Dickerson's Catering & Party Services

Booking almost a year in advance, we contracted with Dickerson's catering to cater my son's bar mitzvah lunch. The caterers were to provide linens, utensils and plates, and then the following menu:Assorted pastriesFruit displaySandwich tray (egg salad and tuna salad)KugleBagels and salmonJuice water coffeeThis menu is priced at 18.00 per person plus 20% gratuity and tax. On the day of the bar mitzvah, the caterers arrived on time and laid out the food, but what they provided was not what we had contracted for.For 100 people, the caterers provided 35 bagels. The bagels quickly ran out, and that was the end of that. For 100 people, the caterers provided 1 salmon filet that serves 30 people. Again, the salmon ran out right away. There was no fruit display at all.The pastries ran out, and additional baked goods had to be provided from things that were already in the temple kitchen. The big trays of kugel tasted good, but it was clear that they had been cooked long before, since they were greyish-green in color, rather than potato colored with golden brown tops!Most damningly, whereas I would have interpreted "sandwich tray" to mean a tray full of sandwiches, what was provided was a giant bowl of premade tuna salad and a giant bowl of premade egg salad. And by giant, I mean punch-bowl size. Both the tuna and the egg salad were so swimming in mayo that you would have needed a slotted spoon to get some of them onto your plate. These were served alongside pieces of bread, so that people had to make their own extremely sloppy sandwiches. To add insult to injury, the egg salad must have been made of old eggs, because it tasted rubbery. I was REALLY embarrassed at what ended up being served to my guests. My sister thought that the tuna salad was so disgusting and hilarious that she actually took a picture of it with her cellphone. To her credit, Marcie Dickerson was extremely apologetic for the way things turned out; but I don't know why she wasn't personally supervising the event . . . it seems like had she been, none of this would have happened. After the fact she said that she wouldn't charge me. I said that was a bit excessive, since people DID eat, they just ate food that was not at all what was advertised. In any event, you only get one chance to make an impression on someone; and Dickerson's catering made a bad impression, not just on me, but on all the people who came to the event that day. So for anyone considering hiring a caterer, caveat emptor!!