Marcey Brownstein Catering & Events

The team at Marcey Brownstein did a fantastic job with our wedding catering. Even while we were doing most of the planning from 3000 miles away, they made it easy and stress-​free. Leslie was delightful to work with and after the initial phone conversation, she totally got our vision and created a compelling menu and service plan. Day-​of execution was flawless – the food was delicious, the staff was gracious, and the design of the space and rentals were gorgeous.

Marcey Brownstein is consistently wonderful to work with. Leslie and her team are able to execute an event seamlessly each and every time. Not only is the service exceptional, the food is delicious! It’s creative, fun, and hits the perfect balance between whimsical yet recognizable. It can be difficult to explain what exactly you want to offer for the meal at your wedding, but Leslie has a talent for understanding and creating a menu that reflects the couple perfectly. You are in excellent hands with Leslie and her team– I couldn’t recommend them highly enough!

Marcey Brownstein catered our wedding this December at The Green Building and we are beyond ecstatic that we made this decision. From the first conversation we had with Leslie, the numerous e-​mail exchanges, the tasting, and the actual event, Leslie and MBC staff were beyond professional and knowledgeable. Your search for a caterer and event planner should stop here but read on to learn about the awesomeness of this incredible group of people.
If it isn’t already obvious from the multiple reviews, Leslie sets the industry standard for what it means to take an event from vision to execution. From our first conversation, she asked very thoughtful and important questions to get a sense of who were are, what we liked/​disliked, and what we wanted to the wedding to look and feel like. She returned with a menu proposal that deeply reflected our diverse taste in food, the marriage (pun intended) of two cultures, and a variety of foods that accommodated the vast range of dietary needs of our guests.
I’ve been to many weddings and food can be quite bland — especially when it comes from a pre-​packaged menu. The personal nature of the menu not only assured it truly reflected us but also ensured that flavor and taste was not compromised. I am not exaggerating when I say the food was the highlight of the night (next to the grooms, of course!!). We are two weeks out from our big day and the one constant that folks continue to speak about is the food. In the words of one guest, «Where else can you find fried fish tacos and chicken and waffles served together. The fusion of flavors was incredible!!»
As a professional, Leslie’s knowledge of the industry and design aesthetic has no equal — and that’s a hard bar to set in a market like NYC. On a personal level, I’m looking forward to the next party to throw simply to work with Leslie and her staff again. The most critical aspect of working with Leslie was her knowledge of industry pricing. Not once did I feel «up sold» or felt like Lesile was steering us in a direction we clearly couldn’t award. A woman of tremendous experience, she works with clients with large and small budgets alike and despite your financial means, she will work to make sure your event is as special, significant, and well executed as the person with the unlimited budget.
Don’t miss out on an opportunity to work with the best!!! In an industry where you get one chance, one opportunity to get it right, you’d seriously be remiss to pass on working with MBC.

We hired Marcey Brownstein Catering for our wedding at the Green Building in June. We had nothing but positive experiences with Marcey, Leslie and the entre staff from our first encounter at a Wedding Crashers event. From the first email exchange with Leslie, through our meeting and ultimately our tasting, they really made the effort to understand us, our style, and the kind of event we were trying to create. Not only were they professional and organized, Marcey and Leslie were a blast to work with.
Our tasting dinner, which we shared with two of our friends, was a highlight of the whole wedding planning process. The food was delicious and the menu captured our style and the type of food we love to cook and eat. At our request, Leslie and the chef made a couple of small adjustments to the menu, including an item reflecting my husband’s Korean heritage.
Once we hired MBC, Leslie worked with our planner to organize rentals and with us to secure the specific wines that we wanted for our reception and dinner. She was extremley organized and responsive to all of our questions/​concerns as we got closer to the date. The actual event went off without a hitch. The staff was professional and Leslie had everything running very smoothly. The food, however, was the big star. As grooms, we didn’t really have time to focus too much on the food that day, but dozens of our guests have commented to us on how delicious the food was, both the passed appetizers for the cocktail hour and the family-​style dinner. My father in-​law stated that he had never had better food at a wedding before. We and our guests had such an amazing day, and Marcey, Leslie and the whole team at MBC were a big part of the success. Neither of us hope to have another wedding, but if we did, we wouldn’t even think twice about hiring Marcey and here team again.
Thanks for a fabulous wedding!

