Behind the Scenes at Susan Gage Caterers' Warehouse

Some of the poshest parties in town get their start these days in an unglamorous industrial park in Hyattsville. In January, Susan Gage Caterers moved its 125 employees into a new 32,000-square-foot facility, from which flow power breakfasts, lunches, and dinner parties for Cabinet members, museums, and Fortune 500 companies. Spring and fall, the busiest seasons, can mean helping staff a White House state dinner one night and decking out a top gala the next, with a dozen events in between. Gage—shown here in the black dress, conferring with event supervisor Gege Silvain—founded the firm in her Fort Washington garage in 1986. The new space has room for a kitchen 1½ times the size of a basketball court, five walk-in refrigerators, a bakery, and a sewing room where seamstresses produce Gage’s signature: uniforms that match the linens—down to waiters’ neckties—and often the flowers, too.