Meridian Club

This is a long overdue review on my very pleasant experience working with Maggie McDowell.
Back in early 2014 I located this venue for my sons HS graduation party at the Meridian Club and Maggie was the event coordinator. I can not stress enough how Maggie bent over backwards to make the party something special, that just brings back all great memories.
Maggie made sure everything was working and looking it’s best for our event. She was so helpful, and easy to work with. This was only a high school graduation party, but that didn’t stop her from making sure we were satisfied. I can only imagine how far she’d go for a bigger occasion … like a wedding. Thank you Maggie! Sorry it took so long to post, because you really deserve bigger recognition than this review!
P. S. The catered meal from Colette’s Catering was delicious too!

And today I was at a networking meeting here. The food was amazing. Even though it was breakfast it was phenomenal.
The room was perfect for what we needed it was easily accessible and have plenty of parking. I am a wedding officiant and have the opportunity to see many different venues. This then you would be perfect for a medium-​sized wedding that wants delicious food.
Collettes catering is a great company to work with and provides superior service and product.
I recommend them highly. There are other venue in muckenthaller mansion is wonderful as well.

This is an absolutely fantastic place to hold an event. The staff is super helpful and friendly, and will help you with anything you need related to your event. The space is quite nice, and the room has a very Venetian and warm feel to it.

Great facility! The event room is awesome! Very welcoming staff. The basketball court has a nice hardwood surface. In the weight room there is barbells that go up to a very high weight.

This place is pretty nice! The service is quick and prompt, and the floor layout is great as well. Nice lighting too!

We used the meridian club venue for our nonprofit fundraiser, on Oct 18. They offered us a non profit rate/​package, but delivered a «Full Price» product. The room and centerpieces were elegant and the room was warm and inviting. A perfect ambiance for our fundraiser. The food was great, NOT the classic rubber chicken, but a very moist and flavorful stuffed chicken breast. I received many complements from our guests about the food and venue. The staff was attentive, caring and served our donors well. They worked around our event timeline and we were able to deliver agreat program and «ask». We will use the Meridian Club or other venues with Collette ’ s Catering in the future. Thank you Maggie for all your help!

Oh behold what solemn jubilee! This place is amazing. Maggie is the best, she was very helpful and a blessing to be around. Many of my friends and I are looking forward to using this venue in the bright and shining future.

A huge thank you to Maggie and the staff! Loved our event held here last Sunday! Couldn’t have gone smoother due to the accommodations. Thank yOu!

Great location, great space, and such a great staff! An excellent venue!

First and foremost, DO NOT HAVE AN EVENT HERE.
Allow me to explain. I attended an event at the Le Meridian earlier this year, and to sum up everything, the venue was shabby, the food was worse than McDonald’s, and my iPhone got stolen. The best part of the venue was probably the decorations, which were mediocre — not terrible, but by no means, impressive.
In regards to the food, I honestly would’ve preferred a McDonald’s salad over the salad they served. The main course was a tad of pasta with a half-​fist size of chicken and a side of steamed vegetables, most likely from a Green Giant’s frozen vegetable bag. Overall, the meal’s serving sizes were so small that my hunger wasn’t appeased and the entire meal served as a snack. The dessert was decent but the serving size for a table of 8 was, not surprisingly, only enough to feed 2 or 3 and not easily dividable for the number of people at the table.
Now for the main point — our belongings were, on two accounts, attempted to be stolen or stolen — most likely by one of the staff members at the Le Meridian. Initially, my friend’s Marc Jacobs purse with her keys, wallet, and phone vanished from her seat, which she keenly kept her eye on the entire night. When she returned from the restroom, her purse was gone. She made a big scene, questioning all the staff members and all the guests at our event. After exploring the entire venue under every single chair and tablecloth, a staff member said she found it – it mysteriously appeared under a pile of jackets on the OPPOSITE side of the room. There was absolutely no reason it should’ve been there. Pretty fishy if you ask me.
But it doesn’t end there. My iPhone disappeared from my table, and I’m 100% sure it wasn’t any of the guests at the venue, whom consisted of my closest and best friends. After our plates were cleared and we walked around to take pictures, I noticed my iPhone was gone. I checked under every single table at the venue and under every single tablecloth, plate, purse, giftbag — you name it. I realized it was not lost, but deliberately taken by someone when my friend called my phone and it went straight to voicemail (my phone was ON, with a fully charged battery and all 5 bars of reception). I used a «Find My iPhone» app to track it, and it was not trackable, confirming that it was turned off by someone. I questioned every single staff member, waiter, busboy, and eventually the manager. The manager was very kind and understandable, and of course, insisted he was 100% sure none of his workers stole it. However, of all the workers, the security guard caught my attention because he displayed suspicious behavior and emotions. When I directly asked him if he had seen my phone, he avoided the question and tried to convince me that I had left my phone in the car and that never entered the venue. I responded that I had the phone in my hands at this very venue and even sent some text messages. He then said, «Oh… one of your friends at your table probably accidentally took it home.» I responded, «Every member of my table is still here.» Instead of trying to help me search, he was very defensive and tried to convince me that I never brought my phone or that someone else had accidentally taken it.
Later that night, I cleared the data on my iPhone. This data wipe doesn’t occur until the phone is turned on. Sure enough, that night I got an email saying my phone was turned on at 12:14AM. The manager never contacted me, so a few days later I called to check in with him. He said the phone was not found. I asked him when his workers clocked out of work the night of my event and he checked the computer and responded, «11:30PM, 11:40PM, 11:45PM, etc.» I told him that my phone was turned on by someone at 12:14AM, a very practical time for someone to clock out of work, lock up, and go home to turn on his newly-​stolen iPhone. The initially-​persistent manager, who believed his workers were trustworthy, then paused and told me this new information now makes him doubt the honesty of his workers.
I repeat: DO NOT HAVE AN EVENT HERE.

