Off The Grid

BEWARE: You write a negative review, expect legal threats and harassment.
Over a year ago I wrote a review on Google cautioning others of my experience and lack of professionalism/​responsiveness and also of a distasteful comment that was made by Bruce, the owner, during our venue tour regarding security needed for certain ethnic groups and not for others. I just received an email yesterday from this man stating the following:
«Please take down your review of my facility Off the Grid/​myself. You have basically called me a sleezeball and a racist both of which give me a legal case against you which I will pursue…
I will give you a few days before turning over to my lawyer.
Btw — I didn’t want to rent my space to you because you came across as to demanding & high maintenance for our facility. We have had close to a 1000 receptions and for you to warn people not to rent our space and personally attack me is despicable and shows your character.
Bruce»
Not only is this man distasteful, unprofessional, unresponsive, and non-​customer centric to his potential clients, he threatens and harasses those who write honest reviews about their experiences with him.
All beware — stay very far away.

I called to get information on the availability and rate information and this is the exact conversation (unfortunately I can’t include the condescending tone used):
Me: «Hi — I’m calling to get information on your venues. Who might I speak with?»
Off The Grid: «That would be me.»
Me: «Ok, great! We’re looking to host a company Christmas party on December 5^th. Are you able to confirm if that date is available.»
Off the Grid: «Nope! I’m sitting on the beach building sand castles and I don’t exactly have my computer in front of me.»
Me: «Ok, well is there anyone else I could speak with?»
Off the Grid: «No! You can wait a week until I’m back at work.»
Me: «Unfortunately, I don’t think our expectations are aligned…»
And he hung up on me.
I think that review speaks for itself. First impressions matter… and so does customer service.

Bruce is a vapid pile of sniveling snake excrement who will treat you like royalty until he has your money, then good luck ever reaching him.
Good luck getting a caterer without food poisoning
Good luck getting a clean restroom
Fuck this place
Fuck this place
Fuck this place
Fuck this place
Fuck this place
Fuck this place
Fuck this place
Fuck this place
Fuck this place
Fuck this place
Fuck this place
Fuck this place
Fuck this place

We got married in April 2013. Everything was going great. I had paid for everything upfront, catering for 120 people, red carpet, lighting, unlimited photo booth use & catering you name it I paid for it. When the wedding was over, I politely contacted the owner and discussed with him the things that were not done to our satisfaction. I also spoke with Ledell about the specific items the night of that were not completed, he asked me to talk with Bruce.
Well when I contacted Bruce, I expressed my concerns as there were items I paid for that I never received, or were not ever turned on or set up. The catering was not in complete as I paid for 120 people only 80 people were able to make it. When the wedding party came down after pictures all the food was gone except a few slices of cheese, some fruit and this terrible cold pasta dish. I asked for a partial refund of the catering I was denied, when asked the reason bruce have 2 reasons 1. «I saw the receipt and the caterer purchased the food for two weddings and everything looks legit». 2. «I have a minimum set with my caterer, you catering was less than that amount and I am not going to take a loss on this!». It was like a $ 400 difference between the cost for 80 vs 120, for the stuff that we ordered. So my husband and I tried to be reasonable and settle for half of the calculated amount, try to recoupe some of our loss.
We also were supposed to get a check from Bruce for the red carpet, which was an actual huge square piece of random brick red carpet, not an aisle runner (but on the sheets they have it listed as an aisle runner $ 75 plus tax and gratuity on it. Also paid for the $ 500 lighting package. The only lights that were on were the ones that are on when you go look at the place. The check was supposed to be for $ 240 which included the carpet, 2 gobos, and blue lights. Still to this day I have not received that check.
As far as the photo booth rental, it took them 6 months to get my pictures to me. When I contacted Bruce l about everything, he never responded via email, text or called me back.
One of the groomsmen had one shoe stolen from the locker that they provide, when asked about it they quickly responded with «nope everything thing was taken». Still to this day I can’t understand why someone would want one shoe.
I do not recommend this place at all the building was perfect but thats about it.

BEWARE!
I was so excited to use this venue once I finally got a response back. Management (Bruce) was extremely rude to my fiancé’ and eventually stopped responding. So I began emailing him as a «new» client and didn’t have issues. I thought everything was great after that so I arranged to go see Off the Grid even though he kept trying to shove the Lofty Spaces location on me. I was told to first meet him at Lofty Spaces and then I could see the other space, so I agreed. When I showed up, the person I met was not Bruce, nor did he know why he was showing me the space. I was told I would be meeting Bruce… Anyway, when I alerted him that my heart was set on Off the Grid and that I was merely agreeing to see Lofty Spaces first, he informed me that I couldn’t see Off the Grid because it was undergoing some renovations. He seemed shocked I hadn’t been informed of that. And not one time over email did that ever get mentioned! So unprofessional! I was furious and went with my gut. After reading so many horror stories, I booked at The Filter Building instead and it’s been smooth sailing.

