The Movable Feast

My daughter had always wanted to get married at the Prospect Park Boathouse ever since she was a little girl riding her bike around the park. The renovation has made it a spectacular historic space, and perfect for weddings or big & small events. It was superb, we could not have dreamed of a more beautiful setting for the wedding.
Everything was so carefully detailed, the tables set, the chairs for the out door ceremony, Yoriko thought of everything and the swans even swam up on cue.
Her crew was extremely helpful, and graciously accommodating our florists and photo booth and went above and beyond with all our family and guests. We didn’t need a wedding planner in any way, Yoriko worked very closely with my daughter, the bride, who is an advertising producer and quite particular. Every question was answered timely and professionally and greatly appreciated. Neither she or her husband (the groom) had to do anything more than voice their preferences, Yoriko took care of it all with her incredible happy team.
Everyone was raving about the appetizers, the sumptuous raw bar and the main courses we picked (the beef & salmon) were not only presented beautifully but scrupulously delicious! top notch and worth every penny! Guests are still complimenting us, weeks later. I have done many fundraising events and The Movable Feast was always a top contender. We were so lucky to have them as the Park’s Caterer.
Yoriko’s team was extremely attentive and friendly and made every aspect of the night easy and best wedding ever! Each table had an assigned waiter who attended to our every needs, glasses were filled with delicious wines with a smile and sometimes a song. The bartenders had a challenge with a big Irish family but were more than up to the job. A big THANK YOU to all for it was a delightful night, one that everyone who attended will remember.
And when everything was finish and the bride, groom & guests were off, Yoriko & her team cleared the tables efficiently and helped me (MOB) load up the car with wedding items and table decorations without me even asking. They made it seem so easy and we want to thank them all from the bottom of our hearts.

We only ever really considered getting married at The Boathouse in Prospect Park (though I did look up a few venues online before we met with Yoriko in April 2015 to get a feel for the space and grounds).
We couldn’t be more thrilled with our selection. It was honestly better than either my husband or I could have imagined. I remember wishing there were more reviews on the place when we were getting ready to put down a deposit, and the only reason I can think why there aren’t a lot is because no one has any complaints! It’s perfection and then some! And one can only gush so much, but let me tell you brides– and grooms-​to-​be, if you are considering the Boathouse and it’s in your budget, don’t think twice!
Yoriko, Ryan, and the Movable Feast staff are phenomenal. Yoriko was a delight to work with – patient, attentive, responsive, helpful, gracious throughout the process and then on the night of, well, I don’t even have words for how incredible she and her staff were. My husband and I had our drinks refreshed by our server without ever having to ask, a minor detail, but it’s in the details, right? The food was delicious (I mean, we barely ate, but our guests weren’t shy about expressing their pleasure and satisfaction).
We had a couple of boxes containing reception items that I thought my bridal party might have to help with since we didn’t have a wedding planner, but nope. Yoriko took over as soon as the groomsmen brought them in. And at the end of the night, they packed everything up for us, including an extra plate of donuts (we brought them in from outside), one tier of the red velvet cake, and my husband’s barely touched dinner. We didn’t lift a finger all night. The staff was efficient, friendly, professional. And I’ve worked in the restaurant industry, so take it from me when I praise them for their stellar service.
I’ll add some pics once I have the professional shots. But, seriously, you CAN’T GO WRONG choosing this venue. So long as your guest count is under 150, this is THE PLACE to get married in NYC.

We were so lucky to get the Boathouse in Prospect Park for our wedding. And even luckier to have Yoriko and the very professional and cheerful catering team at Movable Feast help us put together and execute a gorgeous wedding. The setting was lovely, the food was delicious (we received many compliments on the steak and cake especially (red velvet)!), and the staff just wonderful – from keeping the candles lit during dinner to their unfailing courtesy to the guests. It was a very stressful day for us (as i’m sure it is for many brides and grooms), but they all took such great care of so many details that we enjoyed ourselves much more than we would have imagined, given all the competing demands! A pleasure to work with from start to finish – Yoriko and the entire Movable Feast team get huge thanks and kudos from us.