I was here last night for an event and quite disappointed with the place. The place was rented out by my party of around 100 friends. The room that the event was hosted in was mediocre. Everything else from the bathroom, located outside the event room, to the parking structure was very worn-​down and old. The bar area was a station with a drinks behind a small stand in the corner of the room.
Everyone felt rushed in eating the crappy food. The first course salad was disgusting – everything in it did not go together, felt like they just threw everything they could find together. The dressing was so gross I tried scraping it off with my fork. The main course was this cheap small portion of pasta with couple tiny pieces of chicken and cheese and the other half of the main course just contained steamed vegetables. The dessert was served on a large plate for the table to pick off of. It was 4 small cheesecakes, 4 tiny crème brulees in a shot glass looking thing, and some macaroons. Was the table of about 8 supposed to fight for these nasty pieces of dessert? It was not at all well thought out. Also, by the time the desserts came, the waiters had already cleared the tables… no plates, no utensils. How the heck did you guys expect us to eat the cheesecake?!
Most disappointing was the service. Not only were they unprofessional, they were not well trained. I bought a drink, drank half of it, got up for a bit, and the next thing I know when I come back is that it is gone. I was no the only one. The whole night a couple of us were like fighting to keep our plates and drinks. They kept coming over to take things away.
Also, my friends noticed their thing missing last night at the event. When they asked management about it, management got very defensive and said that they were 110% sure it was not any of his staff members. I felt it poor management on his part especially since he did not even offer some type of solution or TRY asking his servers of they even saw it. He did no such thing and said it wasn’t them. I can’t say for sure that it was one of the staff members, but the fact that we were all among close college friends, its hard to believe it could be any one else. My friend with the missing iPhone ended losing it. As soon as she noticed them missing she called it to find her phone off! The other friend with the clutch later found her clutch beneath a pile of clothes and found it shady especially since she had it on her chair were she sat. It was found nowhere near where she was.
Overall…shabby place. Not the venue to choose for a clean classy event.

I’ve already reviewed the services we used through Colette’s Catering for our wedding planning, décor, and meals. Having said that, I’m not reviewing the catering service and wedding planning, this review is about the actual banquet hall we used in coordination with Colette’s Catering. We used this location for our reception only, not the wedding.
The newly remodeled banquet hall was absolutely stunning w/​mahogany walls and very roomy, and the tables were set up very nicely for our reception of 150 guests. The one thing I did not like about this location other than the fact it can be a bit tricky to find is that the room was not well lit for people to dance, and the patio/​entrance was actually quite drab, could have been dressed up a bit more, it was as if guests had to briefly cross a dank alley to get to the amazingly stunning banquet hall.
There is a huge parking structure so our guests didn’t have to worry about parking in the street or curbs. Other places we had called at the time *started* their rates at $ 10,000 or more. We rented this place for less than $ 5,000 and that’s including the catering, food and cake, etc.
If you’re going to have a small wedding for less than 200 people and want a lot of space for dancing and socializing, this is a beautiful and secluded banquet hall with bay windows, a parquet dance floor, and roomy overall. It can be a bit cramped and dank if you’re trying to squeeze a lot of people in, but other than the dark interior, it’s worth it.

Here’s how this place measured up!
1. Location: Okay. Not my favorite — it’s a bit awkwardly located near a shopping center which makes the location a bit hard to locate. Also, since the location is hidden behind its parking structure, it’s not obvious that you need to make a quick turn into the club. I think this was probably the downside and one of the main reasons I didn’t like this place as a wedding venue.
2. Capacity: Can accommodate up to 200. So this would fall under our Option B (200 guests) + Option A (120 or less). There is abundant parking (tiered levels) which is nice and doesn’t cost anything to park. The reception room is nice but doesn’t have the high ceilings which I really love. The reception room has a nice window overlooking the front side which is a nice touch but probably not too great when the sun sets and backlighting happens. The outdoor wedding ceremony room is nice but needs some decorating (but still very nice). The indoor one I didn’t like because it was awkwardly shaped with walls protruding at unsuspecting areas.
3. Cost (packages): Starts at about $ 50/​head — which includes the grounds, full use of the place (1 wedding party for the day), in house catering, linens, tables, cake etc. Not a bad package, wedding manager seemed very flexible to change.
4. Ambiance: Once inside, you do feel secluded, but since I really wanted high ceilings… it doesn’t get my favorite vote. Finding your way into the reception room isn’t the most convenient either — so you’ll probably have your attendants/​ushers do some hand gesturing or have some signs up.
5. General Feel: Not bad but the awkward location and low ceilings make it a no go for me.