Rose Bruno Bailey: Working at Canters Deli, but ‘I’m Not Really a Waitress’

EDITOR”S NOTE:  Rose Bruno Bailey spent a year working at Canters Deli, the dining spot on Fairfax Avenue that draws a substantial crowd from West Hollywood.  This is the first in a series of six essays about her year there and the positive impact her boss, her co-workers and her customers had during a difficult time in her life.

I’m not really a waitress. No, really, I’m not really a waitress. I’m an (insert actress, dancer, writer, etc) but not a waitress. Did you know there is actually a nail polish named “I’m not really a waitress”? It’s blood red. So L.A. And so true. For years I rarely spoke about the waitressing part of my life. Someone once told me I was a great waitress, and my heart sunk a little. It’s not that I thought I was above waitressing, quite the contrary since my mother was the best waitress to ever sling a tray. Her dedication to working hard put us through Catholic school on her tips alone. My mother was the epitome of survivor, and she didn’t cry in her coffee when things got tough. She put on lipstick and a smile and waited tables with immense pride. She was so proud of her waitress accomplishments and the fact that she raised us all on her own.

I started waitressing at the urging of my mother when I was doing musical theater in college. It gave me the flexibility I needed. As the years passed waitressing was something I was able to do as I moved all over the country. You move and are able to make fast cash in the two weeks time it takes to train. It’s not that I wasn’t proud of my hard work, I just wanted people to identify me with my passions, my talent and my heart; not what I did to make a buck.

Then I took a server position at the famous L.A. landmark, Canters Deli, in the Fairfax District on the border of West Hollywood and Los Angeles. I was soon to realize waitressing was the guts to my glory, and the famous Canters Deli is the grit to the glam and the heart of Hollywood history. Matzo ball soup for the soul. For one year we coexisted, I was a Canters Deli waitress. Sometimes something you didn’t want ends up something you needed.

Life has a way of serving up humble pie, and my husband James and I got more than one slice; we choked on the whole pride-sucking pastry. In 2014 we moved from West Hollywood to San Francisco for James’ career, and over a year later he was laid off and it became clear we could not survive in San Francisco. We hit our own personal rock bottom, so we decided to move back to our home of West Hollywood. James was confident he would land a gig quickly, and when that didn’t happen it became obvious I needed to waitress again. We walked past Canters Deli, and we were stopped by an unassuming handwritten sign, “Waitress Wanted.” It was a sign in more ways than one. We both stood there staring, and he suggested I call and inquire the next day. Owner Jackie Canter hired me on the spot, and I received my right of pastrami passage, a Canters Deli tee shirt. I went from despair to deli before you could say “Would you like potato salad with that?”

When you walk into Canters Deli you time travel, in a place where everything is newer and fresher. Canters has held onto that certain nostalgic mystique of eras gone bye. The deli has been in business since 1931 and resided at the Fairfax location of the old Esquire Theater since 1953. The decor is circa 50’s. There is this tile ceiling redolent of fall foliage in the main dining room, and all of a sudden your sunny L.A. day has turned to autumn. Everything seems to have a golden hue, and you can just imagine the 60’s music scene, the counter culture along with real delicious Jewish delicacies. If you wish to “people watch” there is no better place to go, where Hollywood celebrities, senior citizens, locals, artists and tourists all gather for an authentic Jewish deli sandwich or something from the on-site bakery. It’s a piece of live L.A. folklore; hamantaschen and history. And for many Angelenos, it’s home.

As fortune would have it, someone didn’t show up my first day, and I was thrown directly into the fire. Canters is really old school, that is part of their charm. Learning how to hand write checks and keep up with the friendly, yet frenetic pace left me questioning if I could do it. The waitresses and waiters are as much a part of Canters eclectic history as they are Canters family, i.e. the food, the decor and above all, the feeling. I wasn’t sure I was a fit. I almost didn’t make it, but my manager Amy convinced me otherwise, that I really could do this. How do you know whether you belong or not if you don’t stick around to find out? The day shift servers were the veteran staff and the younger servers worked the overnight shifts. I settled in getting the counter shifts, finding my own rhythm, my own way. Soon to be immersed in what would be the most interesting waitress job of my life, and what was, in some ways, my saving grace.

Tomorrow: Canter banter.