A HUGE thank you to Yoriko and her incredible team!!!
When we chose The Boathouse at Prospect Park as our wedding venue, we learned that Moveable Feast was the exclusive caterer. Lucky us!
Yoriko showed us the venue and discussed pricing on Halloween evening last year (2014), and we picked 10÷24÷15 as our wedding date.
Yoriko was a pleasure to work with from start to finish, answering my hundreds of emails with clarity and detail.
We attended a tasting about 7 months before the wedding, which was a lot of fun! We were really happy with the menu, and decided not to upgrade anything. We actually preferred the steak and salmon that was included, rather than the upgraded versions.
On the day of our wedding, my husband and I were tended to by each member of the staff, making sure we had drinks, food, water, etc.
The service and food were simply outstanding. We received several compliments on how great the food and wine was, and especially the service. I was initially concerned about their being only one bartender for the night, but that was a total non-​issue. Servers took drink orders at the tables, and there was no back up at the bar.
All in all, we were blown away by The Moveable Feast, Yoriko, and the entire staff. They really helped make our day as special as it was. I hope I get to attend an event by them soon!
Here was our menu:
Cocktail hour — Shitake Mushroom and Vidalia onion Duxelles in puff pastry, Thai beef en brochette, Maryland lump crabcakes with caper Remoulade, Mini Stilton burgers with spicy ketchup, Filet mignon on croustades with cognac butter, Goat cheese and pumpkin croquetas
Dinner:
Field greens with chevre, pecans and Asian pears
Hanger steak with bordelaise sauce OR Miso Glazed salmon filets
Roasted jeweled root vegetables
Basil and Garlic mashed Yukon gold potatoes
Tortellini with basil and walnut pesto
Red Velvet Wedding Cake with cream cheese frosting

Thank you to Yoriko and the Movable Feast team for giving us the wedding of our dreams. When we got engaged the first place we thought of getting married was the Prospect Park Boathouse. And thankfully the Boathouse’s exclusive caterer, Movable Feast, was a wonderful vendor to work with. Yoriko is so sweet and attentive, and she helped with our planning all along the way. She was very responsive to all my questions and concerns, followed my timeline and some special table set up instructions, and the Movable Feast staff helped with several «extra» things we had planned (a groom’s cake, special cocktail hour entertainment, an ice cream truck we hired, etc.). I was worried that I had no planner or day of coordinator, and honestly I didn’t need one – Movable Feast knows what they’re doing and they take care of you. They handle rentals of all furniture, linens, and dinnerware, as well as bar, staffing, and security. You pick the style and color, they do all the work. The full bar package, wedding cake, and champagne toast is all included too. I loved that we didn’t have to make any cost-​cutting choices and leave something out, like the champagne, to save money. And most importantly: the food and wine were amazing. We went with hanger steak and miso-​glazed salmon (the 2 dishes Yoriko recommended) and got high praises from all our guests. People told me they loved the hors d’oeuvres and that they were abundantly passed. My parents complimented the French wine selection. On a final note, the service from Yoriko and her team is top notch. A table was erroneously set up at the alter; Yoriko grabbed it and moved it inside before the ceremony began, and we used it for our guest book. She arranged my cathedral– length veil before I walked down the aisle. They handed my brand-​new husband and I champagne when we came back down the aisle. Yoriko personally went to my mother and introduced herself. She was always in the background but never intrusive. Thank you Movable Feast!

When we discovered The Boathouse at Prospect Park as a potential wedding venue for our big day we were instantly in love! So to have also been there that day with Yoriko from The Movable Feast was an omen. From our first meeting back in January 2014, until literally moments before I walked down the aisle when I suddenly felt her fixing my veil at my May 2015 wedding… our experience in working with Yoriko was nothing short of wonderful. Calm, professional, willing to research multiple furniture rental companies — it felt so comforting to have a reliable person to work with on so many important details across our year+ wedding planning. Then, the day before our wedding, when typical last-​minute guest list changes popped up; The Movable Feast was willing to forego charging us for place settings that otherwise would have gone unused. They followed our plans to a T, and made all of our guests feel relaxed and accommodated. And as anyone from NYC can appreciate — being one of the world’s most experienced and critical food cities — even 5 months later our guests are STILL raving about how much they enjoyed the food from our wedding! The Movable Feast is the exclusive caterer to The Boathouse, and although we may have been worried about not being able to consider other options in the beginning; now in retrospect we couldn’t have been more proud or thankful to have had them! You’ll be in great hands with The Movable Feast and Yoriko for your big day — believe us!