Marcey Brownstein did the catering for my daughter’s wedding last weekend. Sue and Leslie were a dream to work with — flexible and creative! The food was delicious, and they even went out of their way to provide wonderful vegan meals for my husband and myself. The waiting staff was quick, polite, and efficient, and everything was perfect. We highly recommend them for any special occasion!

Marcey Brownstein Catering was on the preferred caterer list provided by our venue, 632 on Hudson. I interviewed all of the caterers on the list and there was absolutely no question that Leslie Russell at Marcey Brownstein was the person to work with. From our first phone call, Leslie was warm and engaging, and clearly possessed expertise on how to structure the cocktail style reception we envisioned. She also is intimately familiar with 632 on Hudson. When we met with her in person, we were even more impressed. In addition to helping us create the best menu, she provided great advice on music, and hooked me up with excellent hair and make-​up people. Oh, and the guest couldn’t stop talking about how delicious the food was.
There were only two minor glitches at our otherwise perfect event. Neither glitch had anything to do with Leslie or our catering, but she swooped right in and set things straight. On top of her professionalism and expertise, she is a lot of fun to work with. And, we learned at the end of the evening, that she did all of this for us on her birthday! We recommend her highly, especially if you’re considering the wonderful 632 on Hudson for your event.

We hired Marcey Brownstein Catering & Events to cater our wedding at the Foundry. After a short phone conversation to get a feel for our tastes, Leslie sent us a sample menu that completely blew us away, and after meeting her in person, we knew we were in good hands. Our tasting confirmed that we had chosen wisely: we loved absolutely everything that we ate and drank. On the night of the wedding, the service was excellent, the food was delicious, and the libations were plentiful.
Not only is Leslie an imaginative and passionate caterer, but also her knowledge of other vendors is encyclopedic. We ended up hiring a DJ and florist that she recommended, both of whom were fabulous.
We can’t thank Leslie and her team enough for helping to make our wedding night the best party of our lives.

We hired Marcey Brownstein Catering & Events for a 200 person fundraiser. They showed up on time. The food was excellent the bar service was great. They took care of everything and cleaned up fast when it was over. They worked with us to move things around when last minute issues came up, and they were extremely professional. I would hire them again in a heart beat if I do another NYC event. Thank you!

Sometimes one little «oops» can have a big effect. In our case the «oops» was that Leslie Russell, the one we thought would be on top of everything at our daughter’s wedding, forgot to order the right food. She forgot that we wanted to include sliders, hotdogs and french fries for the kids. Oops.
We picked Marcey Brownstein because of Leslie. After interviewing three caterers, we thought that she just seemed to know exactly what was what and could really be there for us. We thought that under her care nothing would go wrong. Oops.
But I guess the thing that was most appalling was the way it was handled. Olga, who she sent to the wedding (we thought she would be there) apparently knew the food wasn’t there but didn’t say anything to us. I didn’t notice until I saw my young niece and nephew pining over a lack of foods for them and then it hit me — I never saw the sliders, hot dogs and french fries.
But I decided that I was too happy to start complaining about it during the party. I hoped to get a call from Leslie the next morning, at the very least to see how it went, and I would speak to her then.
Amazingly, I never got a call, and so at 3pm I called her.
Small talk, small talk… until i finally said, uh, where was the food. And the answer? Oops. That’s right. Oops. It was totally her fault and she made a mistake and that’s it. No offer. No reduction. Nothing but oops.
Really?
In an age of Unilocal,I guess «oops» isn’t enough for me.

Leslie Russell and her team truly made our wedding better than we had ever imagined. We fell in love with the food from the first tasting and agreed that it tasted like what we would order at a nice restaurant and was sooo much better than standard wedding food. Leslie was almost psychic, curating a menu for us that exactly matched what we wanted, even before she ever met us.
On our wedding day, Leslie’s team was so welcoming and friendly and beamed at us the whole day while wishing us well and congratulating us. Leslie herself managed to oversee the set-​up and food prep and coordinate all the moving parts of the wedding while at the same time finding time to check in with me and help to calm me down before the ceremony.
During the dinner, her servers presented the food so professionally that my husband (!!) and I kept pausing mid-​bite to watch them put the food down on tables. They were also very attentive to everyone’s needs during the meal and I even noticed that they observed our guests during dinner and if they noticed that a centerpiece was obstructing conversation, they would swoop in and move it out of the way. The food was as extraordinary as we expected from the tasting and all our guests raved about it.
Along with choosing a groom and a venue, I think that choosing a caterer is what can really make or break a wedding. I would never hesitate to recommend Marcey Brownstein (and Leslie Russell) to any bride!

