Calihan Catering

We booked our wedding venue at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in 2019 with an anticipated wedding date in 2020. In 2020 we had to delay our wedding until 2021. During the wait, we reached out to each of our vendors to finalize a new date and make price adjustments. John not only guaranteed that nothing would change with our original contract, but also sent us a new contract with our updated date.

Fast forward to three months before our wedding when we were working with John to pay our bill according to the payment schedule in the new contract. At this time John reached out to us and gave us a new amount due that was 30% higher than the amount in our contract. When we brought this issue up to John he firmly stated that things changed, and the signed contract doesn't matter.

He then threatened to cancel on us if we didn't accept his new terms which would have left us without a venue 3 months before our wedding. We tried our best to communicate with him and Nash to find a middle ground, however he continued to avoid our calls. Finally, around 1 month before our wedding we called the Museum Director and explained the situation so that we could have a call set up with John in order to understand what was going on. John again stated that we have the option to cancel (no refund), but that his new price wouldn't change since he had to make a profit.

We ended up having to cut our guest list to afford the new venue price, because we had no other options 1 month before our wedding. Be careful choosing the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. The venue is beautiful, but the only caterer allowed is Calihan Catering, and they are given the flexibility to do whatever they want. You will notice this trend with other recent reviews, also I recommend looking up their history in small claims court. It is usually not a good sign if your vendor has been sued multiple times.

We had a marvelous experience working with Cate Kaczala and Emily Preston from Calihan Catering. Our daughter and her now husband selected Gallery 1028 for the location of their wedding. The wedding was Sunday morning in August 2019. From the venue to the catering we have not one complaint, only compliments. Cate and Emily were our contacts and they could not have been nicer to work with.

They also worked smoothly with our vendors; Farrah Singh Kauffman from Simply Azure Events, Jori Foreman from Fab Flora, David Florczak from Posh Productions, Sweet Mandy Cakes, Do Rite Donuts, Big Sadie our band, and Elizabeth Wells our photographer. Cate and Emily are certainly skilled in catering and guiding clients through the process until the party ends.

They answered our calls, our emails and every question - even when we asked multiple times! The food was amazing, tasty and fresh. The service was excellent. The room temperature perfect for a hot August morning. The venue was lovely and parking was great for our friends who drove. Cate, Emily and staff were very conscientious to be sure our guests with food issues were handled properly - all very much appreciated.

I also felt that Calihan Catering was willing to work with every request, including offering a "pre-meal" of donuts, coffee, mimosas and fruit before the wedding service. Calihan prices are reasonable and we felt that they cared about us as the consumer. I can not thank Calihan enough for their wonderful staff. We highly recommend Calihan Catering, especially Cate and Emily.

My husband and I cannot thank Cate and Calihan Catering enough! They were absolutely amazing from start to finish! Everyone was so professional and our guests could not stop talking about how great the food was. We even had people telling us 'this was the best food we have ever had!' We had a few tricky things to coordinate like our champagne wall and they made everything happen without hesitation or question.

They catered to what we were envisioning, made the entire process seamless and made sure our families were taken care of the whole time. They truly went above and beyond. My husband and I could not have asked for a better catering company! You need to hire this team for any catering event, I promise they will not disappoint!

Calihan Catering is the vendor you get when you book Gallery 1028 for an event, which we did, but no matter where you hold your event, book these guys! Let me tell you - they are total professionals. Our evening wedding ran like a well-oiled machine. The food was amazing and our guests gushed over it all night. It is not your typical so-so, luke warm wedding food.

Everything was amazing, cooked to perfection and served nice and hot! The service itself was even better! The wait staff was so attentive and professional. I so appreciated a plate of appetizers and two drinks waiting for us in the bridal suite after the ceremony for us to enjoy quickly during cocktail hour before greeting guests. The gentleman who served my husband and I was so sweet and made sure that as soon as he served us a course, he came to find us to make sure we sat down and ate!

Our glasses were never empty and I'm so glad we had time to enjoy our delicious meal. Before the wedding, we worked mainly with John Calihan, and he was so great to work with. He answered every question we had (and there were a lot) and was always quick to respond. He helped craft our menu, made great suggestions and was overall super helpful. We had a few folks with specific drink requests, and they were able to help us out with no problems. Our entire experience with Calihan was better than we could have hoped for, and we highly recommend them!

