Restaurant Life Lessons

[qtlaw]

My main high school and summers-of-college job was at a grocery store, but during my junior and senior years at University of Iowa, I worked at the Taco John's in downtown Iowa City.

Lots of interesting characters as co-workers, and some fun times working the closing shift with basically no manager around. One of us closers had to clean bathrooms, the other had to deal with the huge pile of dishes. I always preferred the dishes.

Highlights included trading food with the nearby Chinese restaurant, getting people to leave at closing time by offering them free Potato Oles (that we were going to throw out anyway), and serving Bucky Badger on a Saturday evening after a Wisconsin-Iowa football game.

I still could go for a couple Taco Bravos and a Potato Ole ...

In HS one of the best things was trading ice cream (I worked at the place) for records (my buddy) and movie tickets (another friend).

 

[playthrough]

I'm glad my daughter worked a hostess/server at a local country club for a couple summers, and now that she's removed from it, she agrees. Very much a behavioral study. The club is a low-level private joint but some members think it's Augusta National and dump on the help, others are shamelessly cheap. Some were wonderful and incredibly generous. My daughter got to know a lot of members well and then could tell when some guys brought in women who were not their wives, those were my favorite stories. Plenty of Caddyshack vibes all over the place with a lot of the same characters.

 

[Spartan Squad]

Worked at Jack In The Box my junior year of high school. Great time. Met some cool people who taught me all the Spanish vulgarities (until my students taught me some new ones). I actually learned more Spanish there than I did my previous three years of classes.

I remember learning how to deal with crazy people and those who get mad over the stupidest of crap.

Also church people are the absolute worst when they dine out. The place was rarely messier than it was after the church crowd left.

 

[Driftwood]

I wouldn't have made it in fast food in high school. I was a grocery store man all the way.
I have worked several summers at a tap room owned by a buddy just because it was something to do, and I enjoyed it.
We did typical bar food. I worked in the kitchen and did everything except operate the grill: manned the friers, made salads, filled orders, assembled the orders, sometimes ran them out to tables, cut vegetables, etc. I didn't have to wash dishes or bus tables.
The best part of it was he paid me cash each night under the table, and when we got done, I made myself whatever I wanted to eat and got two beers.

 

[Driftwood]

Come to think of it, it was a pretty sweet gig. I didn't even ask for it. Wife and I were eating, and the owner comes around and asked if I want to work some nights, told me the terms, and I said sure.
I worked 5-9 and got $50 cash at closing. The food I ate each night was worth probably $15, and two beers was another $15 for a total of $80 each night doing something I had fun at when otherwise I would have just been sitting around.

 

[MisterCreosote]

I delivered pizza in a small but densely populated pocket of Philadelphia for a few years. Which means I could leave the restaurant with five deliveries and be back in 20 minutes. So I could rack up a ton of deliveries (and tips) in any one shift. And I worked most weekdays by myself and with one other guy on weekends.

I formed some great self-preservation techniques by driving/walking around with hundreds of dollars in cash late at night. On the busier nights, I'd walk out of there with $400-$500 cash for that one shift.

I'd also make whatever I wanted for dinner. For as many calories as I burned running around delivering food, I'm sure I negated almost all of it by eating a cheesesteak and onion rings at midnight every night.

The lasting memory I have of that place is how forking filthy it was by today's standards. We all smoked right there in the kitchen, including the grill cook, who would put his cigarettes out in the grease trap while cooking. The pizza cook would pull pies out of the oven with a cigarette dangling out of his mouth at all times. The owner's wife would be smoking while checking customers out at the register. I came in early one day ("early" meaning noon-ish), and found one of the cooks sleeping on the prep table, resting his head on the meat slicer.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

I still could go for a couple Taco Bravos and a Potato Ole ...

Grew up around Taco Johns, and my sister worked there all through high school, so I didn't appreciate that until I was moved away.

Then a couple of years ago, one opened about an hour away from us. Gotta admit to taking a detour every few months and doing some serious damage there.

And it's just as glorious as it ever was.

 

[I Should Coco]

There is one T-Johns that survives in Eastern Washington — about a mile north of Gonzaga in Spokane — and over the years when I lived in the region, I went out of my way several times to eat there.

 

[garrow]

On my one visit to Iowa, I definitely hit the Taco John's in Altoona.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

I am now currently unhappy that I'm not near any Taco John's. It was a college go-to and always outstanding.

 

[qtlaw]

Worked at Jack In The Box my junior year of high school. Great time. Met some cool people who taught me all the Spanish vulgarities (until my students taught me some new ones). I actually learned more Spanish there than I did my previous three years of classes.

I remember learning how to deal with crazy people and those who get mad over the stupidest of crap.

Also church people are the absolute worst when they dine out. The place was rarely messier than it was after the church crowd left.

One of my everlasting memories was as a dishwasher making 2.10 per hr with Jose Gomez a 35 yr old Cuban immigrant with a family of 4 who would be the happiest guy in the world when there was a chance for a double shift and make $33.60!! for 16 hrs (no OT)

That reminded me how lucky I was to be a college student, not someone who NEEDED the $$$. I remember him every day I work.

 

[Spartan Squad]

Being slightly younger than you, I started at $5.10/hr. After a few months, I got a nickel raise and it was awesome. But a short time later, minimum wage went up and I was getting $5.25 instead of $5.15. I remember being miffed because I thought I should keep my five cents over minimum.