Font ResizeWe stood in silence chewing our leftover turkey with relish; eleven hours on your feet feeding the holiday masses will take the talk right out of you. Our families were all somewhere else; one of the drawbacks of working in the restaurant business is that you work on the holidays. For us in the restaurant business, every day following a holiday might as well be Boxing Day, a secular holiday celebrated the day after Christmas and that started as a day off for the serