Caroline Street Cafe & Catering

The food, the service and the price was fantastic! We could not have been happier with our choice of caterers. The food was great - everyone said they loved the mas potato bar! Thank you!

Look no further, this is the place. My wife and I planned our wedding to be a weekend camping adventure. Caroline Street Catering"s Chef Shane connected us with the perfect cook to meet our needs, which was basically to stay at the camp site for three days. I provided all the wild game meats to the cook (85 attendees) and as a perfectionist, I am VERY picky with how meat is cooked. The steaks were outstanding and everyone was blown away. The cook also roasted a suckling pig, which he tended to all night long. I think the staff were all exhausted by the end, because they worked their tails off. Chef Shane can cook. The sides were fantastic -- my favorite was the roasted corn. My wife doesn't like potato, but she loved Chef Shane's. People raved about the pear-goat cheese cocktail bites and, did I mention the meats! You may question why I gave 3 stars for professionalism. This is because it felt like Chef Shane was more of a friend helping us make our wedding day exactly what we wanted. We called and emailed the Chef, not his assistants or his secretary, and he was good at getting back to us within a reasonable period of time. If you have the ability to trust your caterer will get the job done right, without being handheld the entire way with unnecessary communication, then you will feel the way I do...that I would hire them back for any event. Have a Great Wedding, Matt and Burns

Caroline Street was amazing. I spoke with Chef Shane a few times on the phone and he was super easy to work with. Caroline street catered my wedding on 9-24-2011. They showed up on time and were very helpful with everything. I couldnt have asked for a better catering company, and everyone loved the food.

I can't say anything bad about Chef Shane and Caroline Street Catering. I told him a little about our lifestyles and he came up with a slew of menu options. When we asked for something outside of his suggestions, he said, "absolutely!" and we got it.Instead of a buffet or a plated dinner, we had our meals family-style, with platters of food at every table. The staff was fabulous and brought us seconds without us even needing to request it. Best review of the night was from my sister's fiancee: This is the BEST food I've ever had at a wedding (said as he ate his THIRD piece of chicken.)

Chef Shane and his staff provided an awesome menu for my 50th birthday celebration. As Italian food is my favorite cuisine, I recommend the William Street menu. Thanks to Chef Shane's wife for making my event that much more special with the baked shoe shaped cookies to compliment my theme. They were delicious too!

We couldn't find a caterer that had the service, the flavoring, nor the price like Caroline Catering. You can always find something cheaper, of course, but the quality of the food would not be the same. They were amazing and such a wonderful staff; very friendly.

Caroline Street Catering was amazing and very accommodating from the beginning of the process. Tracy is a wonderful person and has been doing this for a long time and is a pro and will work very hard to make sure your wedding day is as perfect as it can be!! You can tell her heart is in it…you would never know she had another wedding besides yours to cater to. You must try their mashed potato “martini” bar and buffalo chicken cups...they were a HUGE hit with everybody! Can’t thank Caroline Street, Shane and most certainly Tracy enough for being a part of my wedding day!

Caroline Street catered my wedding and rehearsal dinner and EVERYONE raved about how delicious the food tasted. The customer service was top notch and I felt comfortable from beginning to end with them. My MIL had booked another venue for our rehearsal and when they started treating her poorly, Tracy at Caroline Street stepped up to the plate a month before the wedding and put together an amazing rehearsal that was completely different than the actual wedding food. They are all about making the bride feel special and producing quality food and service. I highly recommend them! My initial food tasting and rehearsal were both held on site at their cafe and it is sooooo quaint and cute. I encourage you to do the same :)

I had to use Caroline Street because of the venue I chose but it wound up being a good thing. It seemed like getting a response on some things took a bit of time but she had everything correct and planned out at the time of our tasting. I'm not sure how they would be be with an extensive menu but we had pretty basic food and everyone loved it. Tracy was great about getting everything we needed. She was on time to the event and helped me get my centerpieces and decor set up. I would recommend them to my friends.

My fiance and I were very pleased with Caroline Streets Services. Not only was it affordable but the food was excellent. They arrived in a timely manner, dressed appropriately. I turned over all of the reception decorations to Tracey and she immediately went to work, transforming our reception hall into exactly what I had envisioned. I would definitely recommend Chef Shane and his team to other brides in the market for a good caterer!

We would recommend Caroline Street to our friends, and would definitely choose them again. Although they were generally slow to respond, the food and service on the wedding day was fantastic. Tracy was a big help in choosing our foods, and they are SUPER flexible! Try the crab cakes and their mashed potato martini bar.. not to be missed!

