Metropolis Ballroom

Shawna was a huge help from the beginning of wedding planning through every last detail of our perfect weekend. Our guests were raving about the beautiful details of the venue and the delicious food. The staff was so accommodating and put us at ease, ensuring every minute was smooth and perfect. We couldn’t have asked for anything more! Thank you to the Metropolis and our wedding coordinator, Shawna McGarry!

My nephew was recently (Aug 2015) married here and I was really impressed with the place. As a professional, corporate event planner my expectations are often dashed, but not this time. The space is really well-​done and clean. Very flexible space and the furnishings were terrific. There is a full wall of windows and an outdoor balcony. The evening we were there it unfortunately rained, but what an amazing lightning show seen through the windows. The food was good. The real crowning glory was the staff. They did an excellent job. I know I will likely spell this wrong, but Erena went out of her way to care about our needs and exceed our expectations. She really left a lasting and positive impression. I will most definitely recommend this venue!
Incidentally, the ONLY reason I didn’t give 5 stars was the fact that the cocktail reception area (not the ballroom itself) needs better ventilation/​air conditioning. All of the guests were in there for about 45 to 60 minutes and it got quite warm.

I am not sure why this place doesn’t have a 5 star rating because it deserves 5 stars! Jaime one of the sales representatives or the event planners (not sure of her title) but she helped us with picking out the food and pretty much helped all of my visions for the bridal shower I planned come to life! The staff is amazing! They are very professional and they provide the best service! Although Jaime could not be there the event day her coworkers Joanna and Alice were phenomenal as well and made sure we had everything we needed! Our family has had 3 events here and I think it’s a great place for any special event!

This was a huge disappointment. the wedding was on June 28, 2014, and the air conditioning was insufficient. We were there for our granddaughter’s wedding at 6:00pm, It got hotter by the minute, and was sickening.
Everyone was sweating thru their tuxes and dress clothes. Personally, I could not stand the humidity, and neither could my husband so we left right after the ceremony.
The elevator to the second floor was dirty and smelled.
They need to get their act together (no pun intended).
SharonJoy

I got married here May of 2011. I have such good memories here. Everything was beautiful. Michael Raymond rocks. He gave us a dance lesson. He diffused disagreements. He put me at ease by being as anal as I wished I could be, when I didn’t have the guts to be (this is 100% a compliment). He made everything great.
The décor is beautiful and very unique (for the suburbs). The food was delicious (especially the tomato soup, oh my god). The cocktail room while the reception was being set up was perfect with the exposed brick and view of downtown Arlington Heights (pretty full but less jammed than I’d worried it would be).
I had no dream wedding when I started looking at venues, but then I found this place!

We were married at the Metropolis in November 2012. I can’t speak highly enough of the staff there, especially Michael Raymond. He does come on a little strong, but I am sure that is because he has been doing this a really long time, and knows what to do.
We loved the venue from the minute we saw it, and things just got better as we went along. The space, the organization, the food, and the service were all fantastic.
Michael is wonderful at coordinating with everyone, and has a lot of great recommendations for vendors that he has used in the past who really know what they are doing. We live in Minneapolis, and he coordinated with us via email and phone to plan nearly our entire wedding. He was great for lining us dates for us to come by for the tastings and other details ahead of time.
Our ceremony started at 10am, and Michael was very flexible with allowing us to come super early for pictures and to get set up. We were there at 7am with our vendors ready to go, and we were able to come in and get ready.
All of our guests thought the space was lovely and unique, something that you don’t usually find in the suburbs. We originally picked it because it was more local to us, and because of the loft-​style that you can only seem to find downtown. We were thrilled with how our pictures turned out, and how great the Metropolis was for us.
i highly recommend the Metropolis and Michael for a wedding!

