Amit K.
Yelp
It sounds silly, but if you're going to use Cliff & Twisted Spoke for an event, make sure that everything is clearly stated in writing and assign a guest to be in charge of "quality assurance" to include photos of anything that is subpar or not as promised.
Long Story Short: My wife and I booked a welcome party for our wedding, and Twisted Spoke greatly missed the mark. When we tried to address the matter after the event, Cliff took no accountability. Given that he was not present for the event and his manager was dishonest, our grievances were not resolved. I would avoid Cliff and Twisted Spoke if you want a smooth and fair process. I put more details below.
1) Most egregiously, Cliff charged us for 70 people (we had 52), despite agreeing to do a headcount and charge $20 per person. He later tried to use a conversation about physical space and capacity to claim that I agreed to pay for 70 people. Mind you, Cliff insisted on not having a contract during the planning phase. I didn't want to be pushy, but in retrospect, I wish I had been - I see now why he did not want to spell things out.
2) Agreed-upon menu items were missing (only steak tacos instead of chicken and veggie, and only pulled chicken sliders instead of beef). Vegetarian guests were only able to eat hummus, veggies, and chips. Many of our guests left hungry.
3) Cliff was smug, pompous, and entitled when we brought these shortcomings to his attention a few days after the event. He repeatedly told us we should "be grateful" for getting a "bargain." As two non-union school teachers, we felt we were paying a fair, market price, for which we had saved money to pay.
It is frustrating to have had this sour note on what was otherwise the greatest weekend of our lives We didn't let it ruin things, of course, but very unfortunate to have this be the outcome when it was so easy to fix. We asked Cliff for a $425 refund, which was the difference of 18 people's food plus tax. On a $4,000 bill, and given that Cliff did not provide even proper food for 52 people, let alone 70, this was extremely reasonable. Not for Cliff, sadly.
After Cliff was clearly not going to be professional, I was advised to pursue legal action. But again, as two teachers, we're not sitting on enough time or cash to go about such matters, unlike Cliff, who has been involved in litigation frequently with his businesses. Also, we didn't have the foresight to put our guests to work by having them take photos of missing items - cuz that's very normal Without those photos, it would be our word against Cliff's, which would default to us losing. Suing for the $425 "miscount" issue was the only option left, and while I was told we had a decent chance of winning, without a signed, written contract, it was nowhere near certain. We chose to leave it be.
Twisted Spoke used to be one of my favorite places in Chicago. After seeing the true character of the owner, Clifford Einhorn, I will never set foot in this place again.
MY ADVICE: If you must use Cliff's space, I recommend you do two things: 1) Be sure every detail is spelled out clearly in a written and signed contract - no verbal or emails only - this is a must! And 2) Assign a couple friends to know the details of what's expected and to take photos of everything, so that if things fall short, Cliff has ZERO room to wiggle out of his obligation. I still don't think it's worth the headache, but if you do these two things, you'll at least be less likely to have issues.