Piper Johnson Catering

Piper Johnson started out fantastic. We met with them to taste and pick out food, tables, linens, plates, cups, etc. for our wedding. The owners were very nice, the food was delicious and my husband (fiancé at the time) were very excited to work with them. After receiving the quote, I had to do some back and forth edits to get to the price we had budgeted to pay.
During this back and forth communication, via e-​mail, I had two sudden, un-​expected deaths in my family. My father and my uncle both passed away within a 48 hour period. I let Piper Johnson know what happened, and that I would have to travel out of state right away. She said «take care of your family and we will connect with you get back». At that time I hadn’t given them a deposit, but acknowledged that in my e-​mail and they told me «don’t worry about us, take care of your family».
I returned 2 ½ weeks later and was planning on reaching out to Piper Johnson to get the final quote and send the deposit check. The day I returned, I received an email from Piper Johnson stating that they were no longer available to do my May 30^th wedding. She stated «I know you are going through a lot and that I could have called you to request the deposit, but I didn’t want you to feel pressured to book with us, even though you stated you wanted to for sure work with us». I was shocked. Had they called me, I would have overnighted the deposit check. The last thing I wanted to do was start over with another caterer for the wedding. I hadn’t even had my dad’s funeral!
I never write negative reviews but I just feel like I had to say something. This caused me a lot of stress during a very difficult time. I totally get that I didn’t send the deposit in before I left, but I had so much communication back and forth with Piper Johnson that I didn’t realize the urgency of it. I wish they would have called me to ask for the check before canceling on us. It would have been the right thing to do.

Nicolas and Terri are amazing. My husband and I just got married in November and it wouldn’t have come together without the help of Terri. She and her husband are excellent at what they do and they went above and beyond to make sure our wedding decorations, vendors, and food came together perfectly. Terri also made several great suggestions on the wedding schedule which was super helpful.
Terri manages the business side of things while her husband oversees all of the cooking. Everyone at the wedding said the food was the best they’d ever had at a wedding. We chose to do the Red Snapper, Top Sirloin, and Mushroom Risotto. Sit down dinner. I wish I had more time to eat the food myself. It was fantastic.
Not only did Piper Johnson manage the setup of all of the tables, napkin rings, and individual seats, after the wedding was over, Terri and her team took down everything and made sure we received all of our personal items (champagne glasses, pictures, cake cutting knives etc.) back. They also made sure our cake table was set up and looked beautiful.
They are such a good team – so detail oriented and they work so hard the day of. The servers were excellent too. Food was right on time and we always had what we needed at the table.
I highly highly recommend using Piper Johnson Catering.

Wow. Just wow. Piper Johnson just catered our wedding and I must say, they delivered.
We had a year-​long engagement and from the get-​go knew our focus was going to be food. As we are locals in the valley, we’d heard fabulous things about PJC. We quickly booked our tasting and promptly had our socks knocked off. We knew we wanted a typical French Mediterranean menu along with a classic seafood Paella. Throughout our year-​engagement, all we could think about was how excited we were for our wedding food. Everyone told us «don’t worry, you won’t have time to eat at your wedding”– when we made our entrance, we looked at each other and told the waiter– we are not moving or talking to ANYBODY until we’ve eaten. Boy did we eat and boy was it DELICIOUS.
Our families and friends are huge foodies– half of my family is from the South of France and said the food was better than what they would find/​make in France. mission accomplished.
If you are looking for a caterer in the Napa Valley whose focus is on great quality food and service and sources locally to boot, please look no further than PJC, you will not be disappointed. Take the word of a happy bride.

