Jewell Events Catering

I was so happy with Jewell from Day 1. We selected the Rookery as our venue - which only works with two caterers: Jewell and Blue Plate. Immediately Kristin and Dana responded to my inquiry and asked about all our vision they knew who we were and what we were looking for before I even got the automated welcome response from Blue Plate. Throughout the whole process Kristin and Dana worked with us on various changes and answered our hundreds of questions very promptly. Not to mention they are such sweethearts and great to work with!

Would I recommend?...

Jewell Catering was definitely the “jewel” vendor at our wedding. We had a complicated, Indian wedding at a downtown Chicago park and I was so impressed with how easy Dana and her team made the complicated process look. I would say the caterers had 70% of the effort of our wedding from bringing in everything from tables to forks on to an island, to even passing out mango popsicles to our guests with 5 days notice. They also managed the Indian food subcontractor effortlessly. I don’t think I can remember a single thing that was missing that day from Jewell’s performance or service and I think that is the biggest testament to a great vendor- when you don’t ever notice that they are there because everything is working just as you planned. I would wholeheartedly recommend Jewell for any wedding, large or small!

After looking at many different caterers and going to several tastings, we came to Jewell, and realized immediately how wonderful they are. The food is extremely high quality, tastes great, and is beautifully arranged. We got tons of compliments from our guests, who said it was the best wedding food they had eaten. In addition to all that, our catering manager Gregory was so much fun to work with, answered all of my many questions beforehand, and took care of all the little details that will make you crazy but you don't have time to think about on the day of. Although they charge a little bit more than some other places, the superior food and service makes it an extremely worthwhile investment -- we are absolutely thrilled with the job they did.

Jewell Weddings, a division of Jewell Events Catering, is an excellent choice for a wedding reception vendor. In May, 2012, Jewell provided buffet service for our daughter’s event but it was the preparation leading up to the wedding that sets them apart. Dana Konya, our event coordinator with Jewell, along with administrator Tim Garcia helped us navigate a sticky situation when an unprecedented world event caused upheaval in the event business in Chicago. Also, in the planning stages, Dana and the chef were very accommodating when we wanted to use family recipes and some home grown food for the party and the Jewell staff fixed them to perfection. Because we had to shift venues just a couple months before the wedding, there was lots of communication and Dana was quick to reply and help, a much valued attribute as so many previous arrangements had to be scuttled and new plans had to come together quickly. Finally, Dana’s warm smile and easy manner helped this mother of the bride enjoy the evening knowing that there was a skilled banquet manager looking over the meal and the staff serving it! Well done Jewell Catering!

Dana Konya was the wedding coordinator for my daughter's wedding at The Rookery on 9/17/11. Dana & her team are simply wonderful! From the beginning, Dana was responsive, creative, & fun to work with - an absolute delight & a true professional. She managed to take our vision & turn it into an even more beautiful reality. Her advice, suggestions & referrals were all spot-on.
I was complimented all night on how perfect everything was - venue, food, lighting - all was perfection! I also want to recognize the wait staff. The service was absolutely flawless from start to finish. I am not aware of a single glitch & if there was one - it was transparent to me & I don't want to know about it!

We have gotten countless compliments on both the food itself as well as the service. The folks at Jewell Events really worked with us from the start to make the reception so memorable, and worked within our budget without being snooty. Our tasting was fantastic and while the choices were somewhat overwhelming everything was delicious and they helped us to choose our menu. The food we had at the reception matched what we had for the tasting, so everything was great. The bartenders were professional and quick. What was impressive is that they somehow could keep track of what guests were drinking and had drinks ready for them before they got up to the bar.The whole experience was flawless, you won't regret working with Jewell

We had a wedding reception at The Rookery building and Jewell Catering was the only catering company for the venue. We couldn't be happy with the service and flexibility with Jewell! We wanted a few items that were not on Jewell's list of dishes and they were able to make it happen. We had such a great time at our tasting and Jewell Catering told us our guests will leave satisfied and full. And they were right! Our guests are still raving about our wedding menu, the desserts and the late night snacks! and we owe it all to Jewell. Thank you Dana, Gregory and Kristen!

