The Indianapolis Propylaeum

The heavy appetizer food buffet was quite good! I especially enjoyed the ham croquettes and cheese dip. However, I wish the menu was more consistent with the feel of the venue. Much of the water glasses were dirty – maybe they need a better dish washer. The location is convenient to downtown and it is nice that they have a private parking lot.

I had my wedding here in late October and there was not one complaint about the event from my husband and I. We worked with Karin Glass four about 10 months to plan a beautiful event. The venue is amazing and I loved not having to decorate too much because the house was already so beautiful! We did taste tests for the dinner, appetizers and cake and had difficulty choosing between the delicious options. Everyone LOVED the food and the cake! Karin did a great job of implementing our cultural heritage into the table decorations. She was always available to answer questions and very efficient in her planning. We could not have asked for a better way to start our marriage! :)

They offer a great dining experience in a historic mansion in downtown Indianapolis. It was one of the first houses in the city to ever have electricity and now hosts many fun dinner parties like the Mistry dinner, the backwards dinner, and trivia dinners. The food is nothing fantastic but it is good and you’re paying for the fun and enjoyment with groups of people to experience these different dinner venues. Groupon offers many discounts and I highly suggest this for any family or friendly get together during the holidays.

My girls and I attended the magic show and dinner a couple weekends ago. I was a bit nervous because I had read some of these reviews a few months ago. Since that, my boyfriend and I attended a Murder Mystery Dinner that could have gone better. The Propylaeum has redeemed itself. We had a fantastic time. I have recommended both events to friends and am planning to return! Please try it, you will create a great memory for your family.
If you go to the Murder Mystery dinner, i recommend you get a group of 8, so you can guarantee a full table, Trust me, it will be worth it for everyone.

Wow! I was a smidge concerned given the mixed reviews to plan a large baby baby shower. I couldn’t have been more pleased, nor could the guests! I inquired via email and had a call back the next day. I was able to secure the carriage house and give my deposit over the phone. From there it was easy! Linda checked back on linens and flowers and total numbers (33). I was thrilled at how lovely the setup was; flowers beautiful, light from windows amazing. The food was great, tea amazing. They sliced the cake perfectly and the service was perfect. Oh, and Karen, gave a history of the house; everyone loved it. Really, it was beautiful. Thanks to Karen and Linda.

My husband found a Groupon for the backwards dinner and thought it might be fun. We enjoyed taking the self-​guided tour of the house before it was time for dinner. However, it was all downhill after that. While we enjoyed the company at our table (we were seated with 2 other couples and it was fun getting to socialize with new people), there isn’t much else to say… I was expecting some theatrics to the «backwards» theme, but we didn’t experience anything other than the courses being served in reverse. The food was bland, and there’s not much else to say other than that. At the end, we were brought a check for the tax on the meal — even though we had used a Groupon and it said nothing about paying any tax in addition. It would appear that they are struggling if they are using Groupon and then also expecting customers to pay additional funds on top of using it… and honestly, if they don’t improve the experience and especially the food, I can’t see how they’ll have much luck attracting new customers.

I would like to start off by saying that the building was nice, but thats the only positive statement about «mystery dinner». Let me make it short and sweet: Staff was rude, food was HORRIBLE and mystery itself was LAME. What a ripoff, they’re taking advantage of every foot that walks through the door.

The good, bad, and ugly: reverse, reverse
Recently went to a wedding here, and what a beautiful day it was!
Ugly
… not much
Bad
Owner/manager’s attitude in general: telling the photographer where to take pictures, yelling at the ring bearer during rehearsal and more. Especially disliked her ability to talk herself up while putting down the client (bride/​groom): «I am a class 1 sommelier, studied there… blah, blah, blah… when I tasted their wine it was a little green, but still good… enjoy your night» … why did she even have the mic?
(Don’t get me wrong, she was accommodating is some ways, so don’t think she was all bad)
The good:
The building is phenomenal, the bride and groom happy, and the best offset to the manager/​owner was her amazing staff. They were efficient and affable even after dealing with the manager’s attitude the entire day. What great staff!
I was a huge fan of the appetizers! The BLT endive was amazing, the tomato shooter delicious, bruschetta cups crunchy… mmmm
If you can overlook the managers attitude, I would recommend this venue. Luckily the bride was easy going, and the bridesmaids made jokes about it to keep it lighthearted.