Terri (the owner) was our contact from day 1, she was wonderful. I was a type A, extremely specific bride and Terri’s service was thorough, very responsive and professional throughout the process. You definitely have to ask the right questions but thats with any caterer. The extra charges and deposits other Unilocalers are talking about are standard I’m sure.
Pros
Quickly responded, even if it was to say she would revert back with an ETA of when she would respond.
Detail oriented. We revised the quote thoroughly several times and she got every change every time.
She made suggestions from her experience but knew not to push too hard on her opinions
Food was much better than the tasting, we got lots of compliments from foodies which I never expected.
Service was exceptional except for the dessert.
Cons
The rental company she used (Wine Country Parties) SUCKED. They delivered the wrong floor for the tent and the delivery folks had 8 zillion questions for us. Unacceptable. If you hire her, which you should, demand she use another company. The quality of the rentals however was awesome.

We considered Piper-​Johnson to cater our wedding, but were very unimpressed and went elsewhere.
PJC was one of a handful of caterers our venue (Hans Fahden Winery) said that they would work with, so we contacted them. After some discussions and emails, they came up with a proposal that looked good and competitive with the short-​list of caterers we elected to do tastings with.
The discussions were a little confusing — sometimes talking with a coordinator and sometimes with Terri, the owner. It turned out that the coordinator no longer worked there by the time we scheduled the tasting. (BTW, PJC was the only caterer who charged us to do a tasting.) I had some concerns about their communications and cooperation, but the reviews I’d read had raved about the food so we decided to include them.
The tasting was very disappointing. The food wasn’t bad, but was just… OK. Boring and uninspired. We’d gone with my future in-​laws and we unanimously agreed that PJC was the least interesting of the 4 caterers we went for tastings.
I probably wouldn’t have even bothered to write this review, but. When I wrote Terri an email thanking them for their proposal and the tasting, but we’d chosen another caterer. She responded by saying «Hope you have a great wedding too bad it won’t be as good had you chosen Piper Johnson. Chef Nick». I couldn’t believe that she had the gall, and bad taste, to write that. It made me that much happier that we’d given someone else our business.

I did not use Piper Johnson but this is a rating for my experience with them in the discussion process.
In the beginning they were very easy to get a hold of. The woman I was working with followed up with emails, calls etc. They were on my venue’s list of approved caterers so I figured they would be A-​OK.
Negative things about the experience:
Pricing: I found several other caterers who were lower than them and had more items on the menu, etc. For instance Elaine Bell and Alex’s Catering were more reasonably priced.
In my first conversation with their rep, I told her I had a very strict budget and my range for what I wanted to spend. I also told her I was interested in chivari chairs as a possibility to which she replied — «How are you on a tight budget if you want chivari chairs?» That response pretty much determined that I wasn’t going to work with them. I’m pretty sure that I should be the one to decide what I want to spend $ on and if the chairs didn’t fit in the budget then I wouldn’t have included them. Also, the fact that they only do hors d’oervres tastings and not the full meal was a no-​go. I’m not going to sign a contract/​pay a deposit for $ 10k+ worth of food without even tasting it!
They did follow up and ask what caterer I went with and why so that they could better tailor their services…

My wife and I are very pleased with Piper Johnson Catering. We would recommend them for another wedding event.
In terms of what to expect:
We did get the feeling of being nickel and dimed throughout the negotiation and pricing process as the wedding ceremony evolved, however i am sure that most people experience this with their caterer, its just that perhaps PJC could have handled it better
Upon completion of the tasting of our dinner, we were convinced; their strong suit may not be the relational aspect of putting the numbers together with the value that you get through the planning process, but once you taste their food, you get it. Its phenomenal, from the appetizers to the dessert. Everything was delicious and this translated into the wedding day as well. EVERY SINGLE PERSON i spoke with raved about the food; how perfect it tasted, how perfect it was cooked… i still have my good buddy dreaming about their asiago cheese puffs.
Their value overall was really quite good. Compared to most other caterers that were similarly recommended, PJC came in at least 20% below other quotes.
After everything was said and done, we are happy to recommend them. Truly they deserved 4.5 stars as the only thing that left this company less than perfect and stellar was the consultation process throughout the evolution of planning that was our wedding… i suppose its industry standards, but there are an enormous amount of service charges, damage rental fees, delivery fees, excess charges for things like ice, etc etc that could frustrate people, but after going through our wedding, which was the best day of our lives, we couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcome and the event, and the service provided by Piper Johnson.
We must recommend Jessica Greaves as she helped coordinate the event close to the day of, and was there all suited up and taking care of business while making sure that my bride and I were all good. Our wedding day service went on without a hitch; the service was awesome, there was no hiccups, no drama, just awesomeness.
All in all, their strong suit is their food, their value is quite good, and we would highly recommend them for your wedding or other special event.