We found Calihan Catering through Gallery 1028 which we chose as our wedding venue. Calihan catering was truly extraordinary. The food is absolutely delicious, and the staff is exceptional. Zach Stevens was our account executive and was wonderful to work with. Zach was extremely responsive to emails and phone calls and was very accommodating. When we went in for our food tasting we were blown away with how delicious all the food was.

There was truly not one thing at our tasting that we did not like. Zach was great helping us narrow down a menu for our wedding and was even able to mix and match a few of the meals to create the perfect dinner menu for our guest. When we expressed to Zach that we wanted to have a signature drink he didn't hesitate to offer some suggestions. He even provided a few recommended signature drinks for us to try at our tasting.

When it came to food allergies Calihan had no problem accommodating guest with allergies. The staff did a fantastic job serving all guest at the same time and making sure all guest was satisfied. We were blown away by the exceptional service Calihan provided. From the minute cocktail hour started Calihan did an amazing job serving our guest appetizers and cocktails while flipping the ceremony space into a beautiful reception area.

We received so many compliments from our guest on how delicious the food was and the excellent service Calihan provided. Over all experience was truly exceptional. Gallery 1028 and Calihan Catering did an outstanding job to make sure we had the wedding of our dreams.

I called to get an estimate and asked if I could add Tequila to our package. A simple "Yes, we can add a specialty drink with tequila" would suffice. This person went on about "This is Chicago we don't do shots. " all snotty about it and that they have been doing catering for years and tequila at wedding always end up being a bad wedding. I didn't ask any of that and they way it was said was very rude and he kept trying to talk over me.

I am not doing business with them anytime soon after this incident his name is apparently Nash Callahan and was the worst service. If this is how you will treat your paying customers before the wedding I can't even imagine how it will be when the wedding will take place. Amazing place just sad that the catering service was the worst.

We had our wedding 8/5/17 and used Calihan for catering. Jessie Pare, our rep was outstanding every step of the journey. Deciding on your guest's food can be overwhelming and Jessie made our experience easy, affordable and most importantly created a final menu that our guests raved about! The appetizer selections were some of the best we've ever tasted and the main dish we were able to customize based on both of our specific tastes: I highly recommend Calihan and Jessie for any Chicago couple looking for a fun and laid back approach to catering!

My husband and I had our wedding at Gallery 1028 on 3/4/2017. To say that we had the most amazing wedding ever is an understatement, and a majority of the reason is because of the delicious food from Calihan Catering along with their incredibly superior staff. My husband and I have attended and been in a LOT of weddings prior to ours, with our fair. share of bad wedding food.

Right from the beginning, we knew we wanted to prioritize food and drink and sought out the best of the best. However, we quickly found out that quality catering in Chicago comes at a high cost. Unless you work with Calihan Catering, that is. When we booked our venue we really got a 2-for-1 deal, as Calihan Catering is.

Wow. I cannot say enough about Todd and Jessie (and the whole crew) from Calihan! Though our wedding was at Cafe Brauer in Chicago, we live in Houston, so tasting appointments and other meetings were hard to schedule. Todd was completely accommodating every time, and our tasting was unbelievable! Todd and chef were able to accommodate every request. we had: special late night snacks based on our St Louis roots, and the from-scratch pistachio cake was completely out of this world - so many people took the leftovers!

One special request we had was for charcuterie boards on the tables and they were unbelievably delicious - all guests had nothing but good things to say about all of it. We truly couldn't be happier with the food and service of this team; it made the day unforgettable! Thank you Todd, Jessie and the Calihan team!

Amazing company, great people. High end service! Looking forward to working with you guys!

While we ultimately chose another caterer for our Sept 2016 same-sex wedding reception, we found the proposal process with Linda S. to be a very positive one. She was friendly, helpful, and responsive. Initially, we found the pricing to be higher than we could afford but ultimately ended up paying about the same with someone else. So, the pricing is competitive for the high quality offered. She will be transparent about what can and can't happen with your budget and is a great professional to work with. I would recommend them!

Thank you Calihan's for helping make my daughter's wedding wonderful. Everything was so perfect and so flawless! The service was beyond excellent! We loved working with Todd! He was enthusiastic, creative and unflappable. The food was amazing! From the mini chicken pot pies, polenta with pulled pork and butternut squash pizzas, to the heirloom tomato caprese with brittle, then the short ribs with grits and finally the pies and cobblers.

