Talking to Theresa Ortwein just days after she closed on the biggest deal in Haj Paj’s eight-year history – the purchase of the former Room 101 The Med location at 35 W. Main St., Annville – and she says her head is spinning a little bit.
Perhaps so, but talking to Ortwein and it’s clear she is focused, prepared, clear-headed, and above all else excited about the next chapter, and it’s a huge one, for the catering and food truck business she started following a 30-year career at Hotel Hershey.
Ortwein opened up Haj Paj catering in 2017, first as a part-time side hustle but quickly morphing into a full-time enterprise, adding a food truck in 2019. Today, the business is about 60% catering and 40% food truck, powered by a workforce of three full-time employees, five regular part-timers, and another 15 contractors who help with events.
After exploring a move into a larger kitchen and venue for the past five years, looking at “many, many properties” and even exploring whether she might be able to renovate an old barn before deciding it would be cost prohibitive, Ortwein had almost reached a decision point. Her business was busting at the seams, and despite heroic feats like catering three 200-person weddings across the county in a single day (brides pleased, staff exhausted), Haj Paj had reached the point where it was time to grow or stop, Ortwein said. The team was doing the unthinkable over and over again, working out of the food truck and a studio-sized commissary.
Then, Room 101 The Med came up for sale. The Annville restaurant had opened in June 2023 as one of the first restaurants in Lebanon County to specialize in Mediterranean cuisine. Its food was widely regarded as some of the best in the county, but owner and head chef Vito Mannino ultimately found that the restaurant did not have the growth necessary to continue forward and closed its doors in October 2024.
Ortwein says she dragged her feet on seeing the property with her sister, a real estate agent, but finally gave in and went to look at it.
It wasn’t her first time there, and Ortwein hadn’t originally been thinking of opening a bricks-and-mortar establishment, just a larger base of operations for the catering and food truck businesses. But entering the property at 35 W. Main St., she said it felt like home, and an offer followed shortly afterwards. Ortwein said the whole process went pretty quickly, with the $500,000 property purchase closing last week, as well as an additional $185,000 purchase of the kitchen equipment and furnishings, including the pizza oven.
Ortwein hopes to have the restaurant re-opened as Cafe Haj Paj by March, although the exact timing is up to the commonwealth’s ag department and food safety inspectors. Ortwein said she’s ready to go.
The kitchen needs hardly be touched, Ortwein said, adding that Mannino did the most amazing job and calling him a wonderful human being, and no major renovations are planned.
“He built that place with his heart and soul,” said Ortwein, who had the chance to visit the restaurant while it was operating. Changes that will be made include adding a second, seafood-only fryer and switching out a grill to be a flat top instead.
The decor will be also Haj Paj-ified, lightened up to bring “our own flair” and make it a “warm, minimalistic kind of place with lots of greenery, fresh plants and herbs, and different woods.”
The restaurant will begin serving breakfast and lunch, with hours 6 to 11 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday for breakfast, and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday for lunch. The breakfast menu, already published, will be available all-day.
The location will also become Haj Paj’s primary catering kitchen. Ortwein said she plans to offer regular special events, like multi-course meals around the holidays, a monthly Sunday brunch, small-plate tastings, and more. The cafe will be BYOB and also available for private event rental. To-go orders will be available through a Toast website, which is coming soon.
As for the pizza oven, outside of perhaps the occasional Italian night, Haj Paj does not plan to offer pizza as part of its menu. Ortwein, a Mount Gretna native and longtime Cleona resident, said there was no way she’d do that to local standby J&S Pizza. The pizza oven will be instead used for flatbreads on the lunch and breakfast menu.
Other menu standouts include the Double Piggy Bowl – potatoes, Haj Paj’s signature slow-roasted pork, bacon, cheese, BBQ sauce, green onion, and a fried egg – and a rotating crepe of the day item, which will alternate between sweet and savory flavors.
New to the Haj Paj team as part of the restaurant addition is executive chef James Snyder, who Ortwein has known since she was 18 and heard talk many times about opening his own restaurant. Once the Annville location came together, Snyder was the first chef she reached out to, and he’s now been onboard for the last few weeks.
Ortwein expects to be hiring additional staff at some point, but wants to start with her current crew so she can develop a better feel of what they need to hire for, and make sure she can give employees all the hours they need once they are brought onto the team.
Also on the team is Justin D’Amelio, a “shining star” in Ortwein’s words and “Jud” to many food truck regulars. D’Amelio is a creative force, an Italian influence on the food, who will bring a lot of fun items to the menu, Ortwein said. That creative energy will be amplified by mixologist Dave Jones – Haj Paj provides bartending services for catered events – who Ortwein said knows that whatever the customer’s question is, the answer is “yes!”
“We will bend over backwards for our customers,” said Ortwein.
The Haj Paj team is like a family, she said, and the brand has a following not just because of the food, but because they love providing excellent service.
“We love people and we love making them happy,” said Ortwein.
The team bonds over family meals and an annual family-invited team retreat.
“We’re going to run a with a slim workforce for the first month just to see where we’re at – I know my team is capable of amazing things and service will be top-notch,” said Ortwein, who is quick to also shout out her other family, husband Michael and children Korvyn (also Haj Paj’s executive assistant bookings coordinator, and social media manager), Max, and Ella.
“They’re my core, they’re my heart,” said Ortwein. Haj Paj, she said, is proof to her kids that when you put your mind to something, you can do anything.
Now, Ortwein is visualizing what’s next.
“We want people to feel like they always have a place to come get their coffee, their breakfast, and we’re hoping for a lot of laughter in our place,” she said. “I can hear it already when I stand in there. I just feel it. It’s going to be a nice, warm, cozy, comfortable place.”
Updates on Cafe Haj Paj as an opening date approaches will be found on the business’s Facebook page as well as its website.
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