City Winery Reviews

We had our wedding at City Winery in October 2023 and it was incredible!! The ceremony and cocktail hour outside was beautiful - we loved that the patio felt private in the middle of the city, but also close to so many restaurants and places we love. The food was excellent and the staff & service were great. The reception in the concert venue was so much fun! It is the perfect balance for dinner and then transitioning into a dance party, which was very important to us. We worked with Bernadette who was wonderful and a big part in making the day run smoothly. She helped us make some last minute changes in appetizers & table arrangements, and made sure there were heaters when we learned the weather was going to be a little chilly. All in all, we were very happy we picked City Winery to celebrate our wedding and made so many memories!

City Winery was the perfect venue for our wedding! And Emily Fitzgerald was amazing to work with! We got married in July 2021, but we had our heart set on City Winery after seeing a wedding setup when we were on winery tour back in 2019. Emily and CW made everything perfect. We could not have been happier with the event and service the CW team provided. All the details, the setup, the FOOD. OMG the food! We have gotten so many compliments on the food. And the urban winery aesthetic was exactly what we were going for. The staff went above and beyond, especially D.J. who made sure my wife and I never had an empty glass and put our night over the top! They were also very gracious with the covid situation. Our original date was in September 2020, and they were very accommodating as we had to “replan” our wedding. They made all our guests feel very comfortable attending an event amidst the pandemic, even as we were able to have a somewhat normal wedding as Chicago had reduced restrictions in July. We highly recommend and cannot say enough good things about City Winery!

What is better than a gorgeous wedding venue in west loop with indoor/outdoor space? Well let me tell you - the gorgeous space was just the start of how wonderful this venue truly was. First off, I was a COVID bride and my original venue cancelled on me out of the blue - so with 6 months until my wedding my hopes were very low. I contacted City Winery and it was like the stars aligned and the couple getting married on my date had just decided to postpone their wedding. We went to see the space (during a snow storm), Nathan was sooo helpful showing us the space answered all of our questions and sent us home with a bottle of wine. From the moment we walked in the doors I knew it was perfect ( a million time better than our original venue). Getting the contract and signing that was so easy and they answered all of our questions. Couples - City Winery does everything for you food, venue, table clothes, tables etc. I can't tell you how rare this us! We worked with Emily who literally made my day perfect and made planning so easy even in the middle of a pandemic where rules were changing constantly, she coordinated with all my vendors the day off and literally handled everything - if there were issues I would have no idea because I was never bothered once and everything went so smoothly. The day was perfect and she organized a special moment for just me and my groom. People still rave about the food, wine and venue. The hardest part of wedding planned was deciding what to serve because we LOVED everything at the tasting - I mean everything. Also - they included Cava (sparkling wine) in the package. Everything was perfect - I love Emily and City Winery - everyone should get married here. We added on late night pizza and charcuterie boards to our happy hour - and the pricing was very reasonable. Oh the staff the day of was wonderful and had boxes for people to take pizza and cake to go - the pizza was incredible and Jessica (who helped us that night, handed me a box when I was walking out incase I hadn't eaten any - soooo nice). I mean they made everything so wonderful - I am probably forgetting 1000 things they did that put a smile on my face and made planning so easy! Seriously contact them you will be so happy you did!

My wife and I really stumbled on an unknown gem (at the time), City Winery and immediately decided that this was the place that we wanted to get married. At the time, we had no idea what to expect and mainly, it was because City Winery had just opened less than a year ago and they had only done a wedding or two prior to us signing the contract. Well, Todd Carr was absolutely amazing - he did everything and more! There wasn't a single aspect of the wedding that Todd wasn't aware of, didn't want to help or go out of his way to do so. If we wanted something, Todd found a way to make it happen and no, it wasn't at an additional costs every time.

The Venue - PERFECT in every sense of the word. The setup was everything and more that we imagined. Todd shared our vision and made sure it happened the way we wanted.

RE the food - how many times do people remember the food at a wedding, let alone rave about it?! NEVER! We served filets, tilapia and risotto.

The drink package - Todd did everything we asked; special beer requests, extra tequila, the brides favorite drink as the bridal cocktail and wine tastings (4 types).

The extras - Todd made sure that there was beer, wine and champagne for the bridal party before the ceremony and immediately after the ceremony for pictures.

The Staff - Amazing! Every member of the City Winery team went above and beyond and was eager to help anyone that had a question or needed something.

As you can tell, we are so unbelievably thrilled with everything that City Winery did for us! What an amazing team and venue! If you want this venue and the date is open, book it immediately because they are booking so fast!

City Winery really made our small event special and working with Emily was fantastic-she's an amazing person and really went above and beyond to help us plan everything. The venue, staff, and food were amazing and Kevin and I could not have asked for a better venue to have our official ceremony and reception. We plan on coming back for years to come to celebrate anniversaries and have special date nights. We really loved everything about this venue-must see for big and small events!!

Our daughter found our about this place while reading an article about the best places to meet singles in Chicago at https://www.flirt.com/(don't know what she was doing there) Anyway she made a suggestion and we laughed at first but then decided to give it a try. After some sort of research, we learned that it actually can host such event as wedding and we were intrigued to say at least. Long story short - only last month we married at this place and those memories will stay with us for the rest of our lives. Everything was great: food, drinks, stuff, extra - everything was a top notch. I guess we should thank our daughter for this beautiful day!

I had my wedding on 4/22/2023 with 165 people, and I, unfortunately, have to report that I can only rate City Winery West Loop as a 2 star and cannot recommend to other couples. I typically do not write reviews like this, but in good conscience I need to inform other couples (so at least you can try to ensure this doesn't happen to you).

Long story short, the beauty of the Concert Venue and the delicious food were up to expectations. However, the event execution was not. While my wedding planner (3rd party) was able to help mitigate the issues we had with the venue during the night, it felt as if we were the first large wedding ever held at the site. During the reception, when myself and my father spoke with the event staff about the issues that were happening, we were met with denial and dismissive/condescending responses. After the fact, when I spoke with the GM and Event Director, while they apologized, it felt cold and they barely compensated me for the services we did not receive and their wrongdoings. (For example, they weren't even going to compensate me for #2 below, and when they agreed to the amount was minimal).

The event coordinator left our reception knowing the entrees were late (see #1 below), and then there was nobody from the venue administrative staff at the reception. As mentioned, after-the-fact, they did refund us for 10% of our total bill, but to be honest, when I'm spending $45K on a venue which includes the space, dinner, wine, alcohol and all of the service that goes with it...I would expect more than that (note $8K of this $45K is an "administrative fee" which we had no administrative employees there that night after 8pm when the event was going south).

High level issues:

1. The entrees were served an hour late. (and our comments during the night were met with excuses and blaming myself for the way the dinner was organized). When guests asked for extra bread, they were denied.
2. No wine service during dinner (we picked out specific wines for this service)
3. The ambiance of the room when I walked in to do my first dance felt as if we were at a brunch wedding (note the reception started at 7:15PM). All of the lights in the concert venue were on for the first 45 minutes of the reception. (I had to find the staff to get the lights turned down).
4. There were other miscellaneous items that were missed from our contract/discussions -- no heat lamps over our late-night snack (which we paid an additional $5/person for service here, and not refunded for), the bourbon ran out quickly, etc.

Just disappointed overall, which is really a shame. Hoping this was just an “off” night for the venue, and other customers are treated with more respect and dignity.