We attended a wedding reception at Off the Grid last weekend at 6:30pm for one of close friends. All in All, we had a great time and the venue was beautiful especially since we were there celebrating a beautiful couple we love with fun people.
Negatives:
~~~too hot the first hour – till the sun went down (not a good summer venue unless you start your event after the sun goes down).
~~~catering: Use someone else
~~~didn’t keep up the drink station
~~~fajita“s – delicious but ran out
~~~hor de vours– didn’t serve what was paid for and no one got any unless sitting at the first few tables.
Details:
~The venue was beautiful and very unique BUT It is NOT a good summer venue, they can’t get it cool in there until after the sun goes down. There is a metal door in the back of the room next to the photo booth that was sooooo hot, it felt like a oven burner. The heat from that door radiated like fire throughout the downstairs.
~The catering had lot’s of problems — fajita’s were good but ran out of food and poor excuse for hor de vours and not enough drinks.
~The hor de vours (quesadilla’s) they served came out with 5 to a plate and no one got any unless they were sitting in the first couple of tables. Most people didn’t even see any. Our friend (the groom) had told us there would be empanada’s and quesadilla’s served while we were waiting for the wedding party to get there but there were NO empanada’s (I am so sorry if they paid for hor de vours, cause that was a horrible excuse for hor de vours)
~They ran out of fajita’s. There were about 225 guests at the reception and I was behind the mother of the bride, she actually waited till most had eaten, but when she got up there, the girl had just piled all the chicken on a plate for a man (he didn’t want a fajita, just meat) in front of her and then told another helper that she needed more chicken, that girl went to the kitchen and came back to say, no more meat. The mother of the bride just took some rice and a little queso with a flour tortilla and made the best of it.
~They could not keep up with the drink demand. Their was only 1 drink station downstairs (everyone upstairs had to come down every time they wanted something to drink :(HORRIBLE) The drinks were always empty. It was hot so everyone wanted something to drink but there was never enough. It seemed that we always had to ask them to fill it up.
You would think that when you pay for them to cater, they would keep the water, tea and lemonade filled for the guests, prepare enough food and provide the hor de vours that they paid for.
Now for the positives:
~It truly is a beautifully unique venue. Love the ambiance. (having 2 floors with 200 guests-​the top floor kinda makes you feel disconnected.)
~WHOEVER did the flowers and decorations was AMAZING!!! Probably the most BEAUTIFUL flowers and table settings I have ever seen. The personal touches like the vintage bike and bibles/​books, teacups, gift table made it soooo awesome. I remember my friend saying it was a girl that the mother of the bride works with and she does it on the side (I need to get her name for my wedding next year :) TRULY, it was Unbelievably AMAZING!
~the DJ was OUTSTANDING! (again-​I think it was a friend of the mother of the bride) .The music mixer where the DJ sits, suspended above everyone was really cool.
~I got to eat and the fajita’s were delicious.
~I also got an hor de vour since I was at one of the first few tables, they were also good but I sure would have loved to have tasted the empanada’s.
~The photo booth was fun-​it is part of the venue.
My recommendations would be to anyone wanting to book this venue:
1) DO NOT book it in the summer — If you do, BOOK IT LATE, nothing earlier than 8:30pm.
2) Use someone else to cater. Eventhough the food was delicious, they ran out, they didn’t keep the water, tea and lemonade filled and they didn’t serve the hor de vours that our friends paid for.

We had a wedding reception here in November 2011 and this place was horrible, especially the Off the Grid catering service! BEWARE! We had 300 guests and only 150 plates of food!!! The food that was served was cold and 150 of the guests (who flew in for this wedding) did not even receive dinner! The catering service did not tell any of the hosts about their mistake and tried to play it off as if they did nothing wrong! Needless to say the reception was a disaster and most of the guests left early because they were hungry. In the end, we told the caterers and owners of off the grid what had happened and they called us liars and did not refund any money or even make an effort to help! This place is horrible. DO NOT TRUST THEM WITH ANYTHING. I STRONGLY URGE YOU TO USE A DIFFERENT VENUE. This place is aweful… also they do not even have A/​C!