Everything was absolutely delicious. There were actual fights over the brittle in the caprese! I almost forgot the late night waffle station that made the entire room smell like cinnamon! The food was casual yet elegant which was exactly what I hoped for.

We cannot say enough good things about Calihan Catering! Not only was the food delicious, but the staff is incredible! Todd is truly amazing! He makes you feel very special and catered our every need. He was truly excited and happy to be working with us. Todd was always available to reply to emails very promptly, which I sent many times! The tasting was so much fun, they really roll out the red carpet for you!

During our wedding, the staff was incredible and looked very professional. Many of our guests said how wonderful the food was. Todd was also able to give great recommendations. I am going to miss working with everyone at Gallery 1028 and Calihan. Thank you all for making our wedding truly amazing and memorable! ~Carrie and Matt Nesta

It was a month ago that we had our wedding at Gallery 1028, which means we were fortunate enough to have Calihan as our caterer. We were impressed from the get go. Working with Todd to design our wedding was a real pleasure. The day of our tasting was one of our favorite days of the whole planning process. We tasted some of the most delicious. dishes and enjoyed some wine while planning the reception details.

We told Todd some of our favorite foods and drinks, and then the chefs worked their magic to create a truly unique menu. We loved every single item that was served. We are still hearing from our guests how amazing the food and service was. Many guests even said it was the Best Wedding.

Calihan Catering was one of our favorite wedding vendors. We had our wedding at Gallery 1028 and worked with Todd, who had impeccable communication throughout the 18 months of planning. Todd answered any questions I had within 24 hours and was willing to make any changes we came up with, even a week before. The menu tasting was the highlight of our wedding planning.

Which brings me to the most important part of this review: the food. The food was incredible and hands down the best wedding food we have ever had. If you are are any sort of food-lover/foodie and you want to serve delicious food that is not actual wedding food, Calihan is your kind of catering. They were willing to modify anything on their menu for the tasting and let us make small changing after we had tasted everything. Basically, we were able to customize an amazing menu and our guests cleared their plates (and we are still getting texts about the food).

They made dietary accommodations for all of our guests' needs- lactose intolerance, gluten-free, vegetarian and more. I kept an eye out at the beginning of the meal and saw that the servers were bringing all the modified dishes for the food allergies at the same time as everyone else's food and I didn't have to worry about anything.

The service was outstanding and we even had our very own server who made sure my husband and I had everything we needed. He refilled my glass right after I drank and would get me a fresh drink every time I accidentally set mine down for pictures and then forgot where it was. That man was amazing. Our guests also raved about the bar. We had some very happy, sloshed guests on the dance floor all night long! Overall, working with Todd was an absolute pleasure and I can't recommend Calihan enough.

Unfortunately I have mixed feelings about our wedding with Calihan Catering at Gallery 1028. They own the space so they were the sole caterer we could work with. Before we signed any contracts we wanted to ensure we could get the menu we wanted from Calihan. We were put in contact with Todd who was unresponsive from day one. Our first scheduled phone call he was unavailable at the time of the call and called me back an hour later, extremely annoying when I had to leave work to take this call.

He had originally sent us a plated dinner menu so I requested a buffet list as that would be our preference. He sent us a list of stations that looked nothing like a wedding menu. After further discussing this he apologized stating that those station menus were typically used for cocktail hour corporate events. He clearly knew we were planning a WEDDING.

Our second scheduled phone call (my fiance and I both had to leave work) was once again missed by Todd as he called us back 40 minutes later. We insisted on making the next phone call an in person meeting at the Calihan office as we had already been blown off twice. A few weeks before the wedding we were looking to pay the final deposit so we requested a finalized proposal from Todd.

We didn't pick up the original guest count as anyone planning a wedding knows, so we had less guests than our initial proposal. This final proposal included EXTRA wait staff and another job title that had never previously been listed on any other proposal. When discussing this with Todd he admitted he had accidentally left off this needed staff member and meant to just put the title at no cost but claimed the "system" accidentally added the cost of $300. Todd almost "accidentally" charged us an additional $300 but we were fortunate enough to be checking every detail.

It is unfortunate to say that Todd's lack of attention to detail caused us undue stress during our planning process. The only reason I am even giving this high of a rating is due to the service staff the day of the event and the quality of the food. The food exceeded our expectations so our compliments to the chefs! We continue to get compliments from our guests on how delicious the food was.