Everything about our wedding with Jewell Events Catering was wonderful. Dana and Gregory helped make our day run so smoothly and enabled us to not have to worry about a single thing. I tend to have difficulty with patience in our extremely electronic world, but both Dana and Gregory ensured that everything was exactly how we wanted it for our wedding. They met all the dietary needs of our guest without even a question! They were wonderful! The food was great! The Service was great! Thanks Jewell Events for exceeding our expectations!

WONDERFUL!! Jewell Events was so flexible, so accomodating, I was so happy with every detail of my wedding. The food was amazing, and they did such a good job. I recommend them completely!

As a former event planner I knew exactly what I wanted in a caterer. Apparently giving a detailed synopsis of your desires is difficult for most caterers. Then I sent a request to Dana at Jewell Events and it was a match made in heaven! Dana went out of her way to meet all of our requests including the numerous amounts of personal touches and requests. She did a phenomenal job coming in right on budget and I would've been lost without her for last minute items. The food was amazing and the service was fantastic!

Emily was so amazing to work with!!!!!!! The food was incredible!!!!! All my guests were commenting how amazing their food was!!! The bartenders were remembering what guests were drinking and had drinks ready before they got up to the bar. One bartender even left the bar to come refill my glass for me while I was visiting with guests!!!! Emily is SUPER organized and responds to email within an hour! And did I mention the food?!?!??! I'm vegan and many of the guests were shocked at the vegan cheese quesadillas. The didn't believe me that there was no dairy. You will not regret working with Jewell!!!!!

Jewell Events Catering was a wonderful company to work with while planning my wedding. I loved the Wedding Consultant I worked with, Dana Konya! She really captured how fun it can be to play with different ideas for food and decorating the venue. I also enjoyed how flexible she was throughout the entire planning process-changes always seem to come up at the last minute and they really accommodating every request. Compared to other caterers I looked at, they gave the highest level of personalized customer service and had the best price around. They are definitely doing something right!
I highly recommend working with Jewell Catering for weddings, work, or any event.

Linda was amazing at putting together the perfect menu options and for helping out with everything during the wedding to make it a perfect night. Her head staff, Mike, helped us with how to cut the cake, when to bring in the courses for food, and to help queue the dj for varying music. It was a wonderful night that went smoothly because of them.

While I was happy with what was provided, I feel if I had shopped around a bit more I may have gotten some more bang for my buck, but you are paying for the experience in the industry with them and that is definitely something that helped put my mind at ease. Only complaints were that it seemed as though there were not as many appetizers served as we had ordered and the salads were underdressed (they were pre-set so this may have been the cause). Good food, just pricier in the end, than what we could have gotten from some of the smaller caterers.

We got so many compliments on both the food itself AND the service. Linda from Jewell Events really worked with us from the beginning to make the reception possible, and she worked within our budget. The tasting we had was wonderful, we got to try many different items and it really helped us to figure out a menu. The food we had on the day of was just like what we had for the tasting, so there were no surprises. Everything was cooked perfectly and the attentiveness of the service was wonderful. I would definitely recommend working with Linda and Jewell Events.

Greater Catering Company! Their food is amazing. They were very responsive to our requests for special items (while still staying within our budget). We had 2 tastings to get the food like what we wanted, and they still gave us the 15% off-linens signing early discount, even though we missed it by a few days. They let us use a local retailer for alcohol, which ended up saving us thousands of dollars because we could return un-opened cases.

This is a high quality catering company, so it's expensive, but when compared to the other catering companies in its league (and we had about 4 different tastings), they gave us the best deal.

(the only reason why the quality was docked a half a star is because the chicken was a bit dry at the reception - but i think that's mostly our fault, we started dinner nearly an hour behind schedule)