Worthwhile

the Romanesque Room at the Castle Green

Maybe you remember our visit with Ron Hobbs of Castle Catering just over a year ago. He's organizing a special event, and he asks so politely for our participation "...if you are so inclined..." 

Here's Ron's email:

Again this year I am organizing a special Valentines Dinner for some very Special People. Forty to forty-five Soldiers and their spouses will enjoy an intimate dinner provided by Castle Catering and it’s Restaurant Partners at The Castle Green and The Romanesque Room.

I want to give you an opportunity to express your gratitude directly to one of our Heroes by delivering “your” message that you are proud of them and thank them in the form of a Valentines Day card.

If you are comfortable doing so, please help us get the word out by forwarding this email to your contact lists. As I ask this, I do not know if this request violates any kind of privacy issues for you….if it does, then don’t worry about forwarding. We are just trying to get as many Valentines Day Cards with a “message of thanks” as possible.

Here is what I am asking you to do if you are so inclined…

1)         Send a Valentines Card with a message of Thanks to:

                         “A Soldier and Spouse”
                          C/O Castle Catering   Suite 102
                          50 E. Green St .
                          Pasadena , CA .  91105
             
2)         Certainly NOT required….but if you would like to enclose a check for $5, $10 or $20….or whatever you would like, made payable to “The Wounded Warriors Project” the soldiers will see them and we will forward them all to the Wounded Warriors Project.

3)         Last, if you are OK to do so…..please forward this message to some of your contacts and give them the opportunity to also send a Valentines Day Card with a “Thank You” message.

That is it…..I hope you will participate.

Thank you so very much.

Ron

Ron Hobbs
Owner, Castle Catering
50 E. Green St. 
Pasadena, CA.  91105
(626) 792-4444
Fax  (626) 793-6769
ron@castlecatering.net
www.castlecatering.net

Castle Catering

Meet Ron Hobbs, founder of Castle Catering at the Castle Green in Pasadena. Ron founded Castle Catering in 1984, after having already catered numerous events at Castle Green. He thought he knew the place pretty well by then.

What he didn't know at the time was that there was a huge kitchen in the Green Street wing that hadn't been used for a very, very long time.

Ron got himself a visit to the Green Street wing, where he found not only the 1200 sq. ft. kitchen you see behind him, but also a ballroom that was once the main dining room for the historic Hotel Green. The kitchen had not been used for decades, and the ballroom hadn't fared much better. A scene from the 1977 Liza Minelli/Robert DeNiro film, New York New York, had been shot there. When Hobbs first saw the room in 1984, the set was still standing.

But Ron believed in the place. He renovated both ballroom and kitchen, and named the ballroom the Romanesque Room. (I like the pictures on his website better than mine). The Romanesque Room seats 250 with the dance floor, even more without it.

the bar at the Romanesque Room

I have another picture or two, and more to tell you tomorrow. For now, something to think about: in 1984, the concept of Old Pasadena as a high-end shopping area was just that--a concept. It was a neighborhood folks didn't walk in at night. Making it better took a lot of people with chutzpah, or nerve, or even a bit of the crazies. 

Whatever it was, it worked.