Early Katering

The Gerber Family are so thankful for everything the Barn at Klines Mill and Early Catering did for our family. They made everything we had imagined come to life and then some. From all the planning they helped this crazy mom with to following through on everything. The food was OUT OF THIS WORLD! I had people coming up to me and saying it's the best reception food they have ever had. Thank you Debbie and Danielle for all of your help and Thank you Mrs Kay Early for being a Superb hostess. What a blessing you were. God bless you all.

Outstanding company and we were so happy with how well our event went. From the first day we met for a tasting, we could tell they were interested in making our wedding special and were grateful to have the opportunity to cater it. Debbie was a true joy to work with and her level attention was above and beyond. She put us at ease and provided creative input that made our day so special.

It was so much fun and Early Katering made it so easy that we want to do it again! No doubt they will continue to be one the favorite catering companies in the Shenandoah area.

Had our 40th high school reunion at this location and everything was absolutely wonderful! From Debbie assisting us with the menu, setups and day of decorations, this was a great venue and catering experience. The food was great along with the bartender for our cash bar!

I am so happy to give a shout out to our wedding reception planner Debbie and Early catering as well as their staff for making my wedding day perfect! From the time I met Debbie, I knew we were going to be taken care of. She is warm, caring, and was genuinely excited about helping to plan our day! She also went above and beyond to check-in, calm our nerves, and reassure us when we had questions and concerns.

The food was great, and the staff made it so easy. I didn't have to worry about a thing! They took care of every detail to make our day special-like filling the water glasses, lighting the table candles before our guests arrived, and preparing our plates ahead of time so that we had something to eat after our first dance. I am both grateful and thankful for their dedication, and for Deb's servant leadership. Thank-you Early Catering!

Wonderful experience from start to finish for our JMU graduation celebration dinner. Melissa was wonderful to work with and the whole team is great. Food was all delicious we had a lot of full and happy guests. The stars of the night were Sally and Emily who took care of everything so we could enjoy our evening. They took care of clean up and are grateful for their amazing help. Highly recommend!

Debbie and Dani are AMAZING. They perfectly executed the best day of our lives. As a team, they effortlessly roll with the punches and do whatever they can to make your event exactly what you're picturing! The scenery is beautiful, the barn is breathtaking, the people are incredible. If we had to do our wedding all over again, I'd just try to find these guys sooner to take some stress off my plate early on!

These ladies and this company goes above and beyond. Not to mention that every guest we've talked to since our wedding has raved about the food! So good we ate two whole plates during our own wedding! You make time for food that good! I wish I could say more about the staff during our wedding day, but they made it all so smooth and effortless that I barely noticed! If you want a gorgeous valley wedding or event - plan it with these guys!

Early Katering did a wonderful job catering a birthday party for me. The food was outstanding. Everyone in attendance raved about the pork BBQ. The string beans were flavored just right and very tasty. There were no negative comments about any of the food. Debbie was great to work with. Everything arrived on time. i would definitely use them again.

Debbie, Dani and their team at Early Katering are amazing and we would recommend them over and over again for any function you may have in the future, especially at The Barn at Klines Mill! 170 plus celebrated our daughters wedding and we could not have asked for harder working or more caring people. Covering details, giving suggestions, making our wishes happen and consistently going over and above, we couldn't have asked for more dedicated people to make this celebration weekend so special!

The entire process of choosing food options that worked and fit our needs was wonderful and the food even better! So many compliments from our guests! The Barn at Klines Mill venue is gorgeous inside and out. I'll also add that their AC system kept our crowd perfectly cool on a 90 degree day.impressive! Thanks to all for making our weekend so special and fun! Your hard work and dedication to our family and friends was obvious and appreciated! FOB

We had a very, very special event at our home on Memorial Day, May 30, 2022. My father-in-law, a World War II veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor turned 100 that day. I knew I wanted to have a grand party, but we are new to the area and I had no idea who to call to help make the day magical. I don't know if it was luck or divine provenance, but I came across Early Katering.

Oh my! What a beautiful, beautiful job they did. Debbie came out and did a site visit, and then she and the owner, Kay, came out again to have a look around and offer advice. They were extraordinarily patient in going over the menu with me, as I made several changes over the course of the party planning. We had vegetarians, vegan, and small children to feed and they really helped guide me in the right direction. Debbie designed beautiful table settings.

Their china and glassware is gorgeous and the linens were absolutely stunning. I could not have asked for anything more beautiful. The morning of the party, Debbie arrived early to get everything rolling. The chef, Brian, was amazing and put on such a beautiful spread. The food was so delicious and beautifully presented. I really could not have asked for anything more. Debbie and the staff made everything run like clockwork.

