As soon as the orders started coming in Bill lit the second Garland. He made sure the charcoal grill was lit on both sides too.
As quickly as Alvin had read those first dupes and they had started the orders, that’s how quickly a whole new slew of orders came in.
Tommy came in behind the waitresses carrying dupes and before they could either stick them on the spindle or hand them to Alvin, he took them and began expediting. Lillian, seeing this, started to get up, but Tommy signaled her with his hand not to bother.
And so it really began.
In the first twenty minutes the broiler was nearly completely full. Waitresses came in and out, got salads, got bread, checked to see if anything was coming up for them. Those first orders went out quickly, as did the next ones that came in. But the more the grill got full, the slower the steaks cooked, the longer it took to push out orders.
So this is where experience was the name of the game. This is where familiarity with the setup was the name of the game. This was where knowing what to do and how to do it without having to think about it was the name of the game.
Bill used the front stainless steel shelf of the charcoal grill to hold steaks that were either done, close to done, or rare or upcoming. He used the second Garland to cook those steaks that were thicker and cooked medium-well to well-done. He only needed to take one full step sideways, like a sliding step, to be able to reach into that grill with his tongs. But he had to go over there to put steaks on.
Alvin was conscious of the fact that Bill was passing behind him sometimes. Bill was always careful to say “behind you,” as he went by, but Alvin, funky, sweaty and generally smoking a cigarette right there on the line, didn’t need for Bill to say anything.
Right about noon Lillian took over for Tommy. She worked the next hour straight. During that hour Bill changed his apron for the first time because it was soaked with meat blood and grease. Every time he needed both his hands, he tucked his tongs under his armpit. Because he was lefty, usually it was the right armpit.
His shirt was soaked through as if he’d gone swimming in it. In fact, he was soaked through all his clothes, underwear on out, and would stay that way through the entire day, as long as the rush went on.
Mary pretty much stayed off the line except for when something was called out for a refill. As soon as she emptied one oven of baking potatoes, she refilled the oven with new potatoes to bake. The convection oven was used not only to bake potatoes, but also to heat things.
In the midst of it all, Bea needed cases of lettuce to be hauled into her station and dumped in her sink. Sometimes Jimmy could slide off the line to do it, but mostly it was the ADHD kid, Paulie, who accommodated Bea. He was happy to function in this manner. Bill would always remember him as a happy-go-lucky, wonderful kid willing to do anything and everything asked of him. Bill would always remember his buzz-cut crew-cut.
In that first hour Bill went from drinking coffee to drinking diet soda. He wouldn’t start drinking alcohol until into the afternoon, more towards about two o’clock, by which time they had been running two full broilers and a stacked charcoal grill for what seemed like forever.
In those first two hours, Jimmy ran down for trays of steaks twice. Henry Lee came up once carrying trays of steaks. He took one look at the scene and said only one word, “Damn.”
