Gather in Downtown McKinney

The venue is lovely but the service and food was unacceptable. The salad was wilted and brown and the donner served was cold. Really need to put some attention on this.

This place is beautiful and the service here is above super! We had a baby shower here and they were so accommodating to our group. Always attentive and helpful. loved this place!

Just had a WONDERFUL consultation with Jennifer! I just absolutely fell in love with her. She made me feel so welcome and that she actually cared about making my big day special! I specifically requested that she be the coordinator on my big day. She answered all of my questions and was quite prepared to answer my questions that I submitted via email. I am so excited about getting married at Gather. Jennifer made me feel comfortable that everything would go off without a hitch on the best day of my life. Again, SO EXCITED! I highly recommend requesting her specifically! I will be submitting my deposit tomorrow!

Portion sizes VERY small for $ 5. They did NOT serve the menu I had bought. Dessert lollipops were a joke. They confirmed soup would be plated separately from salad and served individually, to create four courses. But they served tiny soup with tiny salad together on a single plate. Then told me they had to since I only had the hall for two hours, although I had rented it for three hours, which they confirmed after messing up the first two courses. Then when we finished 20 minutes early, they started moving tables and pushing us out before our time was even up. Guests complained about the taste of the food. Oh, and be sure to avoid taking pictures under the huge HIV on the wall. Never going back. Our patronage was clearly resented rather than appreciated. We were just a bother to them, though they gladly took our $ 2,000. The shower was great because of the guests but In spite of the venue, not because of it.

Had a Groupon for brunch for 2. It was soooo good, we really enjoyed it! The place is right in downtown Mckinney and it’s beautiful inside with brick walls and chandeliers. Even the bathroom was beautiful! Anyway about the food, they had multiple drink options from coffee, tea, and juice. The buffet had a great selection and everything was delicious. The service was great. The manager or owner kept walking over to the tables making sure everyone was okay. She also made sure you had whatever you wanted. If something ran out she immediately made sure there was more. We left very full and very satisfied. I highly suggest it!

My review is more like 3.5 stars only because the food really is great. The pecan french toast was delicious and kept me going back for more. The space is decorated really nice and has unique touches throughout the space. While the service was pretty standard, what was really disappointing was the price and the extra charge for drinks. They have the beverages near the buffet so you think they are included, but once we received the bill we learned we were charged for each drink. It seems a bit cheap but what irked me more was that is wasn’t stated or written anywhere that beverages weren’t included in the buffet. I’ll be back because I really liked the space and food, but it won’t be any time soon.

I had my reception at Gather on Sunday, November 3^rd 2013.
There is a reason Gather is the winner of McKinney Magazine’s Best Wedding Venue. Crystal and her team are above and beyond wonderful.
I didn’t have a wedding planner. My fiancé and I spent a year saving/​getting our stuff in order and a year planning this whole endeavor. Also, our wedding budget was 6k. UNHEARD OF, RIGHT?! :-P
We had a Sunday Brunch following our 1pm ceremony at Chestnut Square. I was a little worried about the overlap between the regular brunch at Gather and when my reception would start. I was also worried about setup for the reception, my Maid of Honor volunteered to do it and SURPRISE! Crystal and the staff at Gather had already had most of it done by the time my MOH arrived to begin setup and they were mostly cleared from the regular brunch. I honestly did not expect them to do that part of the setup. I had boxes of décor designated per table, a chart of decoration placement, and pictures for reference included to help out my super nervous MOH setup but it was taken care of. She was super relieved. Crystal and her team executed the design perfectly.
The food is wonderful! There was food at our Brunch Buffet that I had no idea was even going to be included. There was food that I was too full to even eat but it all looked and smelled delicious. Their presentation of the buffet tables was spot on and they were attentive to keep any messes cleared up, a little detail i appreciated. They took care in serving our special Pear Thyme Mimosa and made those look beautiful.
I believe that if you are a bride/​groom on a budget and looking to get the most out of your wedding budget then Gather is a viable option. The venue itself is versatile in terms of decoration and mood. It can be modern, rustic, southern, preppy, timeless, etc. It’s up to your imagination. It is a shared retail space with Unique Unique so the space isn’t empty and you can play off what is already there. I just provided floral centerpieces, various height table top candle holders and votives and that was basically it. There was also a ton of natural light coming in from the huge storefront windows which was a huge plus for me. Overall, it’s a really great venue and has a lot to offer.
We got so many compliments on the venue, the location, and the food. Crystal and her team are on it. They pay attention to the details and work hard to make your event special and as worry free as they can.
Thank you Crystal and the staff at Gather! I look forward to many anniversary brunches at Gather.