Piper Johnson did an amazing job on our reception at Buena Vista. The food was excellent and service was impeccable. As a restaurant industry pro, I can be very hard to please. Our experiences with Piper Johnson from our first tasting and meeting with Terri to the Congratulations card we received after the wedding, were AWESOME. They were able to execute on every point and made our reception one for the ages. Thanks to all of them for their excellent work!

My fiancé and I just had a «magical» engagement event at the Merryvale Cask Room with Piper Johnson as our caterers.
As a summary for Piper Johnson, you should absolutely use them if you want amazing food, great event service, and competitive pricing. You should look no further if amazing food with competitive pricing is the top of your priority.
Pros:
Food: Outstanding, delicious, better than most fancy restaurants =)
Pricing: Very competitive pricing
Service: Fantastic Service at the Event, working with Jessica Greaves was awesome to make the night go silky smooth and perfect
Cons:
The professionalism and organization could have been improved by Terri while finalizing the contract. There was a mysterious small service charge that popped up during contract changes that were never really clearly explained.
On to the event.
The food absolutely surpassed all expecations! Chef Nick thank you for doing an amazing job on the food as it was excellent and delicious.
For appetizers we had — 5 stars!
Sausage en croute (sausage in flaky dough with whole grain mustard) — Delicious
Mushrooms with truffle oil in phyllo cups — Also delicious, but probably could have used a bit more of that delicious truffle oil
Asiago cheese puffs on toasted croûton bread — A mind blowing flavor explosion! This delicious appetizer made many eyes close that night.
Dinner — 5 stars!
Mixed green Salad with brie/​pear baked in phyllo dough — This was delicious but the phyllo dough concoction could have been cooked 5 more minutes to melt and jeld all of the ingredients better. (Still a delicious salad). This dish was still a solid 4 star!
Chicken Provencale with shallot au jus sauce — Delicious roasted chicken that was some of the most succulent, juicy chicken i’ve ever had. Delicious mashed potatoes and solid vegetables. I don’t think i can make such juicy chicken! Maybe it was brined? 5 stars!
Grilled New York Steak with red wine au jus sauce, carmelized baby pearl onions, and fried onions on top with mashed potatoes and veggies
(Delicious. Charred/​marked perfectly and finished off in the oven with a perfect medium rare (yes it was a proper medium rare!). Killer potatoes and wonderful sauce. It was fantastic. 5 stars!
Chocolate Lava Cake with fresh whipped cream and rasberry sauce — Made the eyes roll back. 5 stars!(maybe more? =))

This was my favorite wedding/​large event catered food I’ve had and it just happened to be our event! How lucky =)! It really was that good.
Event Service — 5 stars!
Terri passed the event on to Jessica and she did an awesome job. She met with us at merryvale to walk though the event beforehand and make sure everything went as planned. Jessica was attentive, easy to reach, thorough, managed the event well, and an absolute sweetheart to work with =). Everything went smoothly, food came out perfectly, staff was attentive and on point. They performed perfectly.
Piper Johnson you really should get 5 stars for giving us perfect food and service the night of the event. Considering the competitive pricing Terri provided, the event absolutely surpassed expectations.
The only reason why I knocked off one star was because of the unclear minor charge. Therefore i suggest when going through contract negotiations with Terri to make sure you are very thorough in understanding all charges and to make sure you double check everything when you make changes to your contract.
I consider it a no brainer for anyone looking for a caterer near Napa to choose Piper Johnson. Choose them and I am sure the catering portion of your event will turn out perfect!