I attended a wedding here and it was very pretty and comfortable. The house itself is interesting and large enough to hold a large party. The catering left a little something to be desired. The hors d’oeuvres were slightly bizarre but tasty. One of them was three gigantic pieces of cheese on a skewer. The pieces were so big that you couldn’t eat one in a single bite, so you ended up gnawing on the hunks of cheese off the stick. Classy. I had the salmon for dinner, and while it was a very large portion, it was dry and the sauce it came with wasn’t fabulous. The accompanying asparagus and mashed potatoes were good.
The grounds of the facility are very attractive and there’s plenty of outdoor space for guests to spread out and mingle. The adjacent carriage house was where the dancing portion of the night was held, and it was a nice space as well.
I wouldn’t have my own wedding here, but it was a nice place and definitely different than most wedding venues.

The dinner was great and the wines were perfect.
I have one complaint. The book given for the self-​guided tour is written in all Comic Sans. The classiness of the Propylaeum is completely over shadowed by the elementary font. Please change the books to a normal font.

We attended a small wedding here a few months ago and were so disappointed, especially for the bride and groom. It was disorganized and a couple \at our table never got a drink… ever.
The food was not horrible but pretty tasteless and lukewarm. You could hear nothing except the drone of the kitchen. Nice house though.
I had not heard good things about this place especially as a wedding spot. Now I know why. Would not go back or ever recommend (to anyone I liked).

Our night began with a self-​guided tour through the propylaeum with instructions to pay special attention to the bathroom in room #4. Why? Because someone was murdered in there, and we were about to sit down for dinner at a table full of possible suspects. It was time for a «Death in the Dark» murder mystery dinner. We had no idea what to expect. We certainly weren’t prepared to act out the characters in the game, but that turned out to be the best part.
The murder — clevery planned. The mystery — intriguing. The role playing — hilarious. The dinner — horrible.
We went thanks to a 50% off Groupon, which I would highly recommend using. While the experience as a whole is fun, it’s not worth paying full-​price for. Would I do it again? Of course! We solved the mystery, and now I’m itching to solve the next one!

This is EXACTLY what I sent to the mgmt/​ownership group on Occasions Divine website! DO NOT GO HERE EVEN IF YOU GET A GROUPON/​LIVINGSOCIAL.
My wife and I brought our two children to the Magic show event you had on Saturday evening. Let me start by saying that Craig Stone was amazing and put on a great show for all ages. i was very impressed by him. Now to the ugly! The other person (Taylor I believe) was revolting. He was sweating very bad as he was coming from table to table. It was digusting as there was food on the table. In addition, he had fingernails that were very long and unappealing. It was actually somewhat creepy. These are just some of the issues we encountered. The service was very friendly but it was honestly lacking. Our LivingSocial deal included wine I believe that we were never offered. I had water on the table, but the server did not offer us tea until we already had our main courses. Not sure what the problem was here? Also, when we entered we were told a choice of pork OR honey mustard chicken. When the chicken arrived for my wife it was a spicy BBQ sauce. HUH? Did you run out? I ordered the pork and it was over cooked big time. Very small portion and very dry. The potatoes that were served were not done and they were still hard. Now for the worst part. The kids meals. What in the world were you thinking serving jalapeño mac and cheese to kids? This is unacceptable. There is not one excuse for this what so ever. It is wrong and just poor planning. The chicken fingers were spicy as well and they were soggy on the outside and not warm inside. I really don’t know what was going on Saturday night, but I can assure you that we will never return. I am very upset by the entire experience outside of Mr. Stone.

