Great Food; Overpriced and Sub-par Service

Starting with the positive, the food was excellent. My guests and I were quite pleased with our dinners. As for everything else, I felt booking/conducting my meeting was frustrating and redundant. Once I received my final bill I felt gouged and taken advantage of. A few of the issues I encountered: -Dealing with Multiple Event Coordinators: while both were pleasant, there were several details missed in communication between each party. The Event Coordinator omitted several details including banquet menu prices, appetizer selections, etc. that I had to request again from her. The Catering Manager was excellent, but was set up to fail by the Event Coordinator leaving out certain details. -Inexperienced Banquet Servers: The servers seemed like they had never served a medical presentation dinner before. The concept of having interrupted time to listen to the presenter while the food was prepared was lost on them, and they struggled with presenting the wine menu and allowing me to select the wine the night of the event. Instead of handing me a wine menu, they asked what kind of red wine my guests would like and then made the selection themselves. -Exorbitant Post-Event Charges: In most other event venues around Oregon and Washington, if the food and beverage minimum is met, the room charge is waived. Also, A/V equipment rental often is $50-$100 TOTAL. In this case, not only did I greatly exceed the F&B minimums, I was also charged a total of almost $500 on top of the purchased food. The Catering Manager explained that since the room was set up by a 3rd party (for $300 dollars) and the A/V equipment was handled by a separate 3rd party (for $170 dollars) these fees are non-negotiable and unable to be waived. However, the banquet servers were given 15% gratuity on these NON-FOOD AND BEVERAGE charges, instead on just the food and beverage charges. I can understand tipping them on the work that they did, but NOT on the work that "other 3rd parties" did. All in all, a highly disappointing experience. I would advise any PHARMACEUTICAL or MEDICAL representative to find another venue for your programs; this one is NOT worth the headache! Under this type of structure I can guarantee I won't be back!