Yoriko and her team worked extra hard to make our wedding at the Prospect Park Boathouse in Brooklyn absolutely perfect. We had unforeseen challenges the day of the wedding due to the weather and Yoriko and the Moveable feast hung in there and supported us through many indoor/​outdoor changes. They wanted it outside just as much as we did and thanks to them we were able to make it happen. The food was outstanding and service great throughout the night. Leading up to the wedding Yoriko was very helpful always around to answer questions big or small. I highly recommend Yoriko and her team.

I agree that the customer service is lacking a bit. I contacted Moveable Feast a week in advance to view the space on the following Saturday. I was told it was already booked up and they asked if I could see it on Friday instead. I said yes, but it would have to be later in the afternoon because I’m a teacher and I can’t leave the school before the students leave. She told me she couldn’t show it because it gets dark early.
I explained that we had a hold on another venue that we needed to give an answer to by Monday and would really love to see it before then. If this were my business and I knew my potential clients were considering booking elsewhere, I would be a tad more flexible in making sure they got to see the place.
Oh well, we’d rather work with people who are easy and accommodating. The staff at 501 Union have been great for a Brooklyn wedding!

I inquired about a reception and knew what a typical budget would be for NYC. I received an email from Ellen who asked about our budget and the occasion. I provided her the response and she simply emailed back, «Thanks for your inquiry but we would not be able to work within your budget.»
At least provide options or a reason why its not within our budget. We had another company outside of our budget who was great and provided us options on the event. The Moveable Feast could easily have more business if there service was better and having read a couple of reviews elsewhere, I can see that it isn’t just me that they provided a complete lack of service to.

Overall, my wedding at the Prospect Park Boathouse was a huge success and we were very happy with all the work put in by Moveable Feast catering (the exclusive caterer for the Boathouse). I worked mostly with Yoriko prior to my wedding day, and Jackson (one of the owners) on the actual wedding day. We had a tasting in January for our May wedding and were not blown away by any of the food or wine we tasted, which made us a bit nervous. One of the things that bothered us was that they charge $ 10/​pp extra for filet mignon, however they don’t serve this at the tasting event. We put up enough of a fit and they allowed myself and 2 family members to come to an event at the boathouse to taste the filet (which was not very good, so i’m very happy we tasted it before paying extra). We wound up choosing hanger steak with chimichurri sauce and miso glazed salmon, which were both much better than i had expected (luckily i managed to try 1 bite of each on our wedding night!). Unfortunately, i didn’t get to try any of the hors dourves, however i was told by many people that they were delicious. We had gone over a timeline of how we wanted everything to be served, in conjunction with the DJ, and they were pretty good about getting everything out on time. The only exception was we had decided to have our cake sliced and served on a table along with ice cream that we brought to the venue, rather than being served individually at each person’s seat. They took it upon themselves to make the decision to serve the cake, with the ice cream on the plate, to each person seated at the tables. Luckily, i caught this quickly and my wedding planner was able to have them switch to the way we wanted it. Overall, the Moveable Feast was a good caterer, somewhat restrictive/​not flexible in their rules, but mostly due to the venue’s rules.

A wedding at the Prospect Park Boathouse includes catering from Movable Feast. No other options. We wondered if their level of customer service would have been better had we not been locked-​in customers because of our location.
It seemed bizarre that we were not able to taste as many options as we might be serving at our wedding. How would we know if we wanted to upgrade and include more expensive dishes or more items if we are not able to try them? We weren’t trying to scam a free meal at our tasting– we just really wanted to «taste» the things we were interested in. We didn’t like 2 of the entrees we tried and felt like we were in a bit of a panic.
After a long discussion, we were able to taste more dishes by coming back to Brooklyn when they had another event on a weekend. We just wanted to try some salmon…
When we asked about having anything «extra» at the wedding, the answer was generally «that is not included.» MF could make extra money (and make customers happy!) by simply saying «yes, and it will cost _​_​_​_​_​_​.»
All of the stars go to the Movable Feast staff. The gentleman who served us at our second tasting was a delight. He was charming, pleasant to talk to, and finally gave us some salmon :)
Yuriko is another gem– she is bright, kind, and incredibly helpful and informative.
The staff really runs a great show at the Boathouse– we didn’t need a wedding planner because they really took care of it all for us. That is a definite benefit of working with an exclusive caterer. The venue was gorgeous, they had a wonderful set up, and kept us on schedule.
The food was really wonderful (especially for a wedding! it is no easy feat to serve 80+ people at the same time).
The owners were not our favorites to work with, but the sweet staff and beautiful, yummy results were worth it.

