Pro Re Nata — Restaurant in Virginia

This review is a few months late, but it's still warranted. Miscommunication was at the heart of my issue, but the way that Pro Re Nata handled the problem with their customer service is concerning. My husband was returning from a 12-month-long deployment, and we were looking for a location central to Charlottesville and Staunton to have his friends come and welcome him home. The majority of these friends are first responders, as my husband is a State Trooper as well in the National Guard.

Essentially, Pro Re Nata gave out a food contract prior to us signing a contract for their establishment. Their event coordinator told me afterward that doing that was against their policy, and they usually don't do that. They also said to me that they typically don't send out contracts as close to the event date as I was inquiring about, which leads me to my issue with how they handled our request. If you don't send out contracts that close to the date that's being requested, and you also don't usually have customers sign catering contracts before your establishment's contract, why are you going against your policy? When they sent us our contract for the venue, we decided to just come early and try to find some tables together. Pro Re Nata said we couldn't do that because we already had paid for our catering...This is where the problems began.

Hops Kitchen, on the other hand, is quite amazing. The owner went above and beyond to help us out after finding out what was happening. Not exactly sure of the details, but the morning of the party, I received a call that Pro Re Nata was trying to cancel our catering order. Pro Re Nata and Hops Kitchen are two completely different companies. We had to go out of our way to pick up our food from Pike Valley Marketplace, where Hops Kitchen was catering for a wedding.

Pro Re Nata is a large and beautiful establishment, so maybe that's why they feel a small party of 20-30 individuals won't make or break a day's revenue. Regardless, we loved the catering that we picked up from Hops Kitchen. We took our business down to a smaller local brewery, where we could take in outside food. We loved the location, so we're pretty bummed that we will not...

I would typically give nothing but 5 stars but I just had the worst experience at PRN. My girlfriend and I decide to take our 3 year old daughter with us here tonight (who is currently potty training) , to see some friends.

We gather our drinks, gather our food, sit down, eat and enjoy the evening when my daughter complains of needing to use the restroom, no problem, we get up, go check the bathroom availability. Multiple people waiting in line for the bathroom. Okay, I understand, it’s a busy Saturday evening, so I remember there’s another bathroom on the other side of the building next to the stage. I pick up my daughter who has already had a small accident on her and myself. I walk past where you order food, to be greeted by a “bouncer” who shouts “Hey, where are you going? Do you have a ticket?” To which I reply, I did not realize there was an event currently going on as there was hardly anyone in the stage area. I let him know nicely that I needed to bring my potty training daughter to the other restroom because the other bathrooms are currently occupied and had been for about 4 minutes before we decided to try said bathroom.

After letting him know we are potty training and that she desperately needed to go, the “Bouncer” basically told me to go kick rocks, saying “you can use it for $35”. Seriously, who charges $35 for a cover fee anyway? I was genuinely appalled by that response and not sure how I managed to keep my cool. He said something else that was snarky and rude and I walked away.

We patiently waited for the other restrooms to open, of which a nice lady allowed us to go in front of her. Gathered up our things, poured out my beer, threw away the remainder of our food and left. This is a place we would typically frequent since it is so close to our home, but after tonight, we will happily take our business back to Nelson 151 or Charlottesville. Absolutely...

Just say "Nada" to Pro Re Nata!!!

I was about to order massive amounts of food and drinks, spending lots of my hard earned money for my exteded daddies and family, but changed my mind because of their inhospitable staff and "rules". My extended family and have come here for every Mother's day and many Father's days, including this one, for MANY years. We order lots of food and alcohol everytime. I was actually on the app about to order our food and celebrate our fathers with some beers and food all around, when our party was approached and told we needed to put our other drinks in the car. Not just adult water bottles but the children's hippy cups as as well. My husband was still sipping on his morning coffee (as we like to get here around brunch timing) and he also had to take his drink to the car. While I understand not having outside alcoholic beverages, it seems banning water and our children's drinks seems a bit extrememe when their prices are extreme too. There rules throughout the years just get more and more strict. We decided today, this is our last trip and I refuse to spend one more dime here. There also used to be more options anyway with food trucks and music. Even those are gone now making this experience the flipping last straw.

Good bye Pro Re Nata, you're a nada...