After over five decades of serving good meals and even better smiles, a beloved waitress at a well-known Erie diner is hanging up her apron.<\/p>\n
Eleanor Mello, known to everyone as Ellie, is retiring after 51 years at Panos\u2019 Restaurant. Today marks her final day on the job.<\/p>\n
To celebrate her incredible career, the community came together to honor her with a heartfelt sendoff. From the moment you walked into Panos, you could feel the love Ellie has shared with customers and coworkers over the years, and the appreciation being returned.<\/p>\n
\u201cI appreciate everything and every one of you. I love you all,\u201d Ellie said during the celebration.<\/p>\n
The event highlighted just how much she\u2019s meant to the people around her. Ellie stated she wouldn\u2019t change a thing about her time at the restaurant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have changed one day. If I had to do it again, it would all be the same,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ellie started waiting tables as a teenager, and over the decades, those daily interactions turned into lifelong friendships.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were very close friends for almost 50 years, and I wish her the best,\u201d said friend Lou Calliadi. \u201cI hope all her dreams come true now that she can retire.\u201d<\/p>\n
For many customers, Ellie was part of their daily routine. Walking away from those relationships is the hardest part of retirement.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe became like family to so many people,\u201d said Stephanie Logue. \u201cThat\u2019s the part she never really prepared for.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m taking all of it with me,\u201d Ellie said. \u201cBut I\u2019m leaving my customers behind, my bosses, my friends, my coworkers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The restaurant\u2019s owner says Ellie has been part of his life since the very beginning.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was one of the people holding me as a baby,\u201d said owner Evan Legace. \u201cI was crawling on these floors, and she always looked after me.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Ellie begins this next chapter, she says she\u2019ll miss her customers most, but she\u2019s grateful for every moment spent at Panos and the community that made it feel like home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After over five decades of serving good meals and even better smiles, a beloved waitress at a well-known…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[84042,84043,136,138,137,84044],"class_list":["post-188442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-eleanor-mello","tag-ellie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-panos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}