We just had our wedding at the Prospect Park Boathouse (aka Audubon Society) this past Saturday, October 22^nd. Ellen and Jackson were great from the very start. Prompt in replying and answering questions, and pros of the highest order in setting your worrying, anxious, wedding-​planning minds at ease!
It is very obvious that they have been in business for a long time, and know precisely what to expect, what will work and what will not, and were extremely patient when we changed our minds about various details. I really appreciated their honesty in telling us what they thought would be best for the type of reception we were aiming for.
Now, on to the food! The food is really fantastic! It’s a bit nerve-​racking wondering how well a tasting for two people will translate to actually feeding 150+ guests, but it could not have been better! Many of our guests complimented the food, saying it was very tasty, looked lovely, and was good and hot (nothing worse than cold food on a chilly evening!). They provide quite a number of selections to choose from – everything from the hors d’oeurves to entrees to side dishes – and their wedding cakes are not only absolutely gorgeous, but taste delicious!
The staff were friendly and helpful, and did not seem too put out by our rowdy guests. If you are looking for a caterer either at the Boathouse or elsewhere, you really can’t go wrong with Movable Feast. Ellen and Jackson have been in business for over 30 years for good reason!

Having spent years working in the restaurant/​service industry I cannot overstate how amazingly professional and downright fun it was to work with Ellen and Jackson. Our recent wedding reception for 65 was at the Prospect Park Boathouse and every detail went like clockwork.
We had two separate tastings with Ellen and Jackson in the months before the reception and had a great feeling from the beginning. Drinking wine and tasting amazing hors d’oeuvres and entrees is a great way to start a professional relationship!
Jackson and his staff nailed every detail, working seamlessly with our wacky schedule and details. Little things like napkin folds, table settings, and colors were perfect. And the bartenders were very liberal with our, um…, celebrating friends. Seriously, the Movable Feast staff felt more like honored guests who really ‘got’ the vibe of the celebration rather than folks there to get their pay and cleanup and bail as soon as possible.
Banquet style food is so hard to serve at the right temperature and with good quality. You can really tell the Movable Feast is operated by professionals who know what they are doing and take a lot of pride in the quality of their work. We were really nervous when we fell in love with the Boathouse but heard there was an exclusive caterer; yet in the end we are so grateful that it worked out that way.

It’s been a few years since they catered my wedding (also at the Prospect Park Boathouse) so this is a belated review, but I saw that they don’t have too many reviews on Unilocal yet so I wanted to say how great they are. We had seriously amazing food, and these people are such pros. Everything went off without a hitch. No rubber chicken! I think it was the best wedding cake I ever tasted. You know how at some weddings the food is not very memorable? Not the case at ours, the food was fantastic and many of our guests said so. They coordinated everything seamlessly, charged us reasonable prices, and didn’t play any games. I couldn’t have been more thrilled.

The Movable Feast catered my wedding in the Prospect Park Boathouse. We had a very positive experience working with their director, Jackson. He’s very detail oriented, professional, helpful – made everything very clear from the outset and really tried to accomodate our wishes, if you want specific food choices, no matter how bizarre, they’ll make sure you get it. So, for example, I had sushi with penne a la vodka and pineapples/​mangos with cake:) The wedding was choreographed like clockwork, they planned everything without a hitch or hassle, setting up the tables, providing the waitstaff, toasts, etc. Fees were very reasonable and competitive given how damn expensive these things can be. I never worried for an instance that they would disappoint.