Mealfest

I started working in a restaurant, not knowing that I would spend my life doing it, when I was 12 years old. The name of the restaurant was The New Orleans Shrimp House.

It was an appropriate name since it was in an old house.  The downstairs was used for the restaurant and the upstairs (an attic) was barely big enough for a cot - one which I used when it was too late for me to work to sleep on while I waited for my brother and mother to finish their duties so we could go home.

The old house was two blocks from Tampa Bay where one could hear the ships’ bells tolling and the dinghies bringing in their catches of the day.

The sea spray aroma and the cool, evening breeze wafted across the back deck of the New Orleans Shrimp House everyday.  The fragrance of the outside air and the sounds of glasses and mugs dinging together figuratively took me to taverns the world over. These images lifted this writer to thoughts of exotic getaways and exciting get-togethers.

Inside, dining rooms teemed with personality of bygone days.  The dishes were varied; hardly any two were part of the same set.  The interior was small, lending itself well to intimate gatherings.  A festive atmosphere abounded for all of the patrons as well as the crew who served them.

The hustle-bustle of the city was in the distant.  This gentle setting offered a brief sojourn from the busy city goings-on that dominated so much of peoples’ days. 

This respite from the hectic schedules of people’s lives is something I have long tried to duplicate in the different operations I have been a part of.

The dishwashing job I had was not mine for long.  However, I reminisce about that seaside setting each and every time I enter into a task in the many dish rooms I have been in since.  I strain to hear the tolling of ships, the waves beating on the sea walls and the aroma of the bay.

I worked in dozens of places over the next many years: different professions but many were restaurants/fast feeders.

I finished college and worked two years as an assistant director of admissions, a job where I learned interview skills as well as public speaking polish, and then back to the restaurant business I went.

I went to a small but growing company.  I parlayed my limited supervisory experience (that which I gained when I was charged with scheduling, and directing about twelve different “work-study” students at the college) into a restaurant management position.

SOCIETY TRENDS

During the next two decades, many changes occurred in the world.  We as a society, probably in large part due to two income families and limited time at home for many families, became so much of an “eating-out” or restaurant society, that many companies grew and flourished building many locations.