The Party Specialist marks 30 years in Lynn

LYNN – The Party Specialist is celebrating 30 years in Lynn this month, but the catering and event planning business got its informal start when its owner was not even old enough to drive.Bruce Silverlieb, 51, who grew up in Swampscott, said when he was 15 and babysitting for a family, he started to make dinner for his charges and their parents to be ready when the parents arrived home. He said the parents then asked him to help with their own parties, and soon, their friends were also enlisting Silverlieb?s aid with event planning.?Somehow, I was in the catering business,” he said, adding, “And actually, the first few parties they had, I had to get dropped off because I didn?t have a license.”After receiving a culinary degree from Johnson and Wales University in Providence, R.I., Silverlieb returned to Swampscott and continued his catering business out of his parents? house until he outgrew the space.?His mother kicked him out,” The Party Specialist Production Manager Tammy Choquette joked. Silverlieb added, “Mom said, ?Build a building, build a commissary, because you can?t stay here.? It was time. It was either that or not do it anymore, because (the business) was too big.”Silverlieb moved The Party Specialist to 530 Chestnut St. in April of 1982, and he said the vitality of the mostly young staff made the group a “powerhouse.”?We could do anything. We could do triples; we could do three jobs without sleeping. ? And then go to Denny?s at 2 in the morning. It was exciting. And we had skill, and we had tons of energy and passion,” he said.Choquette, 44, a lifelong Lynn resident, joined the business a year after it moved to Lynn when she was 14, washing dishes and helping in the kitchen. She said 70 percent of the company?s staff of roughly 35 is from Lynn and the rest from surrounding North Shore communities. Many of the staff members have also been with the business for a considerable amount of time, Silverlieb said.?Because ours is an industry where people come and go, we boast many staff who have been here more than 20 years and some key staff who have been here more than 25 years,” he said.The Party Specialist serves clients in Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine, but Silverlieb said the business primarily works in Massachusetts. The business? mainstays are weddings and bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs, he said.Silverlieb, a Marblehead resident, said he does not use pre-printed menus, but invites clients to come into the shop to compile a custom menu.?It?s more work for me, more work for the host, but they end up with a party that is very special and uniquely theirs,” he said.No matter the menu, Silverlieb said the business has a signature way of finishing events to show appreciation for the job.?We give to every host warm chocolate-chip cookies, often passed with ice-cold milk or Baileys Irish Cream, at the end of the party,” he said.During his time in business, Silverlieb said people have shifted away from getting professional help for cocktail parties and seek catering services more for milestone events. In addition, he said, there is less rigidity in the format of the events.?Years ago you would never make a wedding without a sit-down dinner, or not even wedding, but large event. Now, among our most popular things are our tapas parties, where we?re doing small plates all night, and people are forgoing a sit-down dinner,” Silverlieb said.For at least the past 20 years, Silverlieb said, The Party Specialist has also operated a linen business, where the fabrics are available to catering customers at a reduced rate.?People wanted one-stop shopping,” he said.Silverlieb said the business does between 60 and 75 large events each year, and he is content with that productivity.?I don?t allow us to get bigger, which means that we turn down a lot of events on the weekends ? because I?m more interested in keeping it excellent than I am in allowing it to be bigger,” he said.When Silverlieb was setting up the Lynn location, he said