I had Marcey Brownstein Catering cater my husband’s birthday party for 40 people. They did an outstanding job. First, Sue talked to me on the phone to get a very clear idea of my vision. Of the four high-​end catering companies I called, she was the only one who actually LISTENED to what I wanted, rather than forcing their preset menu on me.
Then she came over to discuss the space and the arrangements.
She kept in constant communication until the day of the event and sent me an excellent staff. They were so professional. The food was incredible, exactly what I wanted. The bar was able to fill every crazy request. A dirty plate never sat for more than a second before it was cleaned away. The staff was friendly and knowledgeable. The whole event ran like clockwork.
I could barely speak to my guests about other things, because all they wanted was to ask who the caterer was…
And yes, they were high-​end. But I absolutely feel that I got my money’s worth. I would use them again in a heart-​beat.
Thank you Sue and company.

In my position as a wedding planner, I have had the opportunity to meet and work with many caterers, and I have to say that I have been very impressed with the quality of the food and the service that Marcey Brownstein Caterers provides. Working with Sue, Olga, and the rest of the team was a pleasure. They are professionals, they know their business, and they treat a client they way you would want them to be treated. I heartily recommend Marcey Brownstein Catering, and look forward to working with them on events in the future.

I recently planned a network and pitch event for my San Francisco based music production facility. We are launching new education services and products and I needed to set up an event in NYC to get potential clients. MBC was recommended to me via friend. Sorry Unilocalers but I trust word of mouth recommendations more than online reviews.
At any rate, this event was put together last minute because of the schedule change of a potential high value client. In short order, MBC put together an awesome menu and helped me sort out a number of issues with venue selection and other logistics. Its hard enough to plan an event in my city let alone a city like NY. The communication was clear and I received everything that was discussed. I feel like they delivered above and beyond what was expected from a catering company and helped save me time, money and energy.
I felt compelled to chime in here because this was by far the easiest and most professional catering experience I’ve had. Seeing the reviews of business on line and then coming here to see only 2 other reviews seemed odd to me. I’m not a big Unilocaler but in this case, I felt Marcey Brownstein Catering earned a public thank you from me.
If they treat all of their customers like I was treated, I can’t see why you would choose another company.
Kudos to MBC for helping make my event easy, professional and delicious.

At the last minute, the caterer for our Cinco de Mayo event for our non-​profit organization backed out on me. A friend recommended Marcey. Thank GOD! She responded promptly to my first email, and continued to be unbelievably reliable as she calmly helped us pull off an impressive event in very short notice. Creative with our limited budget, she suggested the perfect menu for our 50 – 60 guests. On the night of the event, her very friendly and efficient support staff arrived on time, set up, served, and basically set the tone for a perfect evening. Marcey was there to oversee, coordinate and make sure everything went smoothly, which it did. My mouth literally waters thinking about the tortilla soup shots; the tamarind marinated steak with onion mermelada on garlic crostini; the snapper ceviche with oranges and onion; the grilled corn with lime, chili and feta; and the empanadas with chicken, scallion and jalapeño. Topped off with Spanish Cheeses served with membrillo, figs, olives and almonds, people are still talking about the food and can’t wait for the next event catered by Marcey!