My husband and I were married at Metropolis Ballroom in November 2011. My wedding planner found this gem after we looked at over 20 venues in Chicago. The first time I walked into the ballroom, I was in love and thought it was so beautiful. Hard wood floors, high ceilings, exposed brick, huge outdoor balcony — everything that I was looking for in a wedding venue. Some other perks of Metropolis is that they have tons of free parking next door, it is in a beautiful area in downtown Arlington Heights and very close to hotels. During our planning process, Metropolis made some updates to the venue. They painted and refinished the already gorgeous hardwood floors and in the area where the cocktail hour was held, it was originally two separate rooms. They knocked down the wall separating the two rooms which was a win win for us.
Michael Raymond is the manager and will be your primary point of contact. Some may have differing opinions about Michael but here is my honest opinion as the bride — I liked Michael Raymond a lot and believe that it always strived to make the bride happy even if that means stepping on some toes. I read in another review that «every bride needs a Michael» and I couldn’t agree more.
Over the next 6 months, we emailed and met with Michael about different things such as our vendors, the timeline, linens, the menu, décor, etc. He was very good about getting our questions answered. The Metropolis Ballroom has on-​site catering which was great because it is one less thing we had to worry about. We had a great tasting of the menu (we actually had two because we did not like the second part of the meat entrée) and had the hors d’oeuvres for cocktail hour tailor made. It was just my husband and I, my in-​laws and our wedding planner. The presentation was great and private. Michael was able to come with a new items that were off of the menu to our liking. They were also able to accommodate our vegetarian guests as well as our guests who keep Kosher. The food at the actual wedding was just as delicious as it was at the tasting which was a concern of ours since most weddings do not have good food.
We had a lot of issues with wanting mixed nuts and candies on the tables for cocktail hour and on the tables at the reception before dinner. Michael said that they would provide this for $ 6 per person. We had 220 guests at our wedding and this was just ridiculous. After much negotiating, we were allowed to bring in our own mixed nuts and candies for the tables which were bought from Costco and saved TONS of money — more than $ 1,200!
For our rehearsal, Metropolis Ballroom booked a last minute event so we weren’t not able to do it there. We had our rehearsal and dinner at the nearby restaurant, Las Tascas. Michael came and conducted the rehearsal and put me at ease about our wedding the next day. It is free to run a rehearsal and I believe it helps to do a quick walk through.
A few reasons why Metropolis did not get 5 stars:
For setup, Metropolis requests you drop off all décor that you can on the Wednesday before your event. It will be locked in a closet, which was great. More stuff that we didn’t have to think about the day before or day of. We were supposed to have access to the bridal suite and setup to start at 3:00 p.m. However, Metropolis squeezed in another an event for the day and it was scheduled to end at 5:00 p.m. and then they would flip the rooms to get ready for our 6:30 p.m. ceremony. Sounds like a lot to do in 90 minutes, right? They assured us it would not be a problem. In the end, this put us behind for the REST of the night. Not only were our guests left standing around, but Metropolis didn’t even open the bar to keep people entertained while they were continuing to set up the room. The late start put us behind schedule for the rest of the evening. Before Michael left for the night, we confirmed with him that because of the late start, it wouldn’t be a problem for the party to run longer — which he didn’t communicate to the woman who took over for him. This caused unnecessary friction for us, as well as our families. None of us should have had to deal with that.
For some reason even though I was clear that I wanted our cake to be one layer is chocolate cake and one layer is yellow cake with strawberry filing, it was wrong. I only had one bite and didn’t love it like the one at the tasting.
All in all, our wedding was gorgeous — the cocktail hour was great, the food was fantastic and the service was good. I would recommend Metropolis Ballroom to other brides and grooms.

The Metropolis is amazing. Don’t let the averages here on Unilocal dissuade you from looking into this event space. My wedding here two weeks ago was FANTASTIC for the space itself, the food and the people. The space you can see for yourself — gorgeous — and the balcony overlooking the park across the street was seriously PERFECT and a highlight for my guests. The food is such high quality — many guests told me it wasnt just good «for wedding food» — that theyd be eager to order it again if it were a restaurant. And the staff adapted one recipe to suit our preferences — very kind of them.
Finally the staff. Michael Raymond treated us with nothing but respect and excitement. His suggestions were great and he demurred respectfully if we went a different direction. And the man can dance! The Metropolis is pricy but you get what you pay for a hundred times over, and i would host another event here in a heartbeat.

I’m reviewing just the upper special events room only. I attended Metropolis for a wedding and it was a great time. I think most of the decoration and set ups had nothing to do with Metropolis itself and it was more of just a venue that hosted the wedding.
There is a lot of free parking in the area which makes it a nice place to host a party. They had a couple hours of open bar but their drink choices were fairly limited. In terms of service and catering, they did a fantastic job. They were very considerate of taking away plates and glasses when people were done eating. There was a buffet choice and I think it was made in house. The food was above average for a place like this. The awesome part is they had a lot of choices… beef, chicken, tenderloin, several vegetable choices. All of the meats were tender and easy to eat. The mixed vegetables were great (a lot of times vegetables are either overcooked or too mushy) but they came out great here.
Another big plus is they have a balcony area you can go to if it’s too hot inside that overlooks downtown Arlington Heights. It’s a good place for good conversation to happen (as long as it’s not too chilly). Overall, I think it’s a good place to host a mid-​sized event (about 100 – 200 people).

