casa ole, not to be confused with ole ole the musical group from Spain, more of them in another post. Casa Ole is a Mexican restaurant chain in the south, especially Texas.
i started working there after one month of looking and applying for jobs once i got there.
after a short stay in chicago, i moved to Bryan/college station Texas a small town in the middle of nowhere, where Texas A&M university is at.
the first job i got was as a dishwasher in this restaurant chain, situated in a mall that was basically the reunion point of the whole town , as there was nothing to do in this twin towns, in those days. so, some weekends the mall and the restaurant was full, all day long !
I was recommended by a cousin of my sister in law, but he hated me working there because of my gayness. in fact all the other 6 or so dishwasher folks did not liked me.
first day, i was oriented for like an hour and that was it, every one of them called in sick, so i worked my 8 hours and then i was asked to get an hour of rest and then work another 8 hours, by myself! the very first day! .
i left for home at 1am. and came back at 7 am the next day.
second day, a older woman came to with a plate of food: rice, beans and a big steak! , she told me: just don’t let anyone see you, but enjoy! i was told by other workers that she was bribing me, because she will steal big racks of ribs and soap and anything at her reach, so the food was a bribe so i will not say anything to managers.
managers were cool with me, especially morning manager, mark, his sons , one was the kitchen manager and the other was the bar manager and his girlfriend was the main waitress , so it was a family affair. and they all liked me. and treated me very well, which of course caused friction among the other employees.
washing the dishes was hard labor, first scratch all the leftover food from plates, then put glasses on a sink, plates on another sink and silverware on another, all with hot water and this industrial soap that takes away the grease fast, after that you wash everything with a power water pistol and then to the steam machine. the first days i burned my fingers and then i was used to it. but waitress will hurry you up with silverware and glasses and kitchen would scream : platos/plates! demanding plates, but no one will come get them, you have to make a big pile and carry them to the kitchen, once there after traveling on an always wet floor, no one will help you put the plates on the surface which was taller than your arm’s length , so difficult to put stuff there.
and yes, most of the workers were Mexican as well.
if you ordered extra chips, bus boys will use a very old very nasty shoe and scoop the chips from the machine with it. nasty! and that is why i never order extra chips at any restaurant, to this day.
if a customer was too demanding , waitress will say : use the earing! that is a big long earing they will clip on one ear , and this earing would be touching the beans and rice when the waitress carry the tray on their shoulder .
every 2 weeks there was a obligatory meeting on mondays at 7pm. free food and free margaritas! also free arguments once everyone was drunk . fingers were pointed at people, fights would start. fun!
after 3 weeks , waitress were “ in love” with me and joking around, bartenders as well, inviting me to parties and/or to smoke weed in the parking lot. fun!
after one month working there, i was called to the office by manager mark: i was told that i was a good worker and bilingual and liked by most everyone working there, his sons especially. so i was told that i was going to start working in the kitchen and maybe the bar. no one was happy about that, but me. the dishwasher guys make false accusations about me sucking the bartender’s dick and the kitchen staff were worried that someone was going to get fired and i was the replacement.
i did not care. i went to the kitchen and informed all about this news, but no one oriented me or cared about this news.
the exact next day, my day off from the restaurant, i was called to this marble factory, cultured marble, own by the Richards family , i will talk about them and this place soon in another post.
they asked me to start working that week. the manager, lance, took a liking of me right away. i said , let me put my 2 weeks’ notice at the restaurant. he liked that, he said it showed integrity and honesty.
i was hired, better pay and weekends off !
i went to talk to mark and said that i was putting my 2 weeks’ notice, he was sad to see me go and said that if he could pay me the same as amount as a factory he will. restaurant workers really put on hard work, everyone, from hostess to bus boys to dishwashers. but there was no way he could pay me that but that if that job did not work out i was welcome to come back and start to get trained as a co-manager. and that i could take the 2 weeks’ notice as a vacation and he pay me one week out of the 2 weeks.
i only worked there for one month, one month!.
mark ’sons were sad to see me go and so was the girlfriend of the bartender, i don’t remember these people’s names, it has been a while, this was in 1992 !
other than them, i did not said goodbye to anyone else.
i lasted 13 years in cultured marble and when that company was bought out by 3 investors, i worked for them for another 10 years. and then i moved back to chicago.
Gerardo Marciano
not your usual worker/supervisor/manager
i used to live in Texas
queer from México city.