news-record.com

GREENSBORO — The calls began Monday. “Labor Day, ironically,” said Ellyn Steinhorn.

One by one, former employees of Catering by Ellyn called Steinhorn to tell her that the business she and her husband, Jerry, started 22 years ago — and sold last year — had closed.

Ellyn Steinhorn couldn’t believe it.

“We had no idea,” Steinhorn said Wednesday. “(We felt) every emotion you can think of. Shocked. Freaked out. ... When it all came to be true, (we felt) very sad. It was almost like losing a child.”

Clients felt at a loss as well.

Jeremy Darty and Jodi Ehrens, a New York couple, had hired the firm’s new owner, Steve Paladino, to cater their wedding in Pilot Mountain. It’s scheduled for Sept. 27.

The couple learned Wednesday that they’ll have to find another caterer on short notice.

“I was pretty stunned,” said Darty, who’s worried about getting back the couple’s deposit. “They’ve been around for such a long time. Everybody knows them and speaks highly of them.”

Paladino bought Catering by Ellyn from the Steinhorns 15 months ago. So far, he’s had little to say of the closing, which he blamed on the economy.

“I have no comment at this time,” Paladino said in a brief telephone conversation Wednesday. “Thank you.”

Steinhorn estimated the company had about 40 or 50 full- and part-time workers.

“I feel bad that ... people were put out of work and all those clients were left hanging,” Steinhorn said, adding that she had no idea why the business closed.

She said her husband had been unable to contact Paladino, who lives in Raleigh.

Darty said he spoke with Paladino on Wednesday by phone, but learned little.

“It was hard to get anything out of him,” Darty said. “He seemed pretty uninterested in the whole situation. He was not apologetic.”

Darty and Ehrens and her parents visited Catering by Ellyn on Friday for a menu tasting and saw nothing amiss, other than Paladino’s behavior.

“It was kind of odd,” Darty said, noting that the couple had met with the owner when they originally considered hiring the company. “All of us noticed that (he) walked through the room several times. ... He didn’t make eye contact. We said as we left that it was strange that he didn’t say 'Hi.’”

At least one local company, Pepper Moon Catering, has stepped forward to help with some of Paladino’s business.

“We were inundated by calls from clients of Catering by Ellyn,” Meredith Williams, co-owner of Pepper Moon, said Wednesday. “I didn’t have anybody that was hysterical. (And we had) employees looking for work. Those would be expected.”

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com