The Metropolis and all their staff were absolutely amazing for our wedding. From the first time my husband and I saw the space, we were hooked. The location is perfect, and the venue is absolutely beautiful. There was MORE than enough space for everyone and everything. We loved that they only have one event per night so literally all the attention is given to your wedding rather than some hotels where they were going to have 6+ weddings the night of our wedding. Without saying anything negative about Michael (seriously, he’s a great guy!), I will warn you that he wants to have input on everything to do with the wedding. It’s a GREAT perk for any couple who feels overwhelmed by the whole wedding planning process. I think if I asked him, he would have literally gone dress shopping with me. :) Use him! Ask him any questions, ask for his input, he’s there to help! Michael makes sure all the events run smoothly; it’s his job to make everything perfect, and that’s his intention. The night of our wedding was absolutely perfect. Everything went as planned and the staff was amazing. Helena was our event manager for the night, and she was beyond awesome. There was not one complaint we had about anything that night. Without hesitation I would recommend the Metropolis to any couple looking for a unique venue. It’s not going to be the cheapest venue out there by any means, but you pay for what you get. Your money will be very well spent at the Metropolis. We literally had probably 90% of our guests tell us it was the best wedding with the best food they have ever been to. Thanks Metropolis; you pulled through for us!

I’m not going to fake the funk and act as if I loved planning my wedding because between saying sayonara to a big chunk of change, and having every weekend taken up with to-​do lists-let’s just say a week before the big day, eloping to some exotic destination was looking mighty nice!
Then came the big day that turned out to be pretty flawless.
Rewind 15 months prior —
— we wanted a wedding venue that was a little different than a typical banquet hall
— we wanted a modern twist without the walls looking too night-​clubby
— somewhere in the middle between suburbs and the city
— free ample parking
— good food
— lofty, but not a real loft where you had to bring your own caterer and rent your own chairs (that could be crazy pricey)
— not as expensive as a hotel wedding
— Managers that were knowledgeable and not shady
Metropolis Ballroom was all of that and more. I made it a point to write a review long after the event was over (just to make sure I wasn’t still riding on the ‘wedding high’ from our August wedding) Michael Raymond is a force to be reckoned with. Every wedding should have a ‘Michael Raymond’ running the show. From realizing that I wanted eggplant tablecloths (and not letting me settle for anything but), ensuring that my bridal party knew how to walk during introductions, cutting our vendors dinners short (dj, photog, video) to make sure we stayed on schedule, showing us how to cut the wedding cake, dancing to Lady Gaga with me, Michael Raymond and his staff definitely knows what he’s doing. Many of our guests were impressed by how the wedding ran like clock-​work and allowed maximum dancing time!
Also an honorable mention — 3 weeks before our wedding it was announced that the Taste of Arlington Heights Festival was to be held across the street on the SAME DAY. Michael worked his magic and talked to the city of Arlington Heights to ensure that the parking structure had reserved 130 parking spots EXCLUSIVELY for our guests.
As much as this festival could’ve been bad for our wedding (it upstaged our dinner music a little) the live band that was playing provided extra entertainment for our guests along the balcony and was even nice enough to dedicate a song to us! What I initially thought would be bad news ended adding another special touch to our wedding day.
One IMPORTANT BONUS: There was ALWAYS an attendant watching the gift box. Envelopes were periodically taken from the gift box/​basket and put in the office safe to make sure none of them get misplaced. The banquet manager then hands you all off them at the end of the night.
All in all, the Metropolis was a great wedding venue — with onsight catering, excellent service, and attention-​to-​detail. All of the things you like about the urban setting without the urban headaches (expense, lack of parking, horrible traffic). A great value and our wedding couldn’t have turned out any better.

