By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

Adam Baumgarten was 15 years old when he met Steve Bernstein for the first time.

“I was interviewing to be a dishwasher at the Uptown Deli,” he recalled. “Sitting there with him, a Merit Menthol Ultralight 100 in his giant hand, he looked at me and asked, ‘Why do you want to work here?’ And before I could answer, he exclaimed, ‘because I’m a mother f—ing son of a bitch!’ followed by his trademark roaring laugh.”

Over the next 24 years, Steve would become Adam’s mentor, friend, father figure, and business partner.

Steve, the founder, co-owner, and chef of Bernstein’s Fine Catering — a mainstay of Dayton’s general and Jewish communities — died unexpectedly of a heart attack on June 23. He was 73.

A decade ago, when Adam married Lauren Sherman — whom he met through his catering work — Steve made Adam his partner. Steve signed their ketubah (marriage contract). He held their children, Noah and Adina, when they received their Hebrew names.

“He showed me the importance and value of long-term relationships,” Adam said of Steve, at a memorial service on July 10 at Temple Beth Or. Adam and Lauren now run Bernstein’s Fine Catering.

“He loved and boasted about the generations of brises and baby namings, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs and weddings,” Adam said.

“He was such a stubborn, set-in-his-ways man,” Lauren said in an interview with The Observer. “But he was the most generous, caring and giving, loving person.”

A native of Queens, N.Y., Steve opened his catering business and the Uptown Deli restaurant at Randolph Plaza in Clayton in 1988.

He had previously worked in the hospitality industry, including in the food service departments of The University of New Mexico and The University of Dayton.

Steve eventually closed the restaurant portion of the business to concentrate on catering when it proved more profitable; he also sold kosher groceries at the Clayton storefront during the years when kosher items were difficult to find in the Dayton area.

Bernstein’s Fine Catering has handled the lion’s share of kosher catering in the Dayton area for three decades, preparing meals in Jewish community kosher kitchens. Kosher catering, Adam said, comprises about 20 percent of Bernstein’s business.

“He put himself out there for the Jewish community, sometimes at a loss on the business side, which I don’t think people quite understood,” Adam told The Observer.

“Often times he was the first person people called when they were getting ready to have a baby, when their daughter or son got engaged, or when a loved one had died. And there were a lot of times when people would come and say, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to pay for this.’ And he would say, ‘Just tell me what you want, we’ll take care of it.’”

In 2011, Steve and Adam moved the catering business to its current West Carrollton facility, doubling its square footage.

Adam said his plan moving forward is to grow Bernstein’s, to get even better, and to stay involved in the community.

Bernstein’s Fine Catering received the 2015 Best Of Dayton Award from Dayton Magazine for catering. Last year, Bernstein’s also took over management of operations for Leo’s Bistro at The Dayton Art Institute — reflections, Adam said, that the business is regarded as among the top caterers in the Dayton area.

“We’re also one of only three approved caterers for the Dayton Art Institute,” he said. This opens the business up to clientele it might not otherwise reach, he added.

“Bernstein’s Fine Catering is going to continue to be Bernstein’s Fine Catering,” he said. “Steve gave me the responsibility when he was alive to grow as a partner, as a person, as a business, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do. We don’t have to get bigger, but we’d like to. We want to be part of providing a service for Jews in Dayton, which is important.”

Steve is survived by his wife of 52 years, Marti, their son, and two grandchildren.

He was buried in Albuquerque, where he met Marti while attending the University of New Mexico.

“They were married there, and he just always loved it,” Adam said.

To read the complete August 2016 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.