SANFORD, Maine — Like a lot of young people growing up in Sanford in the 1970s and early 1980s, Gina Sawtelle visited Shaw’s Ridge to get ice cream cones, see the cows, and enjoy one of Sanford’s most beautiful and idyllic spots.
Sawtelle could not have known it at the time, of course, but decades later she would own her own piece of the beloved ridge, and on it, she would build Above & Beyond Catering.
She moved into the former Shaw Family residence at 49 Shaw’s Ridge Road in late 2017 after operating out of the now-closed Sanford Town Club on Main Street for close to a decade. In the years that followed, Sawtelle and her staff have innovated their way through the COVID-19 pandemic, continued catering events throughout Maine, and worked through the city’s planning process in pursuit of a dream that in 2024, will finally come true.
On Saturday, April 13, Sawtelle and her staff officially broke ground on The Ridge Wedding and Events Center, a new venue now under construction behind the catering company’s headquarters. The center is expected to be completed later this year.
“I always knew that I wanted my own venue and how pretty it would be up here,” Sawtelle said during an interview on April 15. “We’ve already done some weddings in the back meadow, and they’ve been beautiful.”
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Ridge Wedding and Events Center a long time coming
For Sawtelle and her crew, the groundbreaking for the venue is a testament to their perseverance and the realization of plans that survived the threats the pandemic posed to so many businesses for more than a year.
As many people did during the pandemic, Sawtelle found an idea to keep her company going and capitalized on it. In her case, that meant she and her staff began taking individual orders for meals, preparing them in the kitchen at the house on Shaw’s Ridge, and handing them out to customers who stopped by every Thursday evening.
Sawtelle and her staff called these occasions “pop-ups,” and they held their first one in June 2020, roughly three months into the pandemic.
At a time when gatherings – the bread and butter for all caterers – were restricted, those dinners proved popular and helped Above & Beyond through the pandemic. Those Thursday meals have been so popular that Sawtelle and her staff continue to make them to this day.
“We call that our COVID silver lining,” Sawtelle said.
Sawtelle even opened a room where customers could browse for local goods when they stopped by to pick up their meals. Such goods include baked items, artwork, honey from a local beekeeper, and books by a local author.
When she started selling such goods, Sawtelle even made sure to stock one item for purchase that was quite in demand at the time.
“When we first opened, we had toilet paper,” she said, with a smile, recalling the well-documented shopping sprees in the early days of the pandemic.
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Above & Beyond continues expansion with new events center
The pop-ups are not the only innovation Above & Beyond has implemented along the way. Sawtelle and her crew also have dedicated one room at the Shaw’s Ridge site as a bridal suite, where brides-to-be and their bridesmaids can relax, have their hair done, and more before the big ceremony.
“We’ve been renting it to quite a bit of people,” Sawtelle said. “Some of our brides are getting married elsewhere in the area, and they want a space to get ready for pictures. It’s worked out to be a great place.”
And, of course, the brides will not have far from that suite to go, once the wedding and events center is completed.
With the ground broken for the project, and with crews busy at the site each day, Sawtelle is seeing her long-held vision take shape.
“It’s starting to be exciting,” she said.
Sawtelle credited her dozens of employees as a major component of Above & Beyond’s success.
“I’m so thankful for my staff,” she said. “Catering is not a glamorous job, with the long hours, heavy lifting, and extreme temperatures, but this team makes it look effortless. They make the work so much fun ... Above & Beyond Catering would not be what it is today without them.”
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