My husband and I recently got married over Labor Day weekend 2010 and the reception was held at the Metropolis Ballroom.
The night started out fairly well. We all were having fun, laughing, and celebrating our marriage. Then the chaos started!
During the middle of dinner, two waiters started to move our five tier wedding cake, to make room for the dance floor. In the next instant, the cake fell to the floor. Weeks later, I was informed that the legs of the table gave way causing the cake to slide to the floor.
I sat in shock and horror as the waiters stood stupefied not knowing what to do. I got emotional once everyone realized what had happened and all eyes were on me. During all of the commotion, I saw the owner, Tom Minetti, come out of the kitchen with a sheet pan. He began scooping up the cake, transferred it to the pans, and went back to the kitchen. I assumed the entire cake would be discarded considering that it fell to the filthy floor. (No such luck!)
My sister and husband, thinking that I needed time to compose myself, escorted me out of the ballroom intending to take me to the bridal suite. We were intercepted by the director of events, Michael Raymond. Now, a few days prior to the wedding, my husband and I met with him to go over last minute details. He ranted and raved about his 30+ years of experience and even showed us a letter from a lovely couple praising him and the ballroom for their wedding experience. He advised that he would take care of everything the night of the wedding and would deal with issues behind the scenes with our go-​to people so that we wouldn’t have to be involved. I thought it was great and put my complete trust in him like he told me to. Back to the wedding day… so Michael stopped us on our way to the suite, and said that there he had everything under control and we had a few options. They could serve the cake that didn’t touch the floor or could go to Jewel and buy enough pastries as a replacement. I responded by saying that I wanted no part of the cake, whether it touched the floor or not, to be served and to go to Jewel. I thought everything was done and over with and tried to continue having a good time.
Little did I know that it was far from over. Later in the night, I saw a piece of our wedding cake at one of the tables. I asked my maid of honor to speak with Michael about it and let him know that we would need to discuss it at a later date. Against her arguments, he walked right up to my husband and I and asked if we had a moment. We followed him to the bridal suite where he began to tell us that the owner, Tom, had authorized them to serve the cake. After that point, I lost it. I had been gracious up to that point, but getting pulled into the situation after he specifically told us earlier in the week that he would circumvent us for any issues, made me livid. I told him that we weren’t going to discuss anything that night and left. After I left, he asked my husband what he wanted to do. My husband agreed that it was not the time nor place to discuss it and we would deal with it later.
The next day, I called Tom and left him a voice message. I also emailed Michael, copying everyone that I had email addresses for, and asked him to make arrangements for us to meet with him and/​or Tom to discuss the events of that night. After three weeks on our honeymoon, we came back to no response. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, and gave them a couple days thinking that maybe they were waiting for us to get acclimated. After a few days, I sent another email to Michael saying that I thought it was highly unprofessional that they didn’t even acknowledge my emails. I also called and left a voice message for both Tom and Michael. Still nothing after four weeks.
My friend told me of a column in the Chicago Tribune called «what’s your problem» and joked with me to submit a story. I said to myself «what do I have to lose?» I honestly didn’t think that anyone would respond to me, but they did! The columnist called me and told me that he wanted to help us, and so I gave him all the details. He told me that he would contact Tom and Michael to get their point of view as well. He tried numerous times to contact them with no response and even left messages advising that the story would be run that Sunday. Which it did!
So after five weeks and a story in the Chicago Tribune, I received a call from Tom who profusely apologized for not getting back to us. He tried to apologize for everything, but at that point it was too little too late. We have since agreed on some compensation for the entire mess.
I understand that accidents happen! What I don’t understand though is how a place of business could completely disregard what their paying clients ask, serve food that was potentially contaminated, and then not choosing to address their concerns after the fact. For this, I will never recommend the Metropolis Ballroom.

Very pretty venue for a wedding. Food was ok, probably would have been better if it wasn’t mass produced. Waitstaff was very good. Not much into weddings altogether, but this was nice.

Everyone’s heard of the bridezilla. A frightening creature that is spawned from engagement to wedding that wreaks havoc on her clueless fiancé, bridesmaids, family, florists, etc. etc.
I had no idea that another monster may be lurking around in the swampy wedding season… the venue-​manager-​zilla!
Ok, that’s quite a mouthful but would have had a mouthful to say to this guy if it had been my wedding he had been micro-​managing.
1. Wouldn’t allow DJs to have even one drink.
I understand that the manager was probably trying to keep all vendors professional but one drink isn’t going to get anyone in trouble.
2. Wouldn’t allow the newlyweds access to certain VIP areas for pictures.
3. Instructed the bartenders to cut people off (people who definitely were not intoxicated by any definition). My husband’s cousin, the groom, and his bride paid for top shelf open bar, and I think they need to honor that contract.
4. The wedding cake table gave way and the bride watched in horror as her beautiful four tiered cake toppled onto the floor. She insisted that none of the cake be served even if some layers did not touch the floor, but to her dismay, some of the cake was served to the guests.
Food was good, but not memorable.
Yes, the space is beautiful. New. Clean. Modern. Exposed brick walls. A gorgeous balcony. Just be careful not to judge a book by its cover, and watch out for the venue-​manager-​zilla (Michael).

