ELM Restaurant Group

Jul 2019

Our night began around 7:40pm when we waited in line outside for 20 minutes to check in to the event. I'm not sure what was taking so long, but perhaps it was the raffle ticket issue of filling out the tickets with our contact info and then having the staff collect the blank tickets and telling us to turn in our filled out tickets upstairs? I explained how I thought it was odd that they were keeping the blank tickets, but they assured me that was correct; and of course no one upstairs had any idea about said raffle, and said raffle never took place. Then since there was no food available (very concerning since we were walking in to the event at 8pm - 30 minutes after the posted start time) we proceeded to wait 15 minutes in the bar line for our included drinks. The band was ridiculously loud for the indoor space so we milled about outside to kill time; although with all the seating areas already taken, and absolutely no lawn games as were promised, we wandered back inside. We killed a few more minutes at the free sample tables, but again, since it was so loud we couldn't hear anything that they had to say about their products so we simply got back in line again for the second included drink. Another 15+ minutes for a second can of beer, and then it was time to get in the massive line that had now formed for food, as everyone is now very concerned about the very tiny amount of food being served for what looked like a group of 500+ guests. We stand 30+ minutes in the food line and literally received no food at all, because before the fireworks even started there simply was no more food available. Why in the world someone thought one folding table with a few trays of sliders being served one at a time for what looked like 500+ people is simply beyond my understanding. Also, hiring a total of 4 bartenders and having only 2 bar stations for the size of the crowd was a huge miss in basic event planning. Basically, we paid $176.38 for 4 cans of beer, a few free sample sips of wine and spirits, and a band that was excruciatingly loud - so roughly $40.00 per can of beer, $10.00 for the band (in terms of what I would consider a standard cover charge), and a $10.00 donation to Austin Pets Alive. In hindsight it would have been a much better experience simply standing outside on the street for free and for the same exact view of the fireworks.