We got a dinner and magic show deal for a family of four. The price was an amazing $ 35, so no complaints there.
Dinner:
To say that the food was ordinary would be an unwarranted compliment. If they had brought out White Castle sandwiches it would have been an upgrade over what was served.
The adults got spinach salad, pork with apple-​based sauce, some mixed vegetables, and something else that escapes me because it was unmemorable. The food was entirely superfluous and they should have just skipped to the magic show (see below) and gave everyone some popcorn.
Magic Show:
First, the magicians go around to the tables during dinner to perform tricks close-​up. They are obviously very skilled and experienced at what they do and improvise well with the audience. The close-​up show at the table is treat.
The after dinner magic show is excellent. No, it’s not as fancy as the Vegas shows (I have seen almost all of them), but you sit very close to the performers in a very small room. And it costs literally about ¹⁄₁₀^th that of the Vegas shows — keep things in perspective.

We recently held our wedding at the Indianapolis Propylaeum. The staff, food and atmosphere at this venue was nothing short of outstanding. In terms of planning, the staff was very helpful with many details of the wedding, so much so that we saved money with not having to have a wedding coordinator involved. Not a detail was missed, as the staff exceeded my expevcations, which were very high to begin with.
I have to add that the food was BETTER than any wedding meal I have enjoyed in the city, including the highest price venues where we could have spent 2 or 3 times the amount we spent at the Prop. I highly recommend the Propylaeum and plan to return there for the next special occasion in our lives.

Went back to the Propylaeum for a LivingSocial deal I had purchased. It was a family centered dinner and art event.
We got there early and were invited to take a self-​guided tour of the house. It was beautiful. The tour may have been our favorite part of the evening.
The event was supposed to start at 6:30pm, but salads weren’t served until 7:15pm. When meals were brought out I discovered that the two children in my party were served adult entrees instead of the children’s meals they were supposed to get. Thankfully they were both so hungry at that point they didn’t even bother to protest. The food was okay, but the lunch I had on my first visit was better. The Cesar salad was bland and the chicken tasted strongly of lemon and was dry, the rice blend was okay, and veggie medley was overcooked and under-​seasoned. Dessert was a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of a ring of pineapple, which was almost frozen and practically inedible. Adults got rum sauce drizzled on top.
Also, the family sharing our table were vegetarians. The ‘vegetarian’ meal they were served in place of our meal consisted of mixing the vegetable medley in with mac and cheese. I kid you not. And it took them an additional 10 minutes to get their meal after we did. I could not believe how poorly they were handled by the staff.
It was well after 8pm before the ‘art’ portion of the event got started. I had figured the painting part of the evening would be done on little canvases, but I was wrong. When sheets of paper were brought out that we were supposed to trace… well our group lost interest and went home.
My major issue with this event was that it was advertized as a family outing. Yet when I called to make a reservation the only available times were all on school nights. It seems like a complete lack of common sense to have an event that runs so late when young children are encouraged to attend. We weren’t the only ones who left without completing the art portion of the event, the family sharing our table left, as well as other groups.
Overall it was a big disappointment and I’m glad it wasn’t something I paid full price for.

Copy of my review for «Occasions Divine» Since it seems all negative reviews are being filtered.
4÷21÷2011
Horrible. I’ve never posted a negative review. Maybe it’s my fear of bad karma? However, this has to be written.
This was one of the worst dining experiences I’ve had in a long time! Look, I’m not a food critic by trade but I am a trained chef and I would put any of my friends home cooked meals up against the «food» we were served!!! They don’t salt their food? The owner literally told us that. First rule in culinary school… SALT your food! I realize that we were taking advantage of a coupon deal but wouldn’t you want to showcase your establishment to new clients that may be dining with you for the first time? That was obviously not the case here. The wine was only decent and the incessant chatter if the owner (over a microphone) was completely unnecessary. As with a previous reviewer, we had been to tea at another of this owner’s establishments and were sorely disappointed. Had we made the connection between the two we would have saved our money. Even if it was only $ 35.
Never again. Take my advice and skip it… Coupon or not