My husband and I were just married at the Metropolis Ballroom on 3÷27÷10. Our experience was overall — excellent.
Viewing the venue — We met with Michael Raymond, the director, to view the venue and discuss pricing. Since we were planning a wedding in 4 months and chose March, we were able to get an excellent deal on price per person. My husband and I asked why they were able to give us such a good deal and Michael indicated that they were going to tweak the menu and number of courses to fit our budget. We were excited. Initially he said we would receive 4 course instead of 5. We were happy with that. In addition, we would serve our cake vs. paying for additional desserts. We were happy with that too. Later on, we learned that we would only receive 3 course, not 4. After some confusion, we still lost out and had to pay for an additional course. That is one of only two complaints I have about the venue. The second complaint is coming…
The Tasting — We thoroughly enjoyed the tasting and felt like royalty. They do not do «group tastings.» You sit down with the director and the people you brought. You do not have to share the time with other customers. The food is excellent, especially the Shrimp and Corn Chowder soup. We selected appetizers, soups, salads, and entrees. We chose a crab cake appetizer that I was not aware was a «premium» appetizer and was going to cost an additional $ 3 a person. I wish when I had given the list of items to prepare for our tasting that I would have known the crab cake would cost more should we select it. The ended up throwing it in with no additional charge. Thank you!
The Rehearsal — It comes free of charge and can be run by Michael, the director. So if you don’t want to pay your minister to come to the rehearsal — he does an excellent job.
The Wedding Day — No complaints. Everyone one is amazing. They know exactly what they’re doing. The service was beyond expectations. Michael is a jack of all trades. He fixed my dress, my bustle, and my hair. He made little beds for the kids to sleep on behind the head table. He yelled at the florist for me and made sure everything was perfect. He even saved a dance for me too.
Overall — I highly recommend the venue if you can afford it. If it were prime time wedding season and we were planning for a year and a half out… we could never afford it. But if you’re flexible and realize that you really only need a few months to put it together — then you’re in for a great deal with many of your vendors.

Found in Arlington Heights downtown, an exciting up and coming area. Who knew? Not me.
Free ample parking next door in the parking garage. Street parking is available dependent on the day, weekends can be very, very busy.
Check out the Metropolis website, ample photos detailing the rooms available, seating, spirits selections, etc. Easy access to the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre as well.
Invited for a work holiday party, we were seated in one of the smaller party rooms. The room composed of brick faced walls and opposite that, a painting (on the wall) of a king and queen seated as jesters and musicians performed for their enjoyment. Great space for our party of 20+ guests, tables were shaped in a «U», ease for the servers to serve to the table and allowed for us all to see and talk. Room came with a bar /​staff & two in room servers.
It really benefits your event when tip is included in ordering & paying for your party. For this event, that’s what they did and all cocktails served were STRONG. The selection of spirits, I would say were «well» or «call» brands. I’d say most stopped after two drinks. LOL. When you book a three hour open bar, be wary, though the time was thoroughly enjoyed. Few people tried to tip for drinks which was discouraged by the bar staff! They must’ve been well taken care of, or, they just want to show their customers «their» level of service.
Compliments to the staff for being excellent and engaging throughout the party.
During drinks maybe four courses of appetizers were served. Nothing too amazing or worth mention.
Dinner: I was surprised that the portions weren’t bigger, it was just enough to say that you have eaten. Based on the look of the ballroom, the fact that the department head was so adamant that everyone attend this holiday party, I suspect the per person charge would’ve been expensive. Still, how could they serve just a meager portion? First course, cucumber salad with field greens? See photo. Second course, I ordered the Angus Beef Tenderloin, it arrived drenched in Au Jus with a twice baked stuffed potato and some mixed veggies (sugar snap peas and carrots). A 1 would’ve been a good alternative to the brown gravy, had it been available. Also there was no option to how the steak should be prepared, it arrived, medium rare. Yuck! I hate to see blood on my plate. The potato could’ve had more stuffing and veggies were good.
Dessert was a joke. A martini glass filled with maybe a oz of vanilla ice cream, topped with a bit of fudge chocolate syrup and served with a dipped pirouette cookie. They were trying, but not hard enough. Ridiculous, was that, as it was served to each person you could see an order of progression. The first glass had as much in it as mine had. Further down the table the amount of ice cream increased while the amount of fudge decreased. Towards the end of the tables, the glass was filled fully with ice cream, lowered amount of fudge and no pirouette cookie. We called the servers over and inquired about it. They agreed it was odd, it even seemed like they’d noticed that earlier before serving. Did they do anything about it?
No. They just smiled and talked amongst themselves.
Room full of holiday partier’s who have had alcohol and were looking towards a decent dessert, what were these Idiots thinking. Presentation of the food overall was fine. Customer service, having answers about problems with food, etc, wasn’t great.
For a small gathering its alright. Concerning a larger occasion I would require more clarity.