The Library

Drew and I started working at a restaurant called "The Library" at a country club in the next town over. We heard about the opening from Drew's Uncle's friend and went there two days ago to apply for the job. We met one of the owners, Joe, who told us we were hired without even asking our names. We went in at 4pm yesterday and started our training. Because we'll only be working for another month or so, we'll only get to do bussing, but bussers still make decent money. When the "leafers" come (the people who watch the leaves change here), bussers can make around $100 a night just on tips. The minimum wage here for bussers is $5.15 which isn't bad. We made about 45 dollars last night total--and it was a slow night. I think if you average it out, we'll be getting around 12-15 dollars an hour.

It's a pretty easy job--the usual bussing fare of pouring water, bringing out bread, taking dishes away when people are done, resetting the table, etc, etc. Not a bad job for one like myself who enjoys as little responsibility as possible. There are some pretty interesting characters here too.

Kim, a waitress and bartender, was born in France but moved to the US when she was six. She doesn't have much of an accent but you can tell with some words. Then there's the other waitresses, Dusty and Leigh, both of whom were nice enough to give us a tip out last night even though they didn't have to (bussers who are training don't have to get tip-outs). Steven is another busser we work with who's been there for 3 days. Then there's the head chef, whose name I don't know. He's foreign too, but I haven't heard him speak enough to really place his accent. When the hostess stopped seating people, he took a break from making food to show off his skills juggling a wine bottle and its holder around his back and catching it, balancing it on the back of his hand, all the while teasing the dishwasher, Billy, who talks exactly like Boomhauer from King of the Hill. Billy is also a bit of a pyro and showed up outside while Drew was having a cigarette (I was just out there with him--by the way, this is my 8th day without smoking!) with an aerosol can of cooking oil I believe, trying to get the busser who trained us, Gabe, to hold a lighter while he sprayed the cooking oil into it. After Billy had nearly lit me on fire, he went back inside, and Leigh (who was having a cigarette also) told us how he'll heat up a quarter until it's red hot and throw it on the ground. He'll wait for it to cool down a bit then he says to one of the cooks or bussers passing by, "Look, there's a quarter!" He also twisted up a towel and gave a rattail to Dusty, who was studying for a Marketing exam in the back.

So all in all, The Restaurant is a nice place to work. I was about as tired after 6 hours of work as I was 10 at A&W Drive-In. Before 7pm it's a lot of walking around, pretending that you're working, folding napkins, and, oh yeah, I forgot the best part about the job! We get to have as much soda, and as many salads, rolls, and bowls of soup as we want. It's a 20-30 dollar an entree joint so even the rolls and soup are prime. I had escargo and chicken parmigiano the night we got hired.

That reminds me--another quick story from Mr. Mettler that he told us over dinner: A while back he represented Henry Strater, a famous artist and friend of Ernest Hemingway. (Here's a picture of Hemingway congratulating Strater on landing a blue marlin and here's a scanned copy of pretty much the only portrait he did of Hemingway I can find). Anyway, Mr. Mettler told us that 90% of Strater's art involved a nude woman and, in Mr. Mettler's words, "He laid every single one of them, of course." From what I gather, Mr. Mettler was representing him because he claimed that a woman he got pregnant had put a hole in the condom with a needle.