excited to make it happen. She let us drop off some stuff the day before and pick it up the next day which made everything easy. We also added on the American Theatre Marquee for photos and it was awesome to see our names on that. I cannot recommend this location enough for a smaller wedding or any event. Parcel 32 holds such a special place in our...

I cannot say enough good things about my experience with Parcel 32 for my wedding. Rachel, Olivia and team at Parcel from the moment we contacted them through the duration of the wedding were some of the most professional, communicative and efficient vendors I've ever worked with. And I came from the event industry! The entire process was seamless and you could tell immediately that there is a reason they are booked up with events almost every night of the week. The planning process was flawless and they worked really hard to meet our requests along with offering fabulous suggestions to elevate the day. They worked within our budget and even steered us in directions to help save money. The team offered some of the best vendor options to make our day special with offering a special list of vendors who they have worked with and had great experiences with. Also, having a turn key venue where you don't have to work with a lot of outside vendors to make the space perfect was a huge plus, especially for day of and logistics. Day of wedding their staff was friendly, extremely helpful and very hardworking. I got many compliments from my guests on how great the staff was. Which now brings us to the food. The food throughout the entire wedding was AMAZING! Feedback across the board was that it was some of the best if not THE BEST wedding food any of my guests had ever had. The filet was cooked perfectly, which was saying something when more than half of our guests came from Texas. The scallops with the corn risotto was perfection, the raviolis had such a nice flavor and the apps, desserts and late night bites were a huge hit! If you are looking for a small intimate venue with the perfect Charleston vibes I would not think twice about...