Wedding DJ at The Royal Banquet in Raleigh, NC

The Space

This building started in 1916 as the Royal Baking Company, a small retail bakery founded by Bartholomew Streb that expanded into wholesale distribution by the 1920s. By the late 1930s the company had outgrown its downtown shop, so the Strebs hired the Chicago bakery-design firm W.E. Long Company and Raleigh contractor James A. Davidson to build a new plant on Hillsborough Street. That plant opened on December 7, 1941, the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The building operated as a bakery for decades before it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 and redeveloped in 2000 into a mixed-use space with over 28,000 square feet, now home to tenants including Ben & Jerry’s and Brickhouse Sports Bar alongside The Royal Banquet. Inside the event space, exposed historic brick walls, an open-rafter ceiling, and a hardwood dance floor carry the building’s industrial history into the room itself.

Capacity & Layout

The main banquet space measures 3,760 square feet and comfortably seats up to 240 guests, with standing capacity reaching 280. Two rooms, Room A and Room B, can be used separately or combined with a flexible dividing wall, so a couple can size the space to their guest count rather than renting one fixed room regardless of how many people they are actually inviting. That flexibility matters most for weddings in the middle range of the venue’s capacity.

An additional 875 square foot room is available alongside the main space, usable as a lounge, a childcare area, a waiting room, or a bar, giving a couple a place to route guests who need to step away from the main event without leaving the building. An outdoor patio adds a third setting, useful for a cocktail hour or a quieter conversation away from the reception’s dance floor and speakers.

Amenities

Rental includes ivory vinyl chairs as the standard, with mahogany chiavari chairs available for six dollars per chair if a couple wants a different look for photos. Outside caterers are permitted as long as they are approved by the venue and carry liability insurance naming The Royal as additionally insured, which gives a couple real choice in caterer rather than being locked into an in-house kitchen.

A licensed and insured bartender is required for any alcohol, beer and wine included, and covered and uncovered free parking along with wireless internet are provided for guests. Rental time tops out at 8 hours, with 2 hours built in for setup and 1 hour for cleanup, leaving 5 hours for the actual event, and every event must end by 11 p.m. so cleanup and load-out finish inside the rental window.

Location & Getting There

The Royal Banquet sits on Hillsborough Street in a building that has been part of Raleigh’s history since 1916, first as a working bakery and now as an event space alongside neighbors like Ben & Jerry’s and Brickhouse Sports Bar. The location puts guests in an established, walkable stretch of the city rather than an isolated event campus, with the outdoor patio offering views of downtown Raleigh.

We’ve worked a reception in this room, and the building’s bones shape how sound behaves inside it: the exposed brick walls and open-rafter ceiling that give the space its character are hard, reflective surfaces, which means a DJ setup benefits from careful speaker placement to keep the hardwood dance floor sounding full without the room’s industrial architecture turning the music harsh or overly live.