And I'm there, behind my manager, listenin'. And I said, "Your friend can't eat here no more. He's ass naked in our bathroom. This is as bad as it gets. Just send his ass away. We're not mad at you. You can come in again. But tonight...you gotta' go home."

--Barry, a waiter at an all-night French restaurant

Some people just don't know when to quit. But let me introduce you now to a brand new waiter. His name is Roger and he works at a family restaurant just south of NYU, where the streets turn into a warren of shops, bars and food spots. He comes from Chicago, but he tells me that he spent a bit of his youth down in Arkansas, so he's got a bit of a southern drawl. Not much, just a little around the edges of some words.

The thing that struck me about him was his squeaky clean naiivete. I actually worry that this kid might one day get mugged during daylight hours in the Duane Reade on Sixth Ave and Waverley.

So I met him at his job and after he got off shift, we headed over to a d.b.a., grabbed a couple of beers, and started talking...

************************

I first waited tables in Chicago while I was going to school. I went to school there and studied theater. I'm an actor, and I knew I wanted to move to New York and try the whole acting thing, but I didn't have enough money at the time. So I thought, "Where can I make some quick cash?"

I started working at a bar, for about nine months. It was kind of cool. It was an Irish pub, and it was actually pretty nice, very authentic. It had the Irish music, everything was all wooden...It was a really cool place. We served all Irish food like shepherds pie, things like that.

My manager told me, "I know you've only worked here nine months, but when you get out to New York, tell them you've worked here for two years." 'Cause waiting tables is waiting tables. There's nothing more I was going to learn in two years that I hadn't already learned in nine months.

So I moved out here, I put two years on my resume and I started going around to places. I went to a lot of places and they would say, "We're looking for someone with New York experience." And so on.

I kinda' walked into this place at the right time, and the manager said, "Somebody just quit. We like someone with New York experience and you've waited tables in Illinois, but waiting tables here is not some sort of brain surgery. You seem like a nice guy."

So I was basically outgoing in my interview and they decided to give me a try. And now I've been there for...it'll be five months in March.

I think this is a cool place. It's cool in that it has a very historic feel to it, with the old wooden bar, and the checkered tables cloths. I think it feel like an older place that's been around for awhile. It's very comfortable with the candlelight. I guess that's the general mood. It kinda' depends, because sometimes I think it operates as three different restaurants.

Early evening on Fridays and Saturdays, people come for steak dinners. Then later on at night, it's just a bar. People are rowdy, watching the game and drinking. Then on Saturday and Sunday mornings, it's a breakfast place, brunch, which is another completely different crowd--people drinking mimosas and champagne, and eating eggs benedict. So it's almost like working at three different restaurants.

12:08:33 AM     comment []