Lucas Confectionery — Restaurant in New York

My husband and I got married at Lucas. We had the time of our lives and can’t believe how amazing the day went. From first tour and booking to packing everything up and leaving, Maeve was absolutely phenomenal to work with. She was smart, easy to work with, responsive, attentive, understanding, and just a calm and collected figure the day of the wedding. We rented all of Lucas and the Garden for our wedding. We did brunch so there was a lot of logistics I was quite worried about since the timeline in the morning was so tight to do an 11am ceremony.

Everything went off without a hitch, we had to delay the start time by 5 additional minutes and that was no problem for them! The venue was decorated beautifully. The front lounge is so sunny in the morning and the space felt so warm and welcoming when people first came in. It was raining on our wedding (good luck for us!) so it was so nice having people walk into this beautiful cozy space. The garden is picture perfect. It felt like a dream. It is not a big space so the space would not work for a larger wedding. The garden is where both our ceremony and our reception took place. The staff flipped the space during cocktail hour (by the bar and front area). When they flipped the space, they made sure to include the specials I requested like putting the centerpieces, program, and name plates out. Maeve even realized I forgot table numbers and quickly went in the back and made some for my 5 tables so guests knew where they were going.

We had a few extras that were around the venue in lieu of dancing and all the little nooks and crannies helped fill the space. For events, they have the buffet on the back wall which was perfect and out of the way. The bar was always packed, and everyone said the bartenders were friendly and fast—just what you want at a wedding. I literally had no complaints from any of my guests and everyone raved about the spot. Most of the guests had never been there and couldn’t believe how different and unique Lucas was from traditional event spaces. The venue was able to play my playlist over their Bluetooth speakers, Maeve helped control the music for us walking down the aisle and the recessional. The venue was so prepared, it was obvious that they had done several events and are true event professionals. They even let us bring everything the night before and put our flowers in cold storage for us overnight to keep them fresh. We had a few large and bulky items and I had lots of bins. I was worried they weren’t going to have the room to store stuff overnight but Maeve took everything to the back and told me that it wouldn’t be a problem which was a huge relief. I created my own flower centerpieces and was really worried that they would die from Friday to Saturday if they weren’t put somewhere safe. My last rave will be about how unlike traditional wedding venues, Lucas doesn’t nickel and dime you. There were no stupid BS fees like napkin overuse fee, coffee creamer fee, set up fee, Bluetooth speaker fee, etc. The contract stated everything and that is what we were charged which is amazing because most venue I feel look at weddings like a cash grab and Lucas didn’t do that.

Only small con is that one of my guests said the roof in the garden was leaking in one small spot so I would recommend that someone looks at the roof ASAP before we start getting summer...

We had been to the Ruck and Browns earlier in the day. We spent a day in Troy eating. Both were great. And in the context of this review, we received excellent service elsewhere where food has to actually be cooked. Read on….

I was looking forward to Lucas Confectionary.

The food was good but my goodness, what horrible service. I’m trying to give the benefit of the doubt but it was terrible customer service.

When we first arrived, there was a large table for 8-12 people at the front with 2 people sitting there on laptops. They didn’t have/order food or drink and struck us as friends of the establishment. Fine.

But when 8 new patrons arrive to spend $ and support your business, the business/employees should have had the presence of mind to think ‘perhaps we should let the large party of 8 have the large table and the 2 friends/loiterers move to the plentiful tables of 2 scattered about?’ But nope, that don’t happen. Terrible situational awareness.

We ordered a round of drinks then a pair each of about 5 different things on the menu. Perhaps the server should have suggested, “if order x,y and it should feed 3-4” or something along those lines. But with no guidance we got 2 each of 5 items.

All charcuterie, cheese, bread.

IT TOOK AN HOUR to be served. That is ridiculous. I’ve thrown dinner parties and charcuterie is about as fast and easy as it gets. In fact, for direct reference, while we were seated here, a few of us went to their nearby pizza place and ordered three pies, came back with them and finished the pies before the Lucas’ food came out. You have to cook a pizza. All you gotta do with charcuterie is cut it.

This was July 6 and the place was EMPTY, possibly because of the holiday. So it made even less sense as why it took an hour to be served. We were about to cancel and leave when the food came out. Only then were we told that the reason it was so slow as there was 1 head chef and we put in a double order.

This is where it goes from bad to worse because without guidance from the person taking our order, how were we supposed to know it was a double order? Then to have the moxie to blame the wait on our double order? Seriously? On an empty night?

They apologized and took 1/2 the food items off the bill but only after essentially blaming us for putting in a double order.

This place needs a lot to learn about service. We were easily the biggest tab of the night, a whopping 8 people and I’m unsure why they couldn’t keep up.

But after just thinking how they allowed a pair of friends to sit at the biggest table in the place and not have the good sense to address that, this seems to be the kind of place that caters to their friends and townies. Your dollars will be more greatly appreciated in better places in Troy.

One last comment: is there some health code violation if your server is wearing a short shirt and his full hairy belly is showing and within inches of my plate? Keep the fuzzy navel where it belongs: in shot glasses. That is just low class and disgusting to have to see as your food is...

My boyfriend and I met friends here early in the evening on Saturday. This place was huge and we spent the first few minutes exploring the space and trying to determine the best place for us to sit. Each section had a different vibe from ones that leaned more towards a chic coffee shop, to another that felt more like a restaurant, to still another that felt more like a trendy comfortable bar. We ended up upstairs at in the comfortable bar section which was adjacent to a room with a pool table. We sat down a few minutes before 5:00 and noticed they were just beginning to set things up in the upstairs area. We shared that we were in no hurry, so we just took some time to catch up with our friends before ordering. The space we chose had a full bar with an exceptional wine menu, and a wide variety of bottled and canned beers along with at least four beers on tap. Between our group of four, we ended up ordering wine, beer and gin drinks. (The mixed drink was exceptional! It was a slight variation on "Bees Knees") It was early, so we just ordered light bites which ended up consisting of a delicious salad and two pizzas, a margarita pie, and another that was a white pizza with mushrooms and rosemary on it. I had never had rosemary on pizza...but I loved it. We will definitely be going back! The only reason I did not give a five for service is that our bartender was alone, and although it was not at all busy, she didn't check in with us at all unless we called her over to make a request. This could certainly be because she was preparing for the Saturday night crowd, but still, we felt a little ignored and felt as if maybe she was annoyed we sat there so early. We did ask if it was okay to be there, and she encouraged us to stay, but in hindsight, I'm wondering if perhaps we threw off her normal preparations. Just...