I was very lucky to be invited to an event being held at Château Montelena winery that was catered by Piper Johnson catering. Everything was beautifully prepared, and Chef Nicolas and his team did an outstanding job of «circulating» the food. One of the standout appetizers was dates, stuffed with Gorgonzola cheese, walnuts (and some other good stuff); then wrapped in pancetta and fried to hot crispy melty goodness. Yummers! Equally good was their roast beef sandwiches (not a skimpy little portion either). There were a couple of dishes that got by me as I was yapping it up, but everything I did taste was good.
LindySez: Not sure what the winery paid, but whatever it was, it was for good food.

I worked with Terri on an event for Big Brothers Big Sisters of the North Bay, Napa Valley Comedy Night. Piper Johnson Catering was incredible to work with. Last minute we needed another caterer and Terri was more than happy to give us a very reduced price on the food they provided. We had bids from several caterers for a reduced non-​profit price and Piper Johnson by far gave us the best deal. In addition to being a pleasure to work with their food was incredible. It turned out to be one of the favorites of our guests and was a complete hit. I would absolutely suggest to anyone to work with Piper Johnson Catering. They are great with their communication, pleasant to be around, generate a fantastic product and help their community. I suggest Piper Johnson Catering to anyone for their great product and their involvement in their community. Enjoy the great food and service!

BLEH! I could write a novel filled with antecdotes about how terrible Piper Johnson, Terri, imparticular was for out May 2008 wedding at Hans Fahden. I will attempt to be brief, but even though it has been a year, I still get worked up about it.
Pros: Tasty food, reasonable prices
CONS: EVERYTHING ELSE!
Communication/​customer service: After booking, I was sending emails to Shannon with a question for 3 months without a single reply. Finally, I get an email from Terri saying that Shannon quit and that she could answer any questions (should have been my first red flag about poor communication). An email saying «Shannon is no longer with us, please send out questions here» would have been nice to get months before. I though the communication problems would be fixed, but they got worse. It would take weeks to get a reply email. Finally I decided to start calling. EVERY time I called it was like starting all over again. I don’t think Terri wrote any of my requests down and would ask «What about this?» And I would have to say, «The last time we talked we decided this» multiple times in one phone call.
She is unwilling to «cater» to her brides. I had asked that the gift table, sign in table and bar be put in certain places. This was one of the conversations we would discuss every time I called her as she wouldn’t «remember». She said «that’s not the way we usually do it» which leads me to believe she just did not want to do it that way. The day of guess how the tables were set up… the way they usually do it, not the way I requested.
Another point about bad communication/​customer service: We had also discussed many times that I would put a green ribbon at each guests seating card to let them know who was getting a vegetarian dish. Each time I called I would have to repeat myself. The day of, one of my vegetarian bride’s maids got a meat dish. She mentioned this to the server and the server replied «Well that’s what you get» I was so angry I flagged Terri down and told her what had happened. She snapped at me in front of all our guests «How are we supposed to know if someone is getting a vegetarian dish!?» I was livid, after all the times telling her about the green ribbons I spent hours glueing so that they would know who was getting a vegetarian dish!
Professionalism: As if all the previous stories weren’t a testament enough, the day of, my husband and I were taking some post-​ceremony shots with our fabulous photographer and had to cut through the cave so guests wouldn’t see us. We walk in the cave and Terri is screaming at her employees and does not even notice that we are standing right in front of her. At that point, I preyed that setup will be done in time. It was thanks to many of my guests/​family members jumping in to help save the day. No wonder her servers were snappy, they were being yelled at.
She should have been a used car salesperson: At our wedding we were serving a plate of half salmon, half lamb. Terry’s policy for kids meals is that if the kid is older than 5, they get a full adult sized plate of what is being served. Can you imagine a 5 year old eating an adult sized plate of lamb and salmon? She wouldn’t budge, she wouldn’t even do half the size. She wanted adult sized plate at adult sized price for all kids 5 and up. I knew that the kids coming to the wedding would not eat lamb or salmon, especially not that much so I ended up aksing that the kids get mac and cheese instead. Terri would not do it. I said that I would pay the regular adult price for a plate of mac and cheese and suddenly she was willing to accomodate. That’s right, a $ 45 plate of mac and cheese.
Leading up to the wedding, I had nightmares about the catering. It was the #1 stress factor of my planning, and for good reason. Everyting I worried about happened and it was all surrounding their bad service. I wish that we had spent a little extra and gone wiht a different catering service. You get what you pay for, and even though we were paying a lot, we were just another date on her calendar and were treated that way.