Caroline Street Catering did an excellent job catering our wedding. Chef Shane was very accommodating and worked with us to develop a great menu. At our first meeting, he prepared a tasting menu from various selections off his catering menu, along with additional selections he thought would go with our theme. The tasting was essentially a full dinner (with substantial portions), served at a comfortable, leisurely pace, and the restaurant stayed open late, just for us. After the tasting, Chef Shane spoke with us about what we liked, didn't like, and whether we wanted any substitutions. We then came up with the menu for our cocktail hour and reception together. The personal touches won us over and we booked Caroline Street on the spot. Chef Shane was available for a second meeting at our venue and he was responsive to e-mail and phone communications.Everything went quite well on our wedding day. Caroline Street Catering were on site and prepared well in advance of our cocktail hour and reception. The appetizers received rave reviews from our guests. Everyone also seemed to enjoy their dinner and many guests went up for seconds. All of the staff were professional and accommodating.Minor Concerns:We were charged full price for the two children in attendance, when we were told we would be charged a discounted rate, and when we brought it up to Caroline Street, we did not receive a response.Before the wedding date, we had asked if a tray of appetizers could be prepared and available in the bridal suite for the wedding party. Caroline Street told us they could do it, but it fell through on the wedding day.Highlights (beyond the food):A staff member brought out glasses of water to our family members who were taking pictures with us after the ceremony.Chef Shane packed up to-go boxes for us after the ceremony, so we would have a chance to enjoy the food (and we did for the next four days!).Staff members managed to salvage a portion of the wedding cake for us to take, even though we hadn't asked them to save the top layer of the cake.They provided meals for all our vendors at no charge.They were able to produce high quality food at a reasonably remote location.Recommendation:We highly recommend Caroline Street Catering. They provided us with excellent food and service at a very reasonable price.

Initially, Chef Shane gave a fantastic impression of his catering business. He accomodated my husband and both of our mothers to a four course meal food tasting, for free! The food we taste tested was delicious! During our initial consultation, Chef Shane, explained to us that he would be present at our wedding, grilling the chicken and steak right outside the reception venue. We were so excited and thrilled to hear this, we knew immediately, Caroline St. Catering was our pick! So we payed our deposit and booked them for our big day!Throughout the 10 months of wedding planning, Chef Shane and Tracy, worked well with us, helping us organize and plan every detail of the wedding day! I felt comfortable and confident with my decision. The day of the wedding was a different story. Chef Shane did not even come to the wedding, there wasn't anyone outside the venue with a grill cooking the food fresh. Instead, our food was served cold! The wait staff was slow in clearing the tables of dirty dishes and were unfortunately in the kitchen most of the time than out in the eating area serving my guests! Tracy was told during the wedding dinner about the food being served cold. However, out of the 13 tables that were served food that night, only 1 or 2 tables received room-temperature food, the rest received cold food! The last two tables received the semi-warm food, due to the fact that the food was prepared and cooked not at the venue as initally agreed upon, rather it was cooked at Caroline St. Catering. Then it was brought over to the venue, where it was able to cool below warm temperatures, and thus served cold.When Chef Shane was told about this problem, he did not take the initiative and rectify the problem and apologize. Instead, we had to call him and basically demand an apology and argue for some type of reimbursement. Chef Shane was reluctant to return phone calls and emails, we had to call and email several times. Whenever we would we were able to get a hold of Chef Shane, he claimed he needed to speak with another associate and would call us back; however he never did return but one phone call. It was not until, we spoke about legal action, did he reimburse the money he agreed upon, two weeks after the fact. Chef Shane was not apologetic about this mistake nor was he concerned with our disatisfaction of his company's service. This simple problem become major due to the lack of professionalism, courtesy, and ethics from Caroline Street Catering. How sad that they do this to someone on the biggest day of their life. We are disappointed, disatisfied, and embarressed of the result of their product and professionalism. Chef Shane's recipes are so excellent that it is a shame he served them cold!

