A Highly Successful Failure

John and Peter operated a highly successful catering business based in Bondi Junction (for those outside of Australia, see Bondi Rescue - the Ozzy version of Baywatch). When the Carriageworks, a large industrial space was renovated as an art and theater venue, johnandpeter opened their first restaurant. This is where Miss G hoped to have our reception, and in the event of rain, our ceremony.

Miss G's first meeting with johnandpetercanteen's representative was both promising and frustrating. The representative made lots of promises and quoted good prices, but would put nothing on paper.

The second meeting, with johnandpetercanteen's business manager was a bit more sobering. "This is what we can do. This is what we can't do." Things were looking a bit bleak. The meeting space was ok (it had been changed from the original - what was an open space was now enclosed by a sheer curtain, and the original long single table would no longer fit - had to be reconfigured to two long tables. The restaurant would be operating at the same time (no reception-specific music?), and there could potentially be a loud party going on in the adjoining art space (ack!) No promises, barely adequate as a reception space, and virtually unworkable as a ceremony space. It was also revealed that the person who originally made all the promises was not there, and "may not be back." Ahem.

Meeting three - whoohoo!! Big news on the restaurant front. The restaurant has had a frustrating start, and so it would no longer be functioning as a restaurant. But the good news - the reason for the frustration is that there were so many people asking to rent the space (and catering), that it was wrecking their restaurant business. People would show up for the restaurant only to find that the space was being used privately (no reservations?) So johnandpeter, the highly successful catering and event planners were "closing the restaurant" and going to operate it as a private event space.

Meeting three was with an extremely astute event planner, Sabina Evans-Zanardi. The restaurant would be CLOSED during our reception, so we potentially had the entire space (for the same price that we originally were going to pay for just the back private space). As far as the adjoining art space, they were setting up for a show, but on the day of our reception, the art space would be closed by the time our event started. In the event of rain, we could use the main restaurant space, and they would arrange it however we wanted. In addition to going through menu options and prices, Sabina made suggestions regarding timing and pacing of food, dessert, and other events to help the social flow of the event. Awesome.