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 second 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.
Waitressing over the years was just a means to an end for me. I met lifelong friends in the many cities I lived and worked in, but I never needed a waitress job like I needed Canters. Sometimes we must follow the detours in life as we continue on our journey, even if the sudden turn begins with a crisis. It’s in these moments we meet ourselves.
We were so happy to be back home in West Hollywood and I needed to make it work. In the beginning I was just grateful to earn tips to be able to survive, but it would be some time before I realized the depth of my gratitude to the owners, management and staff.
Everything in life is an experience. I could mope and complain about our financial situation or look at the bright side and get to work and be present. When you find yourself in hot water, make like a kettle and sing. Good thing Canter’s played great 70’s music to sing-along to. It was like a soundtrack to my Canter’s days. From Karen Carpenter to the disco hour.
Finding my footing at Canters was a two-step process, and I fell a few times.
Navigating the menu and the old fashioned way of serving took some time to get used to. My station was always the counter and the deuce booths along the counter. Deuce in waitress-speak is a booth that seats two. In my server reality it was a huge section where people sit and expect to be served immediately, even though I may have five tables that sat down before them. I also learned they wanted to chat a lot, which would make my new counter position a juggling act. My role was to be a good listener, moving with lightning speed to keep their coffee cups filled and delivering food to the table as fast as humanly possible; doing it all with some semblance of grace.
I love people, and being kind to guests comes naturally for me, and the majority of the guests reciprocated. Almost all were understanding of the fact I was the new girl. Except one woman who moved her coffee cup away as I was in mid-pour. I apologized for not asking if she would like more coffee. First time anyone has ever called me a moron in my life. In life and in waitressing there are highs and lows. That moment was definitely one of my waitress lows. We are servers but human.
In the beginning I could not keep the pace until the head waiter Greg said he felt the same way when he started back in the 1980’s. He taught me to greet them one by one, say hello and I will be right with you and start with the first table and go from there. Trying to serve in correct order and find some calm within the Canters volume was definitely a lesson in patience and multi-tasking.
Hand writing checks and the whole computer system was so confusing to me. I recall more than one panic attack. You write out the order, put the order in the computer; but after that it gets tricky. If you have a Reuben or any grilled sandwich you have to ring that in first, get the sandwich from the deli to the kitchen, remembering to ring in the rest of the order. If you have corned beef and cabbage, you ring that in and carry it from the kitchen to the deli. If you have a club sandwich or a BLT you have to toast the bread in the middle of the restaurant and then ring it in. Not to mention running to the Kibitz Room for cocktails or to the bakery for desserts and specialty bagels. So here you are, running from deli to kitchen, from kitchen to deli, to the counter for toast all to have one goal in mind, to deliver the food in a timely manner to the hungry guest.
It was complicated, but it all ran like a well-choreographed dance, definitely not ballet. If Canters Deli was a form of dance it would be swing dance, all over the place but extremely entertaining, and it kept to the rhythm. I was in awe of all the servers and staff who performed this dance daily, and grateful to manager Amy and head waiter Greg for the motivation and encouragement. This place has heart, a soul and a pulse as well as the best multi-tasking staff on this side of the 101. I was there to earn tips to survive back in West Hollywood, but I would soon gain more than money in my time serving at Canter’s; I would learn lessons in life.
The reminisce of your salad days at Canters made me flashback to my first few days as a waiter. Juggling multiple tables, forgetting how to punch orders in correctly, being “triple sat” by the hostess, etc. I believe your quote surmises this eloquently, “It was complicated, but it all ran like a well-choreographed dance, definitely not ballet.”
“When you find yourself in hot water, make like a kettle and sing.” I love that!