Try Again by Nick Marshall

Author:Nick Marshall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Try Again: An Ex-Con’s Path from Prison to Prosperity
Publisher: Viva Editions
Published: 2024-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

PAZZA NOTTE

New York, New York-2006

Pazza Notte was as far across the spectrum from Ponte’s as a restaurant could be. Gone were my days of wearing suits to serve people overpriced, glutinous meals with expensive liquors and wines. Instead, I could wear a T-shirt, jeans, and boots and serve two-for-one happy hour martinis filled with rotgut booze from the well. It was a relief in many ways as I would feel more at home in that atmosphere than the stuffy, buttoned up world from which I had just come. Although the pomp and circumstance of Ponte’s allowed me to grow and learn about food, wine, and service in a myriad of ways. I walked in knowing how to make a few standard cocktails and left knowing far more about service, food and wine than I had ever imagined. The experience I had there for those years was invaluable if I were to make a career in hospitality, as well as for my palette. Gone were the days of drinking a beer and having a burger or a medium well steak with no clue of its cut. Ushered in its place was a food snob; preferring lump crab meat, lobster, ribeye and strip steaks prepared medium rare. And let’s not forget about the booze. I would only drink good wine from that point on, no Santa Margarita anymore. I had established a taste for the finer things in life, those that I couldn’t afford, but would spend my paycheck on anyway, treating myself for all my hard work, as people in the service industry tend to do.

What I liked about the job before me was not just the change in atmosphere, but the opportunity. I had taken the bar manager position, yet instead of wearing a suit and being a dictator against my staff on behalf of ownership as many managers are, I would be tending the bar with my staff. I was in charge of ordering all the spirits, wine, and beer and creating cocktail and wine lists; something I had done briefly prior to my incarceration. Additionally, two things really sold me, besides the salary plus tips method of payment. One, that I could make my own schedule and I would have the first cut option on any night I worked. It allowed for the potential to start building a social circle, and dare I say it, friends. Second, I was allowed to dress however I wanted, so long as I could work in it.

I arrived early my first day and met with the owner. He was in his late forties, a very attractive man with a European sense of style. He was very kind, but I came to find, was unaware as to how to communicate what he wanted from his staff. He cared about money and looks, not necessarily in that order, yet when it came to actually running the business, that was left to his wife, who was his business partner, a kind and gracious person in every respect.

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