Attended the Manhattan Cocktail Classic's 360 Vodka "Sustainable Olympics" event at 632 Below, the event space on the lower levels of 632 Hudson Street. It's a sleek but interesting space - the overall building was built as a townhouse in the 1840's but has housed a General Store, family business, and a chorizo factory over the years before housing the first cast of MTV's Real World. The ground floor is very nice, shiny dark wood flooring, interesting furnishings, and a small garden in the back. In the basement there is a tiny speakeasy bar furnished with various period curios as well as restrooms and a small kitchen. Both floors are fairly long and narrow, maybe 2000 sq feet combined? Convenient and chic location and I think the space would work for a variety of purposes. read more

The venue itself is stunning. Unfortunately, it's entirely owner-operated by Karen, and she made what should have been one of the happiest seasons of our lives unbelievably stressful. She was warm during our initial tour, but once the contract was signed, communication became inconsistent and every conversation felt combative and unnecessarily rude. From the beginning, our timeline was a 5:00 PM to 1:00 AM open bar, using the Triplex until 11:00 PM and the Speakeasy from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM, which we'd rented for an additional $2,500. It was the timeline we developed with 632's own preferred caterer, and everything else, including catering, music, late-night food, and vendor schedules, was built around it. Then, less than a month before the wedding, Karen said she had decided she wasn't okay with eight hours of bar service anymore. Nothing had changed except her mind. We were suddenly forced to either cut cocktails during cocktail hour or shorten our after-party, despite already paying for both. We tried to find a compromise. Every suggestion was shut down. In the end, we spent thousands more booking a separate after-party venue, while also eating the cost of vendors like our DJ and photographer, whose hours had already been scheduled and paid for based on the original timeline. By the end of it all, we were so mentally drained that we didn't even do our rehearsal at the venue because we couldn't deal with another interaction. Then it took seven weeks and multiple follow-up emails just to get our security deposit back. If you value being treated with respect during one of the most important events of your life, look elsewhere. The venue is gorgeous. The owner is not someone you want to deal with. read more

The owner of this venue made our wedding planning experience an absolute nightmare. These are just a few of the many issues we dealt with throughout the process. Just 26 days before our wedding, after 11 months of planning around a 5:00 PM to 1:00 AM open bar, Karen (the owner/operator) told us she was no longer okay with the timeline she'd known about from the very beginning. There wasn't a licensing issue or a staffing issue. She simply decided that eight hours of bar service was "too much." We suddenly had to choose between serving cocktails during cocktail hour or having drinks at our after-party, even though we'd already paid $2,500 for the Speakeasy specifically for that purpose. We even offered to cancel the Speakeasy and either receive a refund or apply the $2,500 toward our bar package. Instead of having a reasonable conversation, Karen threatened to get her lawyers involved. From there, we were left scrambling to find another after-party venue less than a month before the wedding, while still paying for vendors like our DJ and photographer whose schedules had already been built around the original timeline. There was no way to recover those costs. One last-minute decision ended up costing us thousands of dollars. Another moment that perfectly sums up what it was like working with Karen happened the night before our wedding. We had requested Bud Light be added to our beverage package a full year earlier, and it had already been approved, invoiced, and paid for. Then, while we were at our rehearsal dinner, Karen emailed saying she had misquoted the price and that we now owed $200 immediately instead of the $45 we'd already paid, or the beer would be returned. It wasn't about the $200. It was the timing. Who creates a last-minute issue the night before someone's wedding over something that had been settled weeks earlier? And frankly, $200 for two cases of Bud Light is ridiculous. The building is beautiful. But if we had the chance to do it all over again, we'd choose a different venue without hesitation. read more

if i could give it a zero i absolutely would. the owner Karen is not very nice. she yells at vendors and definitely is in need of customer service training. we will NEVER work with her again. read more

Beautiful venue, and a nice staff. However, please keep in mind (they won't tell you this) that the contract they offer you for rentals is filled with some pretty scary clauses that they will not negotiate on. By all means check them out, but be sure to ask for a sample contract. read more

632 Below was my wedding venue. This is the 1st and basement floor of the building, not the Italian villa above. Space is gorgeous and the eclectic furnishings that come with it give it a unique touch. Very downtown chic. There's even a speakeasy bar set-up in the basement - so cool! The owner was very pleasant and made us feel welcome to use her space as we wished. After much searching, my husband and I were so glad to have found a spot that reflected our tastes and what we were looking for as a wedding site. read more

