Birchwood Canopy — Restaurant in Saint Petersburg

I started planning and communicating with a Birchwood Event Coordinator in September 2022 to plan for my birthday celebration held in December 2022. I wish I knew what I know now prior to booking with this venue. There were so many communication errors where I wished I would have just emailed ALL COMMUNICATIONS instead of picking up the phone and speaking with the Event Coordinator when I thought was getting clarification through a phone conversation. (As many emails can become confusing) since then, this has now turned into a "he says she say" conversation and their no emails to prove what was stated on the call a course. Prior to booking and having my party, I had never been to this location, only heard about it through a friend and social media.

I asked if I could bring my own DJ for the party and was told "we have many DJ's who rotates at the Birchwood, therefore no DJ would be necessary". I arrived, no DJ in sight. I asked the EC where's the DJ? The response I received was the DJ comes on at 9P. My party was from 6P-9P, therefore no DJ for my party. :-(.

Guest- I had 32 guest who RSVP, in which the EC stated that I would have to purchase another canopy due to the Fire Marshall requirements. I offered to pay for the extra guest out of pocket instead of paying for another canopy in which I was told I was not able to do that and that my guest would possibly have to wait in line downstairs due to the amount of guest allowed on the roof top. NO ONE was monitoring how many guests entered and exited the rooftop. We had armbands for the party which only identified that my guests were included in the party section. The orange armbands that were provided did not mean anything else according to the servers.

I went over my food order with the EC several times in which I was not provided with the Margurita Flatbread with everything else I ordered prior to my event. :-(

Although the beverage was included, many of my guest had to go to the bar just to purchase beer as the servers was not able to keep up with my party guest. Again, I had 40 guest and was only provided with 2 servers. The servers were overwhelmed with taking orders, going back and forth to the bar and just making sure everyone was being served.

To meet the Food & Beverage minimum requirement of $1950 I had to add on an extra hour of food, and I also requested for bottled Sparkling Champagne. I was told by the EC that the Champagne "Zone in Sparkling" would be available. If not, my second choice was Patron. Instead, I received Rose' which was NASTY! I never ordered Rose' as I do not drink this beverage at all!

Lastly, the servers stated several times, "Oh it's just Alli doing what she typically does and not communicating very well with the customer prior to their event". I was told that I am NOT the only customer who has left feeling this way after working with Alli. (Again, these are her co-workers making these statements). 30 minutes before my party ended, I was presented with a bill in the amount of $477. Nothing extra was ordered, we did NOT go over this number during our conversation and on the contract is clearly stated in RED that my total cost would be $2,437. Had I known that there was no guest control at the rooftop, I would not have needed the fourth canopy-waste of money.

My birthday was not so HAPPY, as I left very upset about all of the above-mentioned issues.

I really hope this review help others before booking with this venue....

The reason why it’s 4 stars instead of 5 is because of the communication/feeling mislead in the beginning. Beware, it says menus are seasonal and food items may change, but doesn’t say anything about pricing, so it’s a bit deceiving honestly. I printed the paperwork and re read the emails to ensure I wasn’t reading it wrong, the verbiage is just misleading. This was something that was an annoyance in the beginning and almost made me cancel the event, especially the response of whatever supervisor I spoke with, completely just disregarded me which was annoying. But I decided to just stick it out and I’m honestly glad I did! The night went perfectly, although I do think we got one of our food items never got delivered, but the servers were fantastic. The space was lovely with the cabanas, and I loved the personal touch they put in the drink menu’s adding out event name to it. I thought that was lovely. Overall really good experience, Allie helped with resolving the issue and curating a menu for me that was similar to the package we initially had and I was happy about that. I definitely would do this again, and now that I’m aware of menu food AND pricing changes (which it was $11+ per person difference- and with our headcount it made a big difference). But anyways good experience and AMAZINF service! My goodness the servers were all amazing! Eric was OUTSTANDING! (Along with all the ladies!!!) I was so grateful with how attentive each of them were but especially Eric, and shout out to him for putting dessert to the side for me, because I would have never tried the amazing cheesecake with all the running around I was doing...

My boyfriend and I recently visited the Canopy for the first time and it was phenomenal! We decided to sit at the bar which was nicely shaded. The bar fans allowed the perfect amount of breeze to keep us cool, but they weren’t aggressively powerful either! Our bartender/server, Christian, was very attentive and always made sure our drinks, including my water, stayed full at all times. Huge plus!! He was very knowledgeable with menu items, too, when we had questions on what we should order. As I’m 6 months pregnant, I asked about mocktails and he provided a mocktail menu containing 4 different drinks that all sounded delicious! I went with the strawberry social which was SO refreshing! My boyfriend ordered an espresso martini which was beautifully crafted, and he said tasted perfect. As for food, we ordered the fried pickles (lightly fried, crispy, and delicious), chipotle chicken tacos (the flavor in the chicken was insanely good, and I usually don’t like spice but I couldn’t resist these), and the barbacoa wontons (my boyfriend crushed these in seconds lol they were so full and flavorful. I wish I had taken a picture of the inside). Safe to say, we will definitely be back to try more mocktails, drinks, and menu items! Hopefully Christian will be working again, too, as he really made our experience one...