Sooo fun.
Dave and I bought a groupon for an 8 course meal and wine pairing. I was under the impression this was going to be more about the food than the wine, but I was completely wrong.
The food takes a back seat and the entire night is about the wine. This evening is really more of a class. The level 1 sommelier (sp) guides you through basics of wine tasting and how to pair wine with food. Some of the useful things I learned were that to take the sweet out of a wine, pair it with sweet food. I also learned to decipher different undertones and heard plenty of fun anecdotes. All in all, the woman knows her stuff.
The food was good. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but for the price (even the original price that we didn’t pay, because of the groupon) it is a great deal. You receive very generous pours. Our 8 courses were:
feta/​spinach/​sundried tomato tart
salad with strawberries and house made raspberry vinigarette
pasta with artichoke and bacon
mushrooms with garlic and herbs
tilapia with lemon curd (hands down one of the most amazing things I have ever tasted)
herb encrusted pork with green beans
chicken (the night started getting fuzzy about here.)
layered dessert
The wines included 4 whites, a white zin, and 3 reds. I’m not much of a wine person but I REALLY enjoyed this. The people we were placed with were wonderful. I really had a fantastic time. It frustrates me when people give events like this awful reviews. They only do these events to keep the historic house open. For their means and the relatively low price, this was a phenomenal experience and I would love to go back for the beer dinner.

I hate to rate this one star, because the building itself is very impressive. That said, it appears this Unilocal page has become a place to rate the events put forth by Occasions Divine. So, here goes…
Anybody have the number for Columbo? How about Jessica Fletcher? Hell, I’ll even take Magnum, P.I. and his awesome Hawaiian shirts, mustache, and Detroit Tigers hats. A lady has been found dead in her bathtub and it’s going to take a group of sleuths to solve this one.
We recently went to a mystery dinner put on by Occasions Divine and tried our hand at solving the mystery. We were seated at a table with four others and everyone played a part in the production. I got to try my hand at a cajun accent and that might come in handy in the future.
The mystery/​story was kind of all over the place. When we were told who the murderer was at the end of the night, I had the feeling some things were left out and I didn’t hear all of the evidence. It just wasn’t very well done.
The food? Horrible. The meal started with a decent celery soup but it was all downhill from there. Apples in bleu cheese dressing is apparently what passes for a «salad» around there. The main course featured bland, dry grilled chicken breast, and dessert was dirt pie. Seriously? Dirt pie? What are we, eight-​year-​olds with a budget of fifty cents?
Oh, and this was supposed to be the «cajun» menu. Does any of that above sound cajun to you? It didn’t to me either.
The wine pairing was a joke. Two sample pours of bad wine.
The host for the evening was a bit condescending and lectured everyone about the proper way to hold a wine glass and fold the napkin. Again, seriously? Ettiquette lessons and dirt pie. I guess she does think we are all eight years old.
It was an OK evening overall but I won’t be rushing to return, even with another Groupon.

This is one of my absolute FAVORITE buildings in the city! But, I don’t think Unilocaling is about architectural reviews… yet. When that happens, I’ll be back to that topic
You can actually have lunch here. 11 – 2 Mon– Fri. The menu is limited, but decent. This is a place to go for tea or salad or a little dessert with anyone who loves the surroundings of yesteryear. Or, if you just want to surprise someone – this just isn’t a place you think to go for lunch, yet every now and then I just want to go somewhere completely offbeat and this fills that urge nicely. I also understand they do a «Tea on Tuesday» from 3 – 5 on Tuesday with the traditional scones, tea and all. I look forward to trying that sometime soon. If only May Wright Sewall could join me…