m d and Heather S. are dead-​on about Piper Johnson Catering.
My husband and I got married in September 2008 and had very similar experiences with Terri Piper Johnson (the owner of the catering company).
We initially had a great experience with them through the initial consult and tasting. However, it went off the rails once our first check (inital good faith deposit) was cashed. We were given the bait and switch about 3 times, talking to different coordinators at PJC each time I called. This made communication and management of the event difficult. Also, Terri is very very difficult to deal with in the sense that she does not hear you out regarding your concerns or questions — she was obstinate in several conversations I had with her. For those brides-​to-​be out there — when you are choosing a caterer, it’s not just about the quality of the food, the service in the run up to the event and onsite is critical. In our experience, Piper-​Johnson succeeded in delivering excellent food and service the day of, however the experience managing them up to that point was a nightmare.
Pros:
Affordable relative to competition — keep in mind you will need to add about $ 2000 to your initial estimate (I don’t think this is a problem specific to PJC, I think this is simply the nature of catering)
Delicious food — our guests raved about the food
Shannyn N. — she is the best staffer there and great to work with. On the ball and experienced — will listen to your issues and your perspective before recommending a change.
Cons:
No Single Point of Contact — this was a major issue because you don’t know if the person you talked to last put the changes down you requested.
Communication — getting calls and emails returned from Terri is difficult, unless you’re dealing with Shannyn, she is good about closing the loop.
Customer Service — generally lacking, even the minute the wedding was over, my mom had to go in there and get the left over wine and food — they weren’t actively working to make sure we got all of our stuff.

I am a professional event planner and hired this company to cater my wedding (they had a semi-​exclusive with the venue.) The owner of this company has the worst customer service I have ever worked with.
Before we hired them, they were accommodating, but after the first check was cashed it was an entirely different story. Terri, the owner, acted as if we were working for her.
They sent my proposal late, after rounds of errors, and then charged me a late fee because this delayed my final payment. When it was their fault that my payment was late! They gave the rental company the wrong address and a month-​old floorplan to work with. Luckily we were there when the rental company finally arrived and were able to update them with a new floorplan so they could set up correctly.
On the day of the wedding, they snapped at my friends who were helping set up and refused to change the bar set up the way we had originally agreed upon, which changed the flow of the cocktail hour.
Everyone said the food was good, but not all of the food even got to the groom and I and the pasta we were served was cold.
Her staff seemed to dislike her as well.
I had a horrible experience working with this company (as did my event-​planning friends who were helping me that day) and would never recommend them due to the WORST customer service I have ever experienced.