The event staff from Gallery and Calihan were top notch and they made sure the event was perfect. The wedding was wonderful but I don't know that I would choose to work with Calihan again.

Have had Calihan Catering do a couple of different types of parties for me; always top notch, upscale, and great staff interface.

We got married at Gallery 1028 in August 2014 and couldn't have been happier about our choice from start to finish. We directly worked with Todd, and he went above and beyond to make sure the whole experience was perfect for us. From the food tasting.to the day of the wedding.and all of my millions of questions in between, Todd was available. and always eager to make the process fun and run smoothly.

We used the space for our ceremony, cocktail hour and reception. The flow of the entire day ran seamlessly. They worked with us to make sure our visions for our wedding day were exactly how we wanted them. Todd even drew up detailed views of the room with our number of chairs, where the band would go, etc. to put my mind at ease. We were using an area of the room that hadn't really been used for a ceremony before, but Todd assured me that it would all be perfect.

And it absolutely was! The huge loft space was beautiful. The food was delicious. The wait staff was beyond amazing. Our guests are still raving about it! I would recommend them to everyone.

There's not really much more I can say about Calihan and the team than FABULOUS! Their food is delicious, their staff is professional and easy to work with and their event staff is very attentive. We went with Calihan to cater our wedding as they are the vendor/owner of Gallery 1028. Even before we chose to go with Gallery 1028 we were told we HAD to use Calihan for our wedding because they were the best - and that was true. There's nothing more disappointing than a bad meal at a wedding or a lack of passed hors d'oeuvres to leave you starving at your table and Calihan provides exactly the opposite!

The quality of food and taste are outstanding and working with Lee and Todd on the front end and the waitstaff (Garrison especially) and bartenders the night of were just so pleasant and stress free. I cannot thank everyone enough for a perfect wedding experience!

Attending a reception for my aunt and uncle. Calihan were the caterer's they were beyond the expectation of my relatives the smoked salmon platter was devoured.!

I worked with Nitin Vyas who painted a beautiful picture of our wedding. I loved how he discussed his keen attention to detail that would make a wedding planner envious. Tuxedoed servers, lighting, linens, decedent foods. Gosh! Do I love to eat. And you can only imagine how important eating is for our wedding. Nitin asked questions about the kinds of restaurants we like so that he could assemble a menu and a quote.

I was ready to sign up right then and there on the phone. If Nitin could somehow make an amalgam of my favorite restaurants and make it into my personal restaurant zeitgeist. Well heck. I might as well marry him because he'd be my personal lord and savior! So you can only imagine my initial excitement followed by anxious anticipation for the menu and quote.

And then the gradual realization that there was no menu. There was no quote. There was no Calihan Catering for our wedding. I heard nothing from him in any way - no email no phone call. Crickets. I guess he just wasn't that into me. But it was really a let down for more than just me. We needed a caterer to come through for us with a quote for us to consider one particular venue. Price-point was key. So Nitin's lack of follow up meant not only that it was a bust for Calihan Catering but also for the particular locale that recommended them.

I wish I could have the pleasure of reviewing Calihan's Catering service, but I have sadly not even gotten past getting a sample menu of what they offer! And that's not from lack of trying either. I've called and talked to Nitin from Calihan and was told I'd get a proposal drafted within the next couple of days. And then. heard nothing.

I called a week later asking for Nitin's email to send a friendly reminder to send me more information. he replied he'd get back to me later that evening. It's been over a month and I still haven't received anything after multiple tries of getting a hold of them. Based on my limited experience with Calihan, I've experienced very poor customer service.

I realize that my wedding probably isn't going to be a big money maker in their pockets, but ignoring a potential client is never a good business practice. Maybe a staff member dropped the ball on this one, but I would suggest thinking twice before working with Calihan who says they'll give you want you want but fails to follow through in a timely matter.

Outstanding service and food quality! They made planning my recent wedding go very smoothly and we are extremely glad that we went with Calihan. Received numerous comments from our guests saying that it was the best wedding food they've ever had. and that's what we were going for! You really can't go wrong with Calihan. They're professional, great chefs, and just excellent overall. In particular, I have to say that our consultant, Pam Swisher, was one of the key people in making sure our wedding ran smooth as clockwork. She was amazing!