I have worked with Marcey Brownstein three times– once for a benefit cocktail party of 40, again for a party of about 60 celebrating a pre-​marriage with family and friends and lastly I called Marcey when I needed emergency help for a work event at the last minute. In each of these instances, I have found her and her staff to be incredibly helpful, generous with their time– just really easy to get along with. They are just pros from top to bottom and actually fun to work with. But moving onto the food… There’s a reason I’ve used them several times and will continue to recommend them. Marcey has an intuitive, inventive approach to using fresh ingredients and everything tastes delicious. I especially love the By Earth and By Land section of the hors d’oeuvres because i think unless it’s a hot summer day and the party is outside, people want a hot, savory, delicious thing as opposed to a cold thing, but that’s just me… The pissaladiere, cumin coconut chicken skewers, seared sirloin and creamed spinach in yorkshire pudding. stewed pork empanada, sweet pea risotto, etc… all great. There are also so many good options for vegetarians that don’t at all feel like vegeterian options, they are just delicious. As with any caterer, it’s always better to know what you don’t like and get that clear from the beginning so there are no surprises. Marcey and her kitchen are really good at tweaking ingredients if something isn’t really clicking, in fact Marcey seems to enjoy the give and take of substituting particular vegetables for other vegetables when they are in season. She is all about what’s fresh and delicious and not exactly what’s on the menu which is what i love, but maybe she only does that for me because i’ve been pretty loyal so don’t quote me! In any event, (ha!) if you’re having a party she is someone who really knows what she’s doing (things run smoothly, no stress – end of story) is reasonably priced and my friends, family and professional contacts always comment on how amazing the food was. What else do you want in a caterer?

I was married last month at 632 on Hudson and my caterer was Marcey Brownstein Catering. We were thrilled with the experience. We just got back from our honeymoon and came back to tons of emails from our friends and family telling us that our wedding was the best wedding they have ever attended. I have my caterer to thank for the accolades. The food was divine… I dream about the tuna tartare and short ribs and the service was so gracious and kind. Leslie was my planner and she went above and beyond in helping me fine tune every detail before and during the event. She even delivered my shoes to my hotel on Sunday (I left them at the venue, too much Champagne)!

The first thing I’ll say is that the food was excellent. No complaints there. They were the recommended caterer of our wedding venue, Ramscale, and since it’s an unusual space (with no kitchen), we really wanted to go with someone who was familiar with the space and could pull it off successfully. They were more expensive than we had initially budgeted, but they made a compelling case when we went for the tasting.
My husband and I are both vegan, and though we were not having an exclusively vegan wedding (parents’ wishes, not ours), we needed a variety of exciting vegan foods. Leslie Russell assured us this would not be a problem, told us that they could re-​create items from our favorite restaurants in the city, told us they’d try out our own recipes to come up with a truly unique menu. In the end, they did none of this. They couldn’t make an appetizer we love at Gobo, they wouldn’t go to Candle 79 to try our favorite entrée. We just had to pick and choose from their pre-​existing menus, and just gave us the sense that we’d been oversold.
Only after we’d signed the contract did I feel condescended to. I was told that having both seitan and tofu was redundant (which, to a non-​vegan, would be like saying beef and fish are redundant). Then two weeks shy of the wedding, Leslie, who we’d worked with for months, handed us off to Sue Pirello. Sue was pushy and obnoxious, and just didn’t seem to «get» what we were trying to do.
In the end, I think everything came together, but the whole experience was very nerve-​racking for me and my mother and my husband. My biggest complaint was that, moments before walking down the aisle, Sue told my father and I to switch sides. I was too giddy to question, but it made no sense and threw off the whole beginning of our ceremony. She also queued one of my bridesmaids to start walking without any music. So, wedding planners they are not. Though they told me repeatedly that in a space as small as Ramscale and with only 82 guests, I did not need a wedding planner. (After all, they had done this before; I hadn’t.)
Lastly, during the reception, an issue came up with the orchestra, who were eating the passed hors d’œuvre though their contract stated drinks only. Sue grabbed me away from my guests and told me to deal with it or else she’d have to charge me for more guests. This seemed shocking and totally unprofessional to me. She knew which vendors were on the list and which weren’t, and I strongly feel she should have handled the situation more professionally, and delicately asked them to leave.
In a nutshell, they had great food, but for how expensive they were, the service should’ve been much, much better. I would not recommend Marcey Brownstein catering.

They catered our wedding on Saturday. They’re gods, basically. The food at the tasting was great; the food at the wedding was better. Our (sometimes picky) parents loved it, our friends loved it, everyone loved it. The servers were maximally efficient and unobtrusive. Everyone involved gave off a vibe of total omniscient got-​it-​under-​control-​ness. The cost was totally competitive, for NY catering: I’m sure you could spend twice as much and not get such good food.
I don’t review here much. I’m only doing it now because these folks did us right in a big way.