New Restaurant, Same Great Taste

Well ... tonight was my first night at a new job. Remember I told you about Amelia's?? You'll have to re-read this post if you forget the background, but a teeny bit of the background is that the owners of this new restaurant are some people I used to work with at an Italian restaurant in Radford, next town south of us. We went to eat there (at Amelia's) back in December, I offered to work a few nights a week if they needed help, and then I didn't hear from them. This past week I stopped by to remind them that I'd like to work there if they need help & they said that they had tried calling recently but the line was busy (which happens all the time) & they hadn't called back yet. So they were glad I stopped in, yes they wanted me to work for them, when could I start?? Yay! Then the owner called last night & asked if I'd be able to work tonight because their girl that was going to be quitting soon decided that last night would be her last night & now they were going to be short tonight.

Remembering what it was like when I used to waitress, I usually come home late from my shift but am pretty wound up & not ready to get straight to bed. So ... I'll probably be blogging a lot after my shifts now. :) I ought to have some interesting stories to share occasionally.

The place is not nearly as busy as the old restaurant where I worked (yet), but since there were only 2 of us waiting tables tonight, I still did pretty well. The food is great, probably because Buddy (my boss) was one of the best cooks Sal's (the old place) had. They also have pretty much the same menu, and they use a lot of the same food suppliers. I was disappointed at first that they didn't have the same tiramisu, but the one customer I managed to bully into ordering dessert said the tiramisu was excellent, so I guess it'll be okay. And she wasn't even saying that because I was twisting her arm behind her back.

The other server that was working tonight was a nice kid, probably a good waiter. The two cooks and one dishwasher were all really nice. I'm not sure if one of the cooks speaks english (at least not much), but she smiled a lot. Buddy's mother helps out on the weekends, & she's really sweet. It's a really good restaurant, & I'm going to enjoy working there. If you live in my area, you should check it out!!

For some reason, I gave myself a mission: to help get the restaurant really busy. I don't know why I think I can do it, but I'm gonna try. At least I'll try & tell everyone I know that they should stop in sometime. I really like it. Aside from the mean customers we had tonight that complained about a large group of people with kids that ran all over the place and got on their nerves (in his words, "this isn't Chuck E. Cheese!"), I enjoyed all my tables. Buddy's grandparents were in with some of their friends, and his grandmother told me that I was really good and she was glad I was working there. And she tipped well. :)

I finally made the connection tonight ... Buddy's wife is Ame (which I had incorrectly spelled in my other post). Ame ... short for Amelia. And I was thinking they had just picked a pretty name for their restaurant. Duh.

They are also due to have a baby in April, and will need a babysitter beginning in August. Ame is a teacher and plans to return to work next year. They are interested in having me watch the baby. So, that will give me the choice to get out of waitressing come fall if I have a desire to do so. Or maybe I'll just cut back my hours to whenever I want to work. I won't need the money if I have another baby full-time. Anyway, it's nice to have options.

On another note ... anyone out there ever have hermit crabs? Any tips for me? And oh, did I mention I got Dan a hermit crab for Christmas? My plan was for him to take the hermit crab to his classroom, but I think after he noticed how Stinky Pete & I had bonded while I was keeping him in hiding before Christmas, he decided to keep him home. He does eventually want to get a tank with several hermit crabs in it, and then I'll probably have to say goodbye to Stinky Pete. But until then, I love my little hermit crab!! I mean, Dan's little hermit crab.

Are you wondering about Stinky Pete's name? We were all debating about what to name him. Several good names were thrown out. Nathan: "Herman." Jeremy: "Peace" (I really have no idea, so don't ask). Dan: Doozy. I thought maybe Jeremy meant "Pete," so I started calling him that. It's kinda stuck. Dan hasn't said whether or not it will officially remain his name, but since I'm the only one who talks to him anyway, I think it's going to stay "Pete;" but Dan & I occasionally throw in "Stinky." It was a character in Toy Story 2.

What do you all think of the new layout? I tried a different one yesterday, but something was off with it so I scrapped it. Started fresh. I like this better, but what do YOU think?? I was going for "colorful."