Starr Catering changes name to Constellation Culinary Group

Three years after Starr Restaurant Organization sold it, Starr Catering has changed its name to Constellation Culinary Group.

The move, part of the terms of the 2015 sale to catering behemoth Elior North America, helps end confusion between the restaurateur's own restaurant empire and the catering division's business, which provides off-premises weddings, corporate meals, and large-scale events as well as operating restaurants and food concessions along the East Coast.

Constellation chief executive Simon Powles and Starr founded the company in 2008 with offices on North Broad Street. Terms of the 2015 sale were not disclosed, though Starr called it "an offer I could not refuse."

In a statement, Constellation executives decided not to extend their licensing agreement with Starr Restaurant Organization: "We saw this as a timely opportunity to take a step back, examine who we truly are as an organization, and make sure our visual identity was an accurate reflection of that."

Constellation employs about 1,500 people. The Constellation name, Powles said in a statement, "is reflective of growth and change, while continuing to embrace the heart of who we are and where we've come from."

The catering company provides the food at such venues as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall and the New-York Historical Society in Manhattan, the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, and the Perez Art Museum in Miami. It also operates the Parliament Espresso and Coffee Bar across from Penn Square in Center City and Rat's, the luxe restaurant at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton Township, N.J.

Constellation will operate Stir, the Frank Gehry-designed restaurant opening Oct. 16 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.