Just attended a wedding party here. So many words to describe this place ... quirky, fun, timeless, worldly, just beautiful. It's MANY floors filled with gorgeous antiques from all over the globe. From what I understand, it's actually someone's home (which is why some rooms will be closed off) that is offered as a space for any event of your choosing. There's a breathtaking rooftop that overlooks the city with, you guessed it, more incredible decor and seating areas. Bravo to our friends who chose this location. Unusual (in the best way), stunning, and memorable. read more

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A beautiful venue. I was invited to J's company event here for dinner. The interiors are rustic, romantic and very Italian-villa inspired. Multiple floors for mingling, attentive waiters and a very cosy looking bathroom. I heard this was where MTV's the Real World was filmed. Awesome place to hold an event. read more

Everyone at my wedding loved the space, including me. However, life is too short to ever again deal with the owner, Karen Lashinsky. I have never experienced a businessperson as unprofessional or immature as Karen. For example: 1. Karen initially agreed to a few reasonable changes and clarifications to the contract, but became extremely emotional (a recurring theme in many of our discussions) when it was time to sign and refused to agree to any changes (including the cash-up-front 10% price discount we had previously agreed on) to her original proposal. 2. Karen's policy is that if the venue is damaged and made unusable before your event, she will "try" to give you a refund, but cannot guarantee it. When I questioned this policy, Karen raised her voice and began fuming irrationally. Her explanation, as I understood it, was that if the venue was damaged, she would need money to rebuild and therefore may not be able to give a refund. When I pointed out that if the venue was unusable, her clients would need a refund so that they could book an alternative location for their weddings and other events, she got even angrier. Asking about business insurance elicited a similar response. 3. I received a lengthy voicemail from Karen in which she and another person discussed very private details of an employee's personal life. I assume Karen accidentally dialed and did not know she was leaving the message. Nonetheless, it was indicative of her total lack of professionalism. To top it off, we were told to bring our own hand towels and soap to the wedding because 632 does not always provide these items (our wedding planner informed us of this - not the venue). In summary, with a better owner, 632 would easily earn 5 stars. Under Karen's mismanagement, 2 stars is a stretch. read more

A beautiful venue for our wedding however the flaky, unprofessional owner needs to get lessons on customer service. They had an fire on the roof deck destroying the beautiful Shinto look that we fell in love with and booked the place based on having the opportunity to provide our guests a safe place to smoke and even have a cigar bar on the roofdeck. On the day of our wedding the roofdeck, which is now a concrete disaster we couldn't use it due to the rainstorm that we were having that evening. Karen was completely inflexible and didn't care that it was our wedding. She was more focused on her own grief of having a fire on the deck. She didn't try to accomadate our needs to have a place to smoke and ruined what should have been a memorable experience on the happiest day of our life. She has no business being in charge and needs to learn to cater to her paying customers. It's a shame. read more

5 starts to Hiroshi 5 starts to venue 1 star for having to use pre approved vendors that did not meet expectations read more

As another reviewer stated, "Life is too short to ever again deal with the owner, Karen..." I would also extend that to Lindsay. While the venue is very beautiful, the management is horrible. They are illogical, emotional, and difficult. They also act as if it they are some exclusive club and you would be blessed to have them take your money (and a lot of it). If you are just going to have a photo shoot there, then it will probably be fine. But do not have a wedding at 632 on Hudson. There are many other wonderful venues in NYC. read more

Bombay Sapphire East, Marcus Samuelsson and Food Republic threw an amazing event at 632 Hudson- "The House of Imagination". Live Jazz, a Sitarist in the back room, Red Rooster bites, massages, a killer roof deck with a view to-die-for, a high-profile guest list and a never ending flow of delicious libations... who could ask for anything more? I can see why people have their weddings here. The decor is romantic with a Victorian den in the bar area downstairs, which is separated from the ballroom by a walled aquarium. The 40-foot atrium connects the 3 levels to the fireplace and 1,000 sq. ft. rooftop planted Zen garden, where I spent 20 minutes reflecting on the event beside a statue of seated Buddha, in the heated gazebo created out of an old water tank. The restrooms are pristine and classy, reflective of the thematic design, with a true chef's kitchen on the 2nd floor. There is nothing that this venue doesn't have, but arrive early as the fire codes don't allow too many inside at one time and no one likes to wait in the cold! read more

I came here for a Lucky Rice event and they absolutely achieve everything they advertise on the website. It does in fact feel like a house and it's very well decorated to make it feel like some old WASPY lady lives in the building. If you're looking at hosting a small gathering of 20-60 people I think this would be a great venue to have a seated dinner or cocktails. Each floor has its own bathroom and the upper most floor has access to the rooftop. The rooftop is pretty small with seats for maybe 10 people and not much of a view to speak of. They were able to cut down on the wind with the generous use of potted plants and it helped you feel like you were in more of a garden than on top of the roof. Overall, not a bad place to host a small event. read more

