I’ve been here multiple times over the years and had mixed experiences. It seemed to be going downhill for a while and then bounced back, so for our wedding, my now husband and I decided to have our rehearsal dinner here. Why not? A little entertainment and food and drinks all in a fun easy environment, right?

I made the reservations for four grills OVER THREE MONTHS before the dinner. I called to confirm a month before (we now live in Phoenix, AZ) and then two days before the dinner we physically went to the restaurant in the afternoon when they weren’t busy to confirm and choose our four grills at the front of the restaurant. The manager confirmed the reservation, time, and tables but told us they had lost their liquor license so it was byob. They knew the event it was for, the number of guests, and that this was going to be a lot of food and drinking (translation: $$$$). It would have been nice to know they didn’t have a liquor license before confirming the reservation two days before...we got married at Linganore Winery, though, so we just decided to bring wine bought there during the rehearsal.

When we arrived after our rehearsal with our wine, they told us they had the liquor license back and that we couldn’t open our bottles, they also weren’t ready for us and had given away one of our tables. The excuse? “We tried to call to confirm about an hour ago...” They knew we were in the wedding rehearsal during that time. We confirmed the reservation multiple times...reason and logic would at least mean holding ALL the tables until the time promised and confirmed TWICE. I told them that we had also bought the wine based on the fact that we were told they had no liquor license and spent the liquor budget on the wine we had to cart in ourselves.

When we got to the restaurant, the lone table of strangers in our group of tables was just getting their soup. They could have even moved them to keep their end of the reservation. Instead, we had to wait 45 minutes for them to setup the remaining three tables and had to split up our group and had a group of strangers sitting in the middle of our rehearsal dinner. I’m sure that wasn’t the greatest experience for them, sitting in the middle of a carousing wedding party and new family members meeting for the first time (a mix of French and English speakers).

They ended up taking 10% off our bill for the inconvenience and did end up allowing us to open our wine (MD state and Frederick County law allow patrons to bring in their own bottles but also allow for a corking fee), hence the two star rating, and not being a bridezilla, it ended up being the running joke of the weekend for me, but it was not only unprofessional, but disappointing for our guests as well. It also forced us to push back our evening meet-up at our hotel since it took them an extra 45 minutes to set up the remaining tables and figure out where to put the fourth table of people.

If you just want to have dinner here, it’s probably fine, but I would never attempt to have a large party here based on their inability to keep a reservation and their willingness to not only dismiss their obligation, but not really make it right (they could have easily moved the table that had only been served soup.)