Grain Exchange Room

The Grain Exchange Room is a stunning event space in downtown Milwaukee located in the historical Mackie Building.With ceiling stretching at least three stories high and tons of gorgeous architectural touches, this space would make a stunning backdrop to any event. The space is big enough for 500 guests at a cocktail style event or 350 seated. They're associated with the Bartolotta Restaurant group, who offer catering for events. A truly elegant space for large events.

This is an absolutely incredible space. It feels like Rome in the venue! Barlotta Catering prepared high-quality food. The chicken was the best chicken I've had at a wedding. The root purée was silky and delicious. The steak was delicious as well. For appetizers, the mushroom risotto balls are out of this world! The staff is attentive and accommodating. This is an excellent venue for a wedding!

We recently traipsed to the Grain Exchange Room for a cousin's wedding. The best way to describe the experience would have to be ornate. The building itself, overflowing with limestone, marble, stained glass and gold leaf is quite the sight to behold. The attention to detail was amazing. Now on to the food, gotta say some of the best wedding food I've had. Bartolotta is the exclusive caterer for the building. I could have easily just stood outside the kitchen doorway and stolen the plates of food from the staff. Rare steak wrapped around fried onion, risotto fritters, olive tapenade bruschetta, whiskey shrimp tempura, mini ravioli on spoons. Oh and a bar, gotta have a bar with friendly bartenders that pour heavily alcohol laden beverages. They even had one of those fancy ice sculptures that you pour booze through, can I just have one of those for my own recreation? The meal was also delicious, which included a giant portion of a citrus chicken that was swimming in a pool of tasty butter. The staff was always an arm's length away to ensure the most pleasant of experiences. The wedding had coordinators that worked hard to make sure that the special day was simply magical. Job well done!

I was lucky enough to be a guest at a recent event held at the Grain Exchange. Whooooo Nelly, I felt fancy. The event space is BEAUTIFUL. The high ceilings and architecture of room just make you feel underdressed no matter what you're wearing.I really can't speak to the planning of the event or what they are like to work with, but as far as I could tell, the event went off without a hitch....which as a guest, that certainly should be my impression. This event was catered by Bartolotta Catering, and I'm guessing they are the contracted caterer for most events. But, Bartolotta rhymes with like-it-a-lotta so, that's fine by me. I don't know who did the decorations, but they were also gorgeous and set the mood well. The band was fantastic. All staff personnel were very nice - from the person opening the front door, to the valet, to the coat check folks, to the station servers, to the photographer, to the bartenders.Wait wait wait, I almost forgot to mention the S'mores bar. I don't know if this was the caterers or the venue or a combination, but there was a standalone S'mores bar in the middle of the room. Yes, there was fire in the middle of the room. S'mores! Give me S'mores! Granted, it wasn't quite the same without the camp fire blowing smoke in my face, but it was still a S'more. And they didn't limit themselves to just plain old Hershey bars...oh no, there were also peanut butter cups to use as your chocolate layer. Win.My only complaint was the 'flow' of the room. If you've participated in some fashion in enough weddings, you know that a large amount of people will loiter around the bar. With everyone loitering, it makes it challenging for the non-loiterers to get a drinks sometimes. But that's a minor complaint and one that most venues haven't actually figured out what to do about.Overall, the venue and the event were top notch. I'd love to come to another event here!

Everything about our experience at the Grain Exchange was perfect. We were there for a wedding on a Saturday night. The venue was beautiful, the food was divine (they took special care to ensure that my nut allergy was addressed and politely explained what I should not eat and what would be provided in its place), drinks were plentiful and the waitstaff (especially Simone and Diane) were funny and attentive!

Great place. Loved the food. We had close to 300 people and the food was made perfect and the service was spot on. Normally with that many people we are lucky to get hot steaks that are not over cooked. It was perfect and the salmon was great.The building and room were better than expected.

I've been a little MIA from Yelp lately and that is due to the fact that my husband and I got married at The Grain Exchange at the end of February. The first time we ever visited The Grain Exchange (our first venue tour), we knew it would be the place we got married. We had both our ceremony and reception here and Maria Bartolotta and her team made the entire process and event seamless. We received so many compliments on everything from the decor of the room, the service everyone received and especially the food! Bartolotta is the sole caterer at The Grain Exchange and as such, the food is phenomenal. Even more so than that though, everything was on point and Maria helped to make this the wedding of my dreams. I would absolutely recommend The Grain Exchange to any brides and grooms to be out there. The room itself is absolutely gorgeous and the attention to detail from the entire team is fantastic. Future brides & grooms, do yourself a favor and go check The Grain Exchange out!

We attended a wedding reception at a Grain Exchange last night. We were really impressed! The hors d'oeuvres were excellent. The bride & groom had a selected a choice of two entrees: chicken and beef. The beef was actually pot roast. Both were excellent. One thing we thought was very unusual for this type of establishment: the wait staff was very well trained and friendly. There were plenty of them, so service was fast considering it was a sit down dinner for about 120 guests. The room is stunning! This is a great place if you are looking for a truly unique place for a wedding reception or any other function.One other note: I rarely write reviews - maybe one a year. I only do it if I've had a really good or bad experience.