I catered a party here on Saturday. This space was cool. Was the set for the original MTV Real World and then belonged to Sanda Bullock for a while, Danny DeVito stayed here while he was in NY. The decor is a little ABC home and carpet but works together. The roof deck rocks. Rent it for your very high end soiree. read more

Here's the thing: It's a stunning, eclectic, original, show-stopper of a space. My wedding was stunning. Off the charts gorgeous and people are still talking about it. HOWEVER: the owner is bananas. She was eating and drinking amongst our guests! My mother was horrified. Also, there's a ton of hidden fees that are 100% unnecessary and they wedding-rape you on the price of the votive candle package. There was 0 need for security guards on the roof. We're a small party of all adults, no children. This felt like extortion- pure and simple. The fact that Karen was roaming around eating our food was super unprofessional and I'm glad I didn't know about it until the next day. That said, it's a gorgeous place, but man oh man- not sure it's worth the money. If anyone is thinking of having a wedding here, PM me. I'd love to give you the real low-down. (*shout out to Hiroshi, Karen's right-hand guy for being organized and great. But the hidden costs and the fact you MUST CHOOSE the vendors from their preferred list, in addition to the security you MUST purchase and the $700 for votives that I could have bought at Ikea for $50 ... I'm not sure I'd do it here if I knew all this beforehand. But the space is STUNNING. ) read more

I held my wedding here and it's the most beautiful venue in the world. It's just so different and was perfect for our small family event. The guys who run this place are brilliant and were extremely helpful. Cannot recommend this place highly enough. Its just awesome. read more

Needed to host a short notice business gathering for 30 people. This would be drinks, light music, and some finger food. A friend mentioned having attended a wedding here and how amazing and beautiful the place is...but... Given the short notice I really needed a hand and a high priority for me in selecting a venue was feeling like things would be 'taken care of'. I had also seen a couple of negative reviews on here but also saw that the pics on their website are amazing...So I made the call. Glad I did - The 'house' is amazing and absolutely presented an image of quality and uniqueness which would be hard to match among the city's options. Your guests will truly feel that they are at a 'special' event. More importantly, I worked with Yana and from first contact I felt that she would do whatever it took to make this work. She was proactive in keeping me informed and making sure I was aware of all the details I needed to be. My recommendation? Definitely worth checking this place out! read more

My daughter and son in law were recently married at this venue. Physically it is beautiful and unique, but the owner is a strange lady, She has many restrictions as to music, caterers, security and hours of event. But, she has no restrictions on her own activity. We paid high end pricing to rent her venue, and she proceeded to walk around the reception for our guests eating our food and drinking our wine that we paid her for. We not only paid her for the bar, but also for her to drink at it. In addition, her "coordinator" spent more time giving a lecture about the history of the venue to our guests than coordinating the band and the caterer. Not professional to say the least! read more