Had a Groupon that expired ²⁄₂ so called Gather on ¹⁄₂₆ to make a reservation for brunch on ²⁄₁. No one answered so I left my reservation request on their voice mail. No one called me on ¹⁄₂₇ AM, so I called and once again was greeted by an answering machine. Today, they called and informed me that they had a wedding and there would be no brunch on Sunday. When I inquired about their brunch schedule, a very snotty Jennifer informed me that if they had a wedding, there would be no brunch, and, «No» they do not have Sunday brunch every Sunday.
Their website suggests that brunch is an every Sunday affair — I guess that the webmaster needs to check with Jennifer.
Given the lackluster reviews, and two days to return a phone call, it reinforces my opinion that this is a bunch of amateurs with no real desire to work hard to please a customer.
Groupon cancelled and will be refunded.

Great atmosphere, terrific service, used a Groupon and did make a reservation late the evening before and was able to get in. Good was good, not spectacular, the setting and service make the experience worthwhile!

I attended a wedding here yesterday, and it was a perfect venue for a small (50 person) event. The owner and her staff were ON IT — they did such a good job managing everything (transition from ceremony to reception, refilling drinks, getting good out on time). It was nice having the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception all in one spot. The food was great, the décor was lovely, and they did a great job making the space work. Is definitely take a look if you’re planning an intimate, classy event!

I guess things have changed since the previous reviews because I thought the food was excellent. I did use a groupon and we went early just in case it was busy. We were greeted by several ladies and sat immediately and offered drinks. I loved the food. It was just like home cooking. I tried almost everything twice. I would definitely go back again.

The food and atmosphere was great. Every one in our party enjoyed their food, and some of us are pretty picky!

I had my wedding reception at Gather last September. I’m from the McKinney area originally, but currently live in the San Francisco, CA bay area, so I was planning EVERYTHING for the wedding long-​distance (major challenge).
Pros: Beautiful décor, food was delicious (no, really, it was delicious, and wedding food is rarely very good in my opinion), service was great, Crystal handled everything with the vendors (sourcing table linens — who knew that would be so confusing?, delivery, set up, clean up, etc.), so less stress for me!
Cons: The city of McKinney decided to tear up the street and sidewalks in front of Gather right before our wedding, so the street and sidewalks were a bit treacherous and delivery of wedding-​related items was a challenge. Nothing we could have done about that, and it’s since been completed and is very nice now. There were a couple of surprise tweaks to the floor plan, which I found out as we walked into our reception. No big deal and everything worked out fine. As I mentioned, I was planning everything from California, so it would have been nice if I could have gotten more prompt return phone calls (this is the reason for one lost star in the review), but all was handled beautifully when I was able to get hold of Crystal.
The verdict: I loved it. Our reception was beautiful. The pictures were beautiful. Crystal made it as low-​stress as possible, which is a dream come true for any bride (and mother-​of-​the-​bride). If I had it to do all over again, I would absolutely choose Gather. In fact, I would probably have ditched the ceremony location and held my ceremony at Gather as well. And I would have used their event planning services and saved myself a ton of work. They have an amazing eye for detail and you can trust them. I also used several of their preferred vendors and they were great as well.

From the moment you enter Gather you feel as you are visiting family. You walk through a small store which feels like a formal living room into a wonderfully decorated dining area. We were immediately greeted and shown to a table.
Drinks were brought out right away and we were informed what the buffet consisted of and where everything was located. I would have to agree that the selection isn’t large. However, I have been to places that have a large selection and each is done poorly. I would much rather have a small to medium size selection that is all home made and tastes good.
I am a huge eggs Benedict fan and this was one of the major reasons to have brunch there. The eggs were cook perfectly and the hollandaise sauce was excellent. The pecan french toast casserole was great, a must try.
I am perplexed on those that said the service was poor. We had someone, whether the owner, or a server, stop by the table at least every 10 minutes asking how we were doing.
I have to agree with others that charging for drinks at a brunch comes across as cheap. Throw in some free juice or milk and the fifth star is yours.
Our second reason for visiting was to sample the food and observe the service as this place may be holding my wedding/​reception in the near future,.
Got the price list for a wedding event. That brought the rating way down. Wedding and reception will not be held here. An example of the over pricing is a $ 250 Bartender fee plus a $ 5 per person pour fee. They appear to be the Spirit Airlines of restaurants.

Wow! And not in a good way. After months of trying to get a reservation, we finally got in 3 days after our Groupon expired. They still honored it, so that was a plus. You have to enter through a completely separate store/​gallery/​showroom which was a bit confusing. Then, you are immediately accosted by a network marketing Stella & Dot salesperson. HUGE turnoff! We were seated, literally right in the doorway. I still had high hopes for the food, which regularly priced is $ 20 per person. It was cold. Cold scrambled eggs, cold chicken fried steak, cold chicken enchiladas, lukewarm gravy. Dessert was well… Let’s just say thank God for bacon to get the taste out of my mouth. The service was actually pretty good so the two stars are for service and overall atmosphere. Sad considering this place would totally rock if they had good food.

