The day my life changed for the better, was unlike any day I have ever experienced. I awoke to the sound of my phone buzzing for the five hundredth time (or at least it felt that way).
“Hello.” I said in a voice that was not my own.
A shrill panicked voice on the other end yelled at me repeatedly, “Sonya… Sonya what are we going to do?! What should we do now? Where will we go? What should we do?!” While Mike stomped around the house, a little dejected that he had to get ready for work.
“About what?” I finally interrupted her.
“The Stopper (the restaurant we all worked at), it’s gone. Up in smoke, what are we going to do?”
I heard the downstairs door close “Trisha can I call you back?”
I leapt out of bed, and did some kung-fu ninja shit to get outside as fast as humanly possible, Mike was half way down the drive when I caught him. “HEYYYYYYYYYYYY” I said in a semi-sexy voice “Want to not go to work today?”
He looked at me like I was mental, the manager – chef at our restaurant just not go in, an impossible dream for him at the time.
“Ok, bad news I think the Stopper burnt down. I am not really sure, Trisha wasn’t making much sense however there is no reason for you to drive an hour to work if it’s not there anymore.”
There were secrets in the walls, and at any moment everything at the Stopper could have come unraveled, we had all been waiting for this, wanting this, but not fully understanding the gravity of it.
The first signs of trouble were so minute one might not even believe they were signs at all, but upper management (i.e. the owner) began cutting corners on food costs, liquor costs, and workers. Soon the line cooks and dishwashers were literally all ex-convicts (except for Mike and Robert who had been there since the dawn of the dinosaurs). Which is fine I don’t actually give a shit about that, they were a little moody at times but all in all great guys; they just weren’t specifically cooks (and the dishwasher found the work to be beneath him). Everyone deserves another chance and they had a great go at it.
Going to extremes to lower food costs might be the last thing a restaurant should do, but basically eliminating pest control is absolutely 100% the last thing a thriving business should do. As a matter of fact if you want to close your doors quickly that is the way to go about it.
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-ducksoup- 