We had a 150 guest wedding at Ingleside Vineyards and used Caroline Street Catering to provide table settings, stationary cold appetizers, passed hot appetizers, a full served meal of bread, salad, main course and cake, bar service, and all non-alcoholic drinks. We would recommend Caroline Street to everyone and will definitely use them again for parties and events in the future. We were so happy with Caroline Street! The staff, the food, the value, and the service were all excellent. STAFF: We met with Chef Shane in early October after getting engaged. We had set up a tasting, but were re-schedule as they lost their catering manager to a tragic accident. To accommodate, Chef Shane provided a private tasting at no charge for both of our mothers and the two of us. The tasting went great and all the food was delicious. We knew immediately that we wanted to work with Caroline Street. Throughout our year of wedding planning Chef Shane and the other staff members were courteous and answered my seemingly endless number of questions and breezily adjusted our contracts for new ideas, menu changes, headcount changes, specialty rental requests, and other the catering curveballs we threw at them. The staff followed up with us several times which would put me at ease knowing I had nothing to worry about. FOOD: What can I say, the food was delicious! Chef Shane and his staff worked directly with me to develop a perfect menu that reflected our tastes, our goal, and our perspective. Some of the items that they ended up serving were not on the menu at all and were created based on brainstorming sessions. The wedding reception was held off-site where there was little prep area and most things had to be cooked off-site, but I must say that the food tasted like it had just been cooked right then and it tasted exactly as I remember from our private tasting. The portion sizes for the appetizers was well done, but a few guests mentioned that there could have been larger portions for the main dish. VALUE: For the quality of food and the excellent and personalized service that we were provided, I would have expected to pay twice if not triple the price for what we received. I shopped around the Fredericksburg, Stafford, and even the Northern Virginia areas interviewing caterers and Caroline Street had BY FAR quoted us with the best bang for our buck. Chef Shane worked within our budget and made every dollar stretch as far as we could. Chef Shane even threw some things into our contract at no charge (like some of our non-alcoholic beverages). We knew that $$$ spent on catering would be the largest part of our budget, but by saving so much by using Caroline Street, we were able to redirect some of our budget to other things (like our awesome Ice Liquor Luge)! Additionally, Caroline Street allowed us to stock our own beer, wine and liquor. They provided the mixer bar which saved us a TON of money since most caterers charge a premium on alcohol they provide. SERVICE: The service and staff at the cocktail hour and reception were amazing. Chef Shane even sent out our own personal server for the bridal party while we were finishing up pictures and the rest of the guests were at the cocktail hour. The bartenders that Caroline Street provided were perfect for our rowdy crowd, they were headstrong enough to stop my drunk and belligerent brother from drinking too much, but lenient enough to keep the party going and the drinks flowing. The staff showed up dressed in all black and almost entirely blended into the background. The tables were set to exactly my specifications and the table settings were functional and elegant. There were some items we requested that Caroline Street didn�t previously own (i.e. gravy boats for salad dressings), and Caroline Street was accommodating enough to purchase these items for our event and add them to their catering stock. We rented some specialty glasses through Caroline Street and some ended up broken but we were not charged an arm and a leg for the breakage and instead the Caroline Street absorbed the cost. The service members were fast and efficient and could react at a moments notice.

Initially when we contacted Caroline Catering we were disappointed. Then one day Shane, the owner, called because his Manager was out sick. We told him we had written them off because of the poor interactions we’d had. He asked for another chance. Thank the gods we accepted his offer. Shane provided us with a tasting and the food was fantastic. The other vendors we had checked out had mediocre food and we were beginning to believe we would have to accept that level. Ohhhhh contraire. When we described a mash potato bar using martini glasses Shane was intrigued with the idea. He actually bought more martini glasses to meet our needs but didn’t charge us extra. We had our wedding was @ 11:30 and our invitations indicated hors'dourves and everyone commented on the fabulous food. And the price included so many things. We had beautiful ivory table cloths and baby blue napkins in the champagne glasses. The buffet, sweetheart & cake table had a blue table cloth decoratively on top of the ivory one. The look was spectacular. Caroline Café is a definite winner!!

Overall we had a great experience with Caroline Street. We did have a slight communication issue for a couple of months because of some internal staffing problems within the company and also the Virginia liquor laws, but we don't fault them at all for this. All of the issues were more than compensated for on their end by giving us discounts on our total bill (at the suggestion of Chef Shane, not by our insistence). Their flexibility and value is amazing - they were able to do better than a more expensive company that we interviewed for a lower price. They were also very willing to work with us to develop a menu that we were happy with and were very professional and caring. The servers even brought appetizers and desserts to us to be sure that we were able to sample everything during the busy day! We would highly recommend Caroline Street for anyone getting married in the Fredericksburg area.

I loved having Caroline Street Cafe cater our wedding! Chef Shane was awesome. We had a vegetarian menue with a lot of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean influenced foods. Everything was delicious. Shane is very creative and really worked to honor my requests and suggestions down to the smallest detail. I had so many compliments on the taste and presentation of the food. I couldn't be more happy with their service and highly recommend them for any event.

This caterer was wonderful to work with until the actual day of the event. On the day of the event, the servers were not professionally dressed, the food was like "leftovers" and not prepared to specifications, and I had to go "chase down" items I purchased for the evening that they took with them. Not a good ending, but a wonderful beginning.

Chef Shane, et al, were supurb. I had all kinds of crazy off the wall neat food that my guests loved. They lined up and ate everything. My favorite was the london broil with bleu cheese (Stilton!) and they did all of my beer and wine ordering for me, too. They took care of everything and did it all outside. It was super. No sit down for us. It had this tappas kind of feel, and the food just kept flowing.
Caroline Street in Fredericksburg, VA

Caroline Street Catering offer great food at a great price! They can cater any event and are always a huge success when we've worked with them at wedding's. They're friendly to work with and their menu's are customizable so you get exactly what YOU want on your big day!

I have entertained at many events with Chef Shane "Caroline Street Catering" and have found him and his staff to always be ready to present a great meal. He is extremely cooperative when it comes to "Champagne and Cake Events" at weddings. He is truly a professional.

We have worked with Caroline Street Catering for many on-site events. The staff is always pleasant to work with and the food is wonderful. Shane puts together creative menus that leave the guests raving about the meal for weeks!

Caroline Street Catering is amazing! Chef Shane and Angela were a tremendous help during our opening and contributed delicious pastries that disappeared fast! They are both there for you to make any event go smooth.

Caroline Street is a top notch catering service. They provide great food and an even better service. Simply awesome!