It was a glorious event and a beautiful day. I will look no further than Early Katering for my next event. They are a true local gem; beautiful presentation, lovely to work with, reasonably priced, and delicious food.

Debbie was very helpful during the process of planning formal. She made my life so much easier and helped create an amazing event for my sorority. The venue "The Barn at Kline's Mill" was beautiful, very clean and the had the best view. We will definitely be using The Barn at Kline's Mill in the future and the only thing we would change is the food choices. The service and staff were great help throughout the event and very nice.

I recently scheduled a meeting with EKC and Marie Trissel to discuss catering for my wedding. Marie and I had emailed and she had said I was written down on her schedule. The appointment was 3 weeks later. I never heard from her in that time frame, nor was I informed of where to meet her. I assumed since we were discussing catering, that we were meeting at the Terrace.

This was my mistake. I should have asked in the original emails. However, Marie didn't show up and I probably would not have heard from her had I not emailed her to remind her we were supposed to be meeting. We spoke on the phone and unfortunately she did not seem to be remorseful and was fairly condescending. I assume because I'm young.

I did receive a short and choppy apology email blaming the experience on COVID. Personally, everyone is having to deal with challenges during this pandemic, but many companies are still able to maintain their customer service and from reading previous reviews, this doesn't appear to be a one off.

Do not use this company! I'm a college student in a nonprofit organization that used them for our fundraising event. Not only did it take them 2 months to just send us the contract, but the lack of communication in general was very troublesome. The client services representative was who I was working with and she was extremely unprofessional and rude!

When a problem would arise, she had a horrible attitude when speaking to us. She only abided by some of the things that were in the contract, but not all, and did not take us as seriously as she should have since we are college kids. The only good thing about it was that it was the cheapest option we could find!

My sister had reached out to this company for her wedding. They asked us to provide more detail of what we wanted, as we had asked for asian-influenced dishes. However, before we could have this discussion they denied their services to us in a ridiculously lengthy email.

Overall I was mostly happy with choosing Early Katering Company for catering our wedding at their venue The Barn at Klines Mill. Saying that I am one of the most laid back go with the flow kinda people and I was not a stressed out bride. They were pretty disorganized from the start. Took a while to respond to emails (it did get better the closer to the date) and on one email they titled it "Hey Erin" even though my name is Emily.

Not a huge deal but shows a lack of professionalism. We had requested nineteen tables to be set up but when we got there to start decorating there were only eighteen tables set up. The venue was really gorgeous. I absolutely loved getting married in the barn and all of our guests loved it as well. The inside and outside were perfect for pictures. The food was good.

Nothing I would rant and rave about but it was fine. Their homemade salad dressings were really good. We were sincerely disappointed with the bar situation. We had an open bar and didn't seem to have an issue with liquor or wine but they ran out of beer. Right after our ceremony we went outside to take a few pictures and one of my husband's friends went to get us some drinks.

My husband had requested a dogfish head beer which we had set up with Early Katering to be served to our guests. Not even thirty minutes into our cocktail hour they were already out of my husbands favorite beer. He was so disappointed. Early Katering must have sent someone out on a beer run but they came back with Bud Light which was not a beer we even wanted served to our guests. We had discussed with Early Katering how much our family and friends would partake in the bar and are frustrated they didn't plan accordingly.

Not impressed at all with the catering company. A friend of mine used them for her wedding and their venue (see the Barn at Klines Mill) and I would have not been a happy bride if I were her. They charged her around $17 per plate for bland food which included some sort of chicken with white sauce (it tasted boiled and plain), dried rice pilaf, and beef brisket (which was more like steak teriyaki).

The only good part of the meal was the salad because they do make their own dressings. The bartender didn't know how to open wine for god sakes! And they ran out of most of the beer by the end of the night. They didn't seem very well prepared in my opinion and are way over priced. Try Hanks instead!

I had a great conversation with the owner about booking my wedding about three months ago. She told me to look over the menus and send her my choices so she could prepare a quote. I did and sent it right after our conversation. She never got back to me. I followed up and her assistant said they were "busy and would get back to me because it was graduation weekend".I waited and waited and never heard back.

Two tips for this business as someone who has been in the customer service industry for years 1. Never tell a potential client you are too busy. That is a red flag. What happens when it's someone's wedding day? Do you say you're too busy to answer questions? Ridiculous! 2. Get back to potential clients. Your one job to get more business is to respond to potential clients so you can book them. If you can't do that then I am grateful I went with someone else who was 100% on top of their game!