NBN catered our wedding at the end of March 2017. To give some context, we had signed a contract in July 2016 with another caterer and put down a huge deposit as required by contract. In mid-November, the caterer informed us that they were going out of business and that they would be unable to refund our deposit (which was upwards of $10k). We were devastated, but the caterer referred us to NBN as an alternative, as Chef Ed had worked with the company before.
So by December 2016, we got in touch with Channing McBride at NBN, who (for those who don't know), was the former owner of the Chanric BnB in Calistoga (amazing place btw!), so we knew we'd be in good hands working with him and Chef Ed for our wedding. We had lots of demands and were doing a ton of DIY (our own ice cream, our own pies, our homemade charcuterie and personal cheese selections, and our own infused liquors for cocktails), and Channing / Chef Ed were very open and worked with us to integrate all of our personal touches with the catering of the event as a whole. On top of that, NBN worked with us to absorb as much of our deposit as possible so we wouldn't have to eat the entire $10k deposit on top of the charges for NBN's services.
Fast forward a few months to Feb 2017, and Channing made sure to coordinate with us to do a walk though with our wedding coordinator at our wedding venue. When it came to ordering our cheeses in bulk from a market close to our wedding venue, Channing even offered to pick them up for us to save us the long drive (2 hours) to Healdsburg to pick them up. We also coordinated with Chef Ed to drop off our homemade charcuterie a few days ahead of time so he could slice and prep the meats for service.
On our wedding day, Channing and his staff did a great job with service and the food. All of our guests raved about how good the chicken liver mousse toasts were (passed app), and people loved the grilled duck and braised short ribs at dinner (presented family style). Even the asparagus was amazing! Everything was prepared well and literally everyone was impressed by how good our food was (especially for a wedding!)
There were just two minor hiccups that day - mixing up the two ice cream types during dessert service and neglecting to use our ginger-infused vodka in our cocktails - but I blame ourselves for not clearly labeling the alcohol for the bartenders and not clearly communicating the ice cream service to Channing and his staff (even though they were aware there were two types of ice cream). Also, the morning of our wedding there was a huge, windy, awful thunderstorm (which miraculously cleared up before our wedding started!) that just added to the chaos of setup and coordination prior to dinner service.
All in all, HIGHLY recommended. Chef Ed makes amazing food, Channing is very detail-oriented and organized, and they are VERY fair in terms of pricing and fairly evaluating the needs of the event (e.g. cutting unnecessary staff or recommending additional rental items as needed). I would not hesitate to contact NBN in the future should I require catering services in the area.
TLDR: Delicious food, fair pricing, and great attention to detail! read more