Masterson's Food and Drink — Local services in Louisville

Overall, I think when things go well with Masterson's they are great. When they do not go well, they are awful at service recovery. Take your chances that things will go well.

Pros: -they coordinated our food, cake, table settings and linens, and everything for the bar, which is why we chose them- we had an out-of-town wedding and wanted one-stop shopping -they were great about accommodating our request for a biscuit bar with custom signage -food (BBQ) was good- we got a lot of compliments

Cons: (all customer service related) -though Sueanna told me they would be at our venue at 2:30 on the day of the wedding (and confirmed that in her final quote), they did not show up until 3:30. We called at 3 and were told it was our mistake- that they were never going to be there at 2:30. This left a photographer with nothing to photograph and a florist with no place to put flowers -our wedding was at Buffalo Trace Bourbon Distillery. We paid extra to serve bourbons that were made there. Our guests (not her staff) informed us we were "out of bourbon" an hour into our reception. My husband was berated by bar staff when he asked them about it. No attempt was made to get bourbon for the rest of the wedding. -Sueanna did not call us to apologize for not having bourbon at our wedding AT A BOURBON DISTILLERY, because "you're being unfair, I would never call you on your honeymoon". She claims instead she asked her on-site lead to tell my husband to call her. We didn't get the message. -Sueanna only had excuses on the phone when we finally got in touch- the bourbon had apparently been left on the loading dock at the warehouse. "My staff didn't tell me in time," "it was a stupid mistake," "there was traffic between here and there," and my favorite, "we couldn't air-lift bourbon to your wedding" my husband was the initial one to call Sueanna, she decided that a $500 reimbursement was fair, since she estimated that that's how much our guest drank in the time after the bourbon ran out. A few weeks later, we still had not gotten the refund. When I called, I was told "well, you really should have called us sooner." After my conversation with Sueanna, she ended up refunding us $700.

Every wedding has things that go wrong. We had others that did, but this is the ONE that still upsets me now, 2 months later, all because of the way it...

My husband and I got married in June at the Gheens Foundation Lodge. After meeting with several caterers, we opted to go with Masterson’s because a friend recommended them. From the start, Masterson’s seemed great. We were able to meet with them to discuss our vision for food at the wedding and they drew us up some different estimates based on things we had talked about. We ended up changing several things around, and they were fairly good at communicating back and forth with me in order to make those changes and draw up new estimates. Our tasting went absolutely amazing and we were sure everything was going to go off without a hitch on the big day! With that being said, we were not overly impressed with the service they actually provided on our wedding day. I will say that they set up the food absolutely beautifully and I was very impressed with that aspect of their service — it was just how I imagined. They even set up a display for our donuts that were purchased through a separate vendor, which was extremely helpful! The only issues that we really had came with the amount and the quality of the food they served at my wedding, which at the end of the day was the most important part to me, personally. Several of the dishes that should have been served warm were rather cold and they ran out of several items as well. I’m not really sure how this ended up happening seeing as they had an accurate guest count, and it was a bit disappointing considering how much money we were paying. I can understand that there should be some room for error with any vendor, after all, we’re all human! Still, I felt like there were too many instances of issues with the food to simply excuse and I wish that my guests could have had a better dining experience at my wedding. Overall, I would say that the service Masterson’s provided was pretty average, especially when it came to the actual day. Ultimately, we felt like we paid big money for...

We used Masterson's for our wedding.

The good: The food was exceptional. We received a lot of compliments about how tasty it was, and the presentation (especially of the dessert bar) was great. We had Masterson's also take care of renting chairs/tents/etc, and that was extremely nice. When a problem arose on the day before, Masterson's and my coordinator took care of it immediately, which I appreciated so much. Everyone I dealt with in the office was nice and honest and committed to providing good service. Service during dinner was good, too (i.e. when I needed a refill, it was taken care of easily/quickly).

The bad: While the on-site "Captain" was excellent, other staff members were less than pleasant. On a couple of different occasions while guests were present, one staff member yelled obscenities across the yard. This same staff member also spent a LOT of time in our photo booth, which we all found to be a little disrespectful/unprofessional. It was not just the one member who spent time in the photo booth either. Lastly, the staff members wrapped up the rest of the food for themselves without even asking us (the bride/groom) if we wanted any wrapped up. I didn't get to really eat, and so it would have been nice to have a little something for later that night after the wedding. But unfortunately, I was never asked about this, and there was no food left over because it had all been wrapped up to go.

Overall: I think the price was fair, the food was excellent, but the service and professionalism of the on-site staff members could have...