The backbone of any good wedding — as anyone in the events world will tell you — is the catering. In a destination town like Santa Barbara, that backbone just realigned.
Two of the region’s best-known catering companies — Pure Joy and Catering Connection — have been fully acquired and rebranded under Solera & Co., a Santa Barbara–headquartered hospitality outfit connected to the Schaffer family’s Los Angeles–based event operation.
For former Pure Joy owner Lynette La Mere, the deal feels less like corporate consolidation and more like a retirement mic-drop — champagne flute in hand.
“My company just turned 25,” La Mere said, when asked to sum up the arc. “Single mom raising two kids. Started a company 25 years ago, and it really took off. I did well and became one of the top catering companies in the country.”
La Mere said she spent nearly two decades in Leading Caterers of America, a national consortium of top-tier catering companies, and bought Pure Joy’s long-time headquarters at 111 E. Haley Street 18 years ago. “I raised my sons and sent them off to college, and decided to move closer to them and retire,” she said.
Solera & Co.’s Senior Marketing Manager Ilexa Landau said the move is a full acquisition and that both original owners — La Mere of Pure Joy and Ursula O’Neill of Catering Connection — have retired. Between the two companies, Landau said, there are about 200 employees. “Both full-time staff have been retained, and all event staff have been offered continued employment with the new company, and most have agreed to join,” Landau said.
La Mere emphasized that her “core team” is staying on. “He kept my sales and my VP and my executive chef, Marguerite,” she said, referring to the new ownership, “and bought my recipes and went on with my future contracts as well.”
Schaffer, for his part, described the company’s path into Santa Barbara County as part romance with the region, part opportunity, part timing.
“My wife and son and I moved up to Santa Barbara County about five years ago,” he said. “And although we hadn’t planned to start doing business there, we had really fallen in love with the community and really wanted to participate and be a part of it in a different way.”
The two acquisitions — and the rebrand that followed — became a single story. “This all happened pretty quickly towards the end of last year,” Schaffer said, “but the timing was perfect because we were able to fold that into our larger rebrand.”
Asked directly whether buying two major caterers amounts to cornering the local market, Schaffer offered a different take. “Look, it’s a big market, there’s a lot of competitors, which is great,” he said. He argued the company’s niche is a particular blend of upscale and culinary artistry.
As for the numbers, Schaffer said Catering Connection was already operating at high volume. “We did about 100 weddings in 2025,” he said. “Over 500 corporate events. We did about 800 events last year.” He estimated the company will land in the same ballpark of 800-plus events this year.
In the kitchen, Schaffer said the newly merged operation is being anchored by Marguerite Cerredo — a Pure Joy figure La Mere effusively praised. “She’s just a prodigy,” La Mere said. “She’s just a brilliant, brilliant woman.”
Schaffer echoed the sentiment about Cerredo, now his executive chef: “She’s a tremendously talented woman, not just as a cook, but also as a leader.”
The merger, it seems, consolidates two successful businesses led by strong women who have gone on to retirement. As La Mere views it, it’s a handoff, a baton pass, and a toast.
“My retirement will begin with a champagne toast to Santa Barbara and the Joy Makers who have made it all possible,” she wrote in a farewell note shared publicly. “I love you all to the MOON, and I’m sending you magical success on your next adventures!!”
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