Emanuel Luxury Venue Reviews
Reviews
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4.0 out of 5 rating
4.0 out of 5 rating
4 Reviews
80% recommend it
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Leila Sent on 03/23/2018Everything about the wedding was wonderful and it starts and finished with the great place and great food. Morris is a fantastic person to work with. He is always positive, and completely professional. The venue is STUNNING and a great deal for the location. We had over 140 people travel to Miami from all over (15 states and 5 countries), and it was such a joy to treat them to a beautiful place with delicious food. I was very picky about the food, but Morris and his team truly delivered. You will be so happy you picked ELV! I can't recommend it enough!
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Marc Sent on 02/20/2020
Emanuel Luxury Venue prepared food with nuts despite knowing about the bride's severe nut allergy and despite agreeing not to in the catering contract
Emanuel Luxury Venue put my wife in danger at our wedding reception because they didn't follow our clear contract or our repeated directions to them not to serve nuts due to my wife's life-threatening allergy. We had to leave our wedding for an extended period of time. Now they refuse to own up to their mistake.
Here's the story:
On September 15, 2018, I had the greatest privilege of my life: marrying my wonderful wife. We got married at Temple Emanu-El on Miami Beach and had our reception at the affiliated Emanuel Luxury Venue (ELV) next door. A major reason why we chose this venue is because ELV promised us that it would accommodate my wife’s life threatening, severe allergy to many kinds of nuts and peanuts. The contract I entered into with ELV in January 2018 had a section written in bold, upper case letters, stating “THE BRIDE HAS A SEVERE, LIFE-THREATENING PEANUT AND TREE NUT ALLERGY. YRD CATERING EMANUEL LUXURY VENUE SHALL NOT USE ANY PEANUTS, NUTS, OR PEANUT OIL IN ANY FOODS AND BEVERAGES SERVED.” Over the course of 2018, we reiterated this requirement to ELV on numerous occasions, including before and after our tasting the month before the wedding, when we chose the final menu. ELV kept affirming that nothing would be a problem.
ELV completely ignored our contract (as well as the choices we made at our tasting at ELV’s sister venue, Lavan Event Venue in Hollywood). They served many food items covered in and prepared with nuts at our wedding. My wife began to react to the allergens, and we rushed her out of the reception. My wife took medication to prevent a worse reaction from occurring. Thankfully, we did not have to use her EpiPen, because if we had, she would have needed to go to the emergency room. She and I then spent an extended time away from our wedding while the food was cleared, the room was cleaned, and the guests washed their hands and mouth, to prevent my wife having another reaction upon our eventual return. While we were away, many guests left to go home. Even though guests came from all over the country — and in some cases the world — to attend, there were numerous guests whom my wife and I never saw or spoke to at our wedding. We didn’t get to say hello or thank you to many guests, nor did we take photographs at the guest tables. We didn’t get to see or take photographs with many guests, including a family member from abroad who passed away a few months later. And, of course, what should have been remembered forever as a wholly joyous occasion has a cloud over it. As you can imagine, this was a very upsetting episode.
While the wedding can’t be done over, I was optimistic that this dispute could be resolved financially without the need for a lawsuit. This is a wedding venue, after all — part of an industry that sells itself at substantial markups on making couples’ dreams come true. Surely - I thought - they would want to make things right. I shouldn’t have been so naive. ELV wasn’t willing to provide anywhere near even what we paid for catering. So, my wife and I brought suit a few months ago, in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
Now that we are in litigation, ELV’s conduct has been, in my opinion, disgraceful. They have denied any wrongdoing or breach of contract. And, they have even refused to admit basic, non-controversial, facts about the case. For example, they claim not to know whether their own event manager was present at our wedding, even though he works for ELV and we identified him by name, and even though he cried when this incident took place. They refuse even to confirm that our contract is, in fact, the right document. It doesn’t take a lawyer to see that these tactics are not okay. It is my personal opinion that ELV is operating in bad faith. Of course, they still refuse to provide anywhere near what we paid them for catering.
Why am I finally speaking out now? Because my wife and I spent several weeks collecting documents to provide them in discovery, which just ripped the band-aids off once again. I am tired of biting my tongue under the misguided hope that ELV will finally do the right thing instead of making us re-live this episode over and over again in hopes that we will just go away. If anyone I know is considering using ELV or Lavan for some function, I hope you know what happened during and since our wedding so you can make an informed choice.
This all could have been avoided if ELV had paid any care to the fact that the bride had a life-threatening allergy, and respected its own agreement and repeated promises to us. And once they failed to do that, a lot of what has transpired and what is to come could still have been avoided if ELV had just done right by us at any point in nearly a year and a half. If any of you are considering using the Emanuel Luxury Venue or Lavan Event Venue, I do not recommend it because it is my opinion that their managers lack sufficient responsibility to be trusted to do things correctly, even when health and safety is at stake. It is also my personal opinion that they lack sufficient integrity to meaningfully own up to their mistakes.
Even if you choose to hold your special event somewhere else, I hope this message leads you to stay diligent and involved in event planning, to keep reconfirming essential facts, and to make sure everything is documented in writing. Thankfully, we had a contract and emails proving that ELV knew that it couldn’t use nuts but did so anyway, potentially putting someone in danger. Don’t find yourself in a position where it’s “he said, she said.” -
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