The Industry

I’ve worked in restaurants my entire life. My first job, I was 16, serving cake and pizza at Cosmic Adventures. I was a birthday party hostess there for 6 months before getting a lip piercing and quitting to go work at the A&W in The Gloucester Centre. I was there for 3 years, I even left and came back. 

After that, I worked for Starbucks and after that I worked in my first real restaurant: Kelsey’s at Elmvale, which was bulldozed to make condos. I was a hostess for a year there. The boss of Bigg’s hired me over Christmas to serve evenings, he took a chance on me, so I put it in my resume and tried for a real serving job after the season had ended.

Broadway at Innes & Cyrville hired me. It was my big break. My first real serving job, where I really learned the ropes. I served 2 illegal poker nights, on Mondays and Tuesdays, and then 2 karaoke nights: Fridays and Saturdays. My shifts started at 6 pm and I got home at 3 am. Cindy, my old boss and I used to sit at the bar after work, drinking and smoking cigarettes, just the two of us. I did that for about 6 months. I saved so much money. I moved to Toronto and lived there for 2 years, serving out of a European-style bistro boasting over 100 beers on tap. My boss didn’t have a thumb. It got cut off in an accident. Despite that, he was a good man.

Finally, I returned to Ottawa. I worked in a few more restaurants and coffee houses before settling in at my current breakfast diner in which I hostess and serve. I’ve been there 2 years. It’s something special to walk into work like you belong there. I’m so lucky to love the work I do. I was born to serve. Even when I was a little kid, I wanted to be a waitress. It takes a certain kind of person. It’s physically and mentally demanding and it’s menial. But I need waitressing to calm my busy mind.