Dishwashers. Frequently the most interesting people in the restaurant are found in the dish tank.
Years ago, when working at a Cajun restaurant (my second serving job), we had a dishwasher named Bill Knapp "just like the restaurant" he would say when you met him. Despite the fact that his job required little equipment other than a plastic apron provided by the restaurant, Bill Knapp came to work every day with a brief case. I'm not sure anyone ever discovered the contents of the brief case, but Bill Knapp carried it in every day and set it on the Metro Shelving in the dish tank. Bill Knapp enjoyed his job; particularly because it allowed him lots of free time to mumble to himself and eat leftovers off of diner's plates. Bill's behavior was so odd that it became a running joke that he would one day breeze through the front door wearing a suit and introducing himself as Dr. Knapp, a psychologist who was conducting a real-life experiment on the lives of those in the restaurant underbelly.
Other fun dishwashers in my life:
Darwin, a 38 year old father of 13 - yes, 13, who had, as he told me "4 baby mamas, working on a 5th."
Clayton, who was actually a sweet man trying to do his best to stay out of trouble after doing time for dealing crack. Clayton told me that he cried every night he was in prison but told the other inmates he had really bad allergies.
Jacinto, a Cuban refugee who claimed to have, while in Cuba, eaten his neighbor's cat because he was starving; Jacinto also said that he had spent some time in Cuban prisons where he and his fellow inmates were forced to dress as women and perform pageants for their captors. After some anti-Castro tagging around his neighborhood, he traded his house for a place on a raft headed for Miami. While drifting in the Atlantic, Jacinto told me he was rescued by some US marines who bathed him because he was too sunburned to move.
Wilfredo, a flamingly gay Puerto Rican who managed to get himself mixed up in some sort of drug-related gang nonsense. When people came looking for him at the back door of the restaurant one day, the chef used his own money to get Wilf set up in a sister restaurant in another city.
One dishwasher Husband worked with used to drink water from the spray hose in the dishtank, where the water comes out with the force of a power washer and is typically set to 180 degrees.
One dishwasher Husband worked with used to drink water from the spray hose in the dishtank, where the water comes out with the force of a power washer and is typically set to 180 degrees.
The dish tank might be the worst job in a restaurant. Imagine standing in a steaming pit where you are constantly wet and servers come along tossing their silverware into the soaking water, which will inevitably splash back into your face. The dishwasher is always the last person working in the restaurant, and makes less than everyone else. It is for this reason that the dishwashers are usually treated to the best meals cooked just for them by the chefs - good food and free beer are almost always part of the dishwasher's salary.
