They worked. Jimmy G and Bill worked straight through from five-fifteen when the first order came in until nearly nine o’clock when there was a lull for the first time. The board was not completely empty but only a couple of tables were working so that’s when Bill told Jimmy G to head on off to the men’s room and to come back quickly.
While Jimmy was gone more orders came in. Jo Ann was still taking tables and told Bill it looked like she might have to work the whole night. But she was clearly not unhappy. To the contrary, she, Rosie and Edelgarde were quite happy because they were making a lot of money.
By the time Jimmy came back, and at least he came back with two double espressos, the board was near-full again. Bill had started everything. He was able to tell Jimmy exactly what he needed to do and in what order too. Bill was already pushing out orders and he was getting ready to be able to pick up all the orders working without any of them being untimely. Quick in and quick out, that was the way Bill worked, the way he was used to working.
The girls were now, on this Bill’s fourth night in the room, learning just how long to hold orders before turning them in. But Bill did not like that and he told them, once as a group and each individually, not to hold orders. He told them to turn them in and let him know when they did about needing them held. He told them it was a matter of trust and that they needed to trust him because they could only see what they could see but he could see the whole picture.
From five to eleven, Bill did not leave the kitchen once. He and Jimmy, except for that one lull, worked the entire time putting up orders, and then, almost as if it were suddenly, the board emptied out and no orders came in.
“Damn I have to pee,” Bill said to Jimmy G. But he only did so after he’d picked up everything from the grill so it was empty. Jimmy had a few little things, appetizers, he was working, and he told Bill to go ahead.
“Be right back,” he said.
He pretty much ran to the nearest staff bathroom and then he ran back so that he was only gone a moment. When he got back the only thing he had to do was fix Jo Ann’s dinner. She’d ordered a piece of fish but Bill called her over and told her he had some braised tenderloin tips if she wanted them. She was happy to hear that.
She stood by the open server window while Bill warmed the meat up for her. It was easy enough to do in a small sauté pan. Jo Ann watched, watched him not only warm the meat in the sauce but fix the sauce too so it was as he wanted it.
“What did you do?” Jo Ann asked. “You tell all your friends you were working here and to come in for dinner?”
“I just moved up here,” Bill said. “I don’t have any friends.”
“Well I hope it stays like this.”
“It will be what it will be. All we can do is be good at what we do.”
Jo Ann watched carefully as Bill plated her dinner. He made it really nice, made it pretty, gave her scalloped potatoes and mixed vegetables as the sides.
“I’m gonna enjoy this,” she said.
As she was picking up her plate, Caesar came by. He looked at her dinner, looked at Bill.
“Why is she eating steak?” he asked.
“It’s her dinner,” Bill said.
“They can’t eat steak.”
“Talk to the chef,” Bill said.
“Don’t think I won’t,” Caesar said.
Bill laughed to himself. He knew what Caesar didn’t, that Jimmy Banquet Chef had sent it over for them. It’s what they were all eating this night.