The one star is only because the space is beautiful. The owner, Karen and her assistant Lindsey are HORRIBLE. Absolutely no business sense, decency or customer service skills. I was actually YELLED at over the phone. It all began when we booked the venue for our wedding. We put a deposit down. (Just note, there is no negotiation on the contract, first warning sign). Due to some unforeseen events we had to cancel our event (with several months notice to Karen). Since the contract stated we would not get our deposit back we were hoping that through graciousness Karen would at least let us reschedule and negotiate on the new date's rate. We knew we wanted to reschedule, but didn't know when at that time. We asked if it would be ok to contact her in a month or two and discuss rescheduling. She said, "We'll see. We are always completely booked." Cut to about 2 months later, we were ready to reschedule. We emailed, called, even stopped by and rang the bell, no answer. For months this went on. Calling, emailing, almost everyday! No response. We were out a lot of money and still not married and still wanting to get married at 632. What was the problem? It made no sense. We were willing to pay for another date. My husband is a business man, in sales no less, he knows how businesses run. We have $, you have a venue, let's make it happen. Silence from 632. After about 6 months went by and we finally get an email answered out of the blue. At this point we are looking at other venues and everyone else is jumping over the moon to get us to book! Lindsey emails to say that we can come back to take a look at the place. We go, pick a new date (by the way, every Saturday from May to September was OPEN, another bad sign) ... and then she casually mentions that they just got their liquor license so they now have to provide all the alcohol. WHAT?! This is what they were waiting for?! They waited to get back to us until the license went through so they could get another $5000 from us for TERRIBLE liquor. The beverage packages were worse then in-flight alcohol. We originally picked the place so we could do our own alcohol. Our families barely drink and our friends that do are 1 or 2 drink kind of people. My father collects rare liquors and was going to gift it to us for the wedding as a very special taste testing kind of thing. There was no negotiation on this. So we considered still booking and buying their liquor package because we loved the space so much, but I requested that they at least provide better alcohol and we would be willing to pay a fair price for it. They were charging a per person fee for the beverage package so I put a list together of the brands we wanted to serve our guests and the amount of $ we were willing to pay. Since they don't provide anything but the actual liquor, I did not feel it was fair to pay $50 per person to them and another $30 per person for the catering rentals. (632 does not provide ice, glasses, bar ware, servers, service of any kind... literally only the alcohol. The catering company charges for all the other stuff additionally). It just seemed so crazy to me to be paying what seemed to be double. (The catering company would only charge $45 per person for alcohol AND all the other stuff ) I didn't think I was questioning/negotiating anything that any other normal person wouldn't question. Lindsey called to chew me out, yell at me and tell me how they have hated dealing with us for "2 years now" (even though it wasn't even 1 year since first speaking with them). She told me "don't tell us how to do our job and what kinds of liquor we should have and how much we should charge" WHAT?! I'm paying for it and I want a certain atmosphere for my guests.... why shouldn't I have the kind of alcohol I want at a fair price and everyone can be happy? I don't want to pay more than a caterer charges for alcohol PLUS service, servers, bar ware, ice, glasses, etc. That's just logical! After that phone conversation, there was absolutely no way I would ever give them another dime. We had our wedding at the Dream Downtown Hotel. It was absolutely amazing and the service was impeccable and the food was delicious. Top shelf alcohol until your heart's content. Not one thing went wrong and not one headache. 632 Hudson is beautiful, but not worth the headache or the cost. They are completely disrespectful and totally illogical. There's so much more to this story, but I've written too much already! Have your special day/event at a special place with people who deserve your business and are happy to be of service! read more

My husband and I both work in hospitality so when we found 632 Hudson's Triplex when searching for a wedding venue we were thrilled with the space and all of the possibilities. Karen and her team were the perfect partners for us to pull our party off. We dreamed big with lots of entertainment, dinner and dessert displays, multiple different music acts and a few curveballs and they were right there with us --and just as enthused as we were-- every step of the way. 632 Below wasn't available at the time, so we opted to have the ceremony in the Triplex with our guests wrapped up around the staircase and it was so moving and special to look up at all of them. After the brief ceremony, the party kicked off brilliantly and all of our guests are still raving months later. If you want a truly unique, special, unforgettable party venue, there is truly nothing else in NYC like 632 Hudson. It is a treasure! We can't wait to throw another party there. -- Jacque & Luke, married 6.6.2015 at 632 Hudson read more

Gorgeous venue but, as articulated by another reviewer (Conner M), it is not worth holding an event here due to the owner - there are ample other beautiful venues in NY with much better, more agreeable management. I found the owner to be extremely unpleasant to deal with, unprofessional and negative in her demeanor, and micromanaging of the event to the point where it seems that she does not realize that if you choose to rent out your venue you need to allow people reasonable use of the premises. It really affects one's entire experience and enjoyment of the event. When I told my staffing company I was throwing my event at 632 Hudson they cringed and said that they had very negative experiences there with the owner ... and then I experienced it first hand. I throw events for a living and I have never had an owner be such a negative factor in one of my parties as was the owner of this venue. My suggestion is to look elsewhere. read more

632 on Hudson is a gorgeous venue, we fell in love with it the minute we walked in. We were looking for an unconventional space for our wedding: something with style and character that could feel intimate but accommodate a large group of guests. We had our wedding there in August, as well as the after party in the speakeasy downstairs. Karen was a pleasure to work with, and we really enjoyed getting to know her a little bit during the process. She created such a unique experience - allowing us to host a wedding where 120 guests could all see our ceremony, dance together and get lost in different rooms. All of our guests made new friends and had so much fun - exclaiming "How will I ever go to another wedding again!" Karen finely curated every piece in the house from all over the world resulting in a curiosity of style and elegance. From the Shanghai room to the French bedroom to the art deco bar, you certainly do not have to worry about decorating or adding many flowers, it is perfect as is. The whole evening was gorgeous and we felt so much love and joy in the house. The pictures certainly dont do it full justice, you have to see 632 on Hudson in person! read more