My husband and I were initially very impressed with this group. They came highly recommended through a friend of ours and were on the list of approved caterers for our wedding site. They seemed like a laid back yet professional group and very friendly. The tasting was fantastic. We didn’t bother to go anywhere else and decided to hire them in January for our wedding in July.
We got an initial estimate and gave a good-​faith deposit. As we moved closer to the date of the wedding, Piper-​Johnson put us in contact with someone different than had originally prepared our estimate. This person recommended some changes, which of course cost us some more. We felt that as the professionals, we should listen to them.
Time rolls on and yet another person becomes in charge of our event. More changes are recommended and suddenly all sorts of extra charges start piling up, many of them were errors and omissions on their end. It’s a couple of weeks before our wedding and suddenly our bill is a whopping $ 1600.00 in excess of the initial estimate!!! Much of this is stuff that they just screwed up on and some of it were recommendations that we accepted.
We were too far into it financially and too close to the wedding date to do anything. We expressed our disappointment at their inability to give a reasonably close estimate from the get-​go and complained about all the unexpected additional costs. For instance, delivery charges went up 250% and they were now telling us that we needed several more umbrellas than we had talked about in January – fuel prices didn’t go up that much and they are familiar enough with the wedding location to know where the sun is going to shine.
In the end, the event went off pretty well. The food was A+. The service was quick and transparent. We feel resentful of the HUGE cost increase in the end, and they were the only black spot on what was otherwise a fantastic day in our lives. We feel that Piper Johnson was either inept or dishonest in their estimate and is perhaps used to dealing with folks who have pretty deep pockets, despite the fact that we told them that our budget was pretty tight. We requested that they meet us partway on the mistakes on their end and they gave us a free umbrella – um, thanks? I wish they would have been more upfront and accurate about the costs – it would have given me the chance to go elsewhere.

We were married in April, 2008. Piper Johnson is run by Terri, and her husband is the chef. The tasting was outstanding. They were both very friendly, and the food was unbelievable. We chose the portobello mushroom tower as well as the filet mignon. Both received rave reviews from our guests. We also picked crème brûlée (fantastic) as an alternative to cake. The food served at the wedding was exactly as superb as we tasted it.
Our pre-​wedding communication was mostly with Terri. She was polite and very nice, but the money part was a little less professional than I’d have liked. The invoice «evolved» as the wedding date approached, and each one added costs that should have been included in the original. After the wedding, she tried to charge us an extra $ 100 due to some bad math.
We also hired Terri as our wedding day coordinator — big mistake. She tried hard but was utterly incompetent on the big day and spent most of her time futzing with little things, completely forgetting about the schedule (cake cutting almost didn’t happen).
Despite those troubles, I highly recommend Piper Johnson for any wedding. The catering price was competitive, and the food and service were top notch. Just examine the invoice and don’t use them as a day-​of coordinator.

We had a wonderful tasting here with Terri and her husband. They are warm and hospitable. And, their experience speaks for itself. Terri came highly recommended from the venue we were looking at for a wedding. They gave us every confidence that our day would be pulled together and delivered the way we agreed it would without a hitch.
Each dish we tasted was beautifully plated, and delicious. The appetizers were plentiful and we were pleased with the variety of items we could taste: duck wontons, shrimp quesadillas, prawns, chicken, etc. The entrees we tasted were perfectly prepared: tender lamb chops seasoned just right and a vegetarian entrée that not only looked fancy but tasted like something special – not just something that had been thrown together as an afterthought for the vegetarians on the list. The seasoning on the veggie dish could have been slightly less intense for me but my fiancé loved it.

We got married in September 2007 and it was a fairly rushed timeframe. (No it wasn’t shotgun!) I did lots of research online and reached out to a few companies for catering. Piper Johnson was on of the first ones that I found online. Their proposal came in a little below those of their competitors. We went for a tasting and it was SO GOOD! We opted for one main course (chicken) and a vegetarian option (Risotto). They helped us plan every little detail of the catering down to the table setting etc. Before the wedding, I had great communication with Nicole via email. And she didn’t even make me feel like a cheap ass when I was questioning the price of the table clothes. Come the wedding day, the staff was very quick and professional in the set up, dinner and break down — granted I was a little wrapped up in being the bride and all ;) We had some guest that couldn’t eat with the rest of us (Ramadan) and the caterers kept them a warm meal which was promptly served at SunDown. I would highly suggest them for your wedding or event. If you need DJ/​Sound — check out TRUE MUSIC MEDIA.