Beautiful space… Horrible value and service for the price point for a shower or venue choice. I had my bridal shower at The Gather on a Saturday afternoon in September. The venue was reserved for an evening event. So during my shower they were preping for the next event right next to my shower. They had the room seperated by a table to prep the other half of the space. We provided champagne punch for my guests. The venue provided a small dinner salad and thumprint sandwiches which were extra tiny. The servers did not offer drink service to my guests they were too busy setting up for the next event. The food was a joke as well as the service for how much was spent. So I had reserved the venue for 30 guests this cost $ 900…You can get alot more bang for your buck at Bonnie Ruth’s… Horrible experience!!!

I’ve never felt the need to write a review before, but I feel as though I must share on Unilocal the horrific experience we had at Gather. Not only was I extremely embaressed by what happened, but I also felt as though a baby shower and a wedding were ruined.
I worked with the owner months in advance to plan a baby shower for about 25 – 30 guests. After multiple emails to follow up, I confirmed that everything was set and ready to go. I even tried calling to confirm the day of and the day before.
I finally got a hold of the owner the morning of the shower to confirm one last time that everything was good to go because I had a bad feeling after not hearing back from her the previous day. When I spoke to her, she acted like she had no idea what baby shower I was talking about. She said that the only event at Gather that day was a wedding. After reminding her multiple times about the baby shower and pulling up all of the email communications, she finally realized that she had double booked a wedding and our baby shower at the same time on the same day. The shower was in less than 2 hours and people were driving from out of town to attend our event.
Needless to say, both the baby shower and the wedding were ruined. There was a thin sheer curtain that seperated the two events, but our entire party had to be silent for the first 30 minutes while a couple exhchnaged vows 10 feet away.
The owner did not charge us (rightfully so) for the shower, but the food was terrible and the memory of our baby shower was ruined. I felt even worse for the bride.

I was really disappointed. I wanted this place to be good. Very small selection & actually the place is not that small. Other Sunday buffet’s that are cheaper provide a much better selection. Food was lukewarm or cold and very bland. The hostess was extremely friendly but our waitress was very rude and had a frown on her face the whole time. She practically threw my coffee on the table and snapped back when we asked something.
I will never return for brunch. There are better choices in the area such as Bonnie Ruths and Lucy’s on the Square. I have not been here for lunch but I must say I am hesitant to try it.
FYI — I was not the only one with this experience. We had friends that went a month earlier that had the same complaints.

Such lovely, femininely rustic, vintage inspired décor! This venue is actually for bridal parties, showers, and even small, intimate weddings.
They offer Sunday brunch with a small, but satisfying selection. They’re focus is more on overall quality than quantity. Eggs benedict was pretty good! Their breakfast gravy was thick, hearty, and delicious. It complemented the plentiful sausage and fresh, warm biscuits. They had an ample supply of bacon, which pleased my daughter and hubby. Their desserts were small, quaint, and aesthetically pleasing.
The owner’s hospitable father greeted me in the brunch line and inquired if everything was up to standard. Oh yes, very much so!
I noticed the other tables brought their own bottles of wine and champagne, which some drank mixed with a carafe of OJ — mimosas! Didn’t realize that this establishment was BYOB.
The service was okay at best. There was a huge rush and the staff seemed momentarily overwhelmed and scrambled about. They took awhile to bring us another set of silverware and took even longer to bring a napkin, but the décor was so lovely, bright sunlight streamed in, and the overall ambience was just so beautiful, that mediocre service didn’t even damper my mood that afternoon.
Perhaps this review is skewed because of just how darling the place was!
Although the interior was a bit whimsical and dainty, my husband was surprised that they offered a solid, satiating brunch! He agreed that he wouldn’t mind returning. He wouldn’t mind at all.

I had pretty high hopes for this place but it just fell short; I wish I could give it 2.5 stars. I loved the look/​atmosphere of this place — very historic feel with unique things to look at. I also liked that the glassware, plates, etc… were all mismatched; it really gave it that antiquey feel. There are several tables so whether you’re a party of 2 or 10, they can easily accommodate you. Be sure you have a reservation though, not sure how long you would have to wait without one, but my guess is a long while.
The food is served buffet style and it includes a handful of breakfast and lunch items along with dessert (eggs Benedict, bacon, pecan french toast casserole, chicken enchiladas, shrimp, chicken-​fried steak, etc…) Unfortunately, I really didn’t love anything — the food was just mediocre at best. Lukewarm and not a lot of flavor or super salty (bleh!).
The service was okay but at times I felt rushed (ie, they brought us our check even before we all went through the buffet line). The entire waitstaff was super friendly and helpful though. Alcohol is not offered, but you can bring your own; you just pay a $ 3 cork fee. I only noticed champagne so if you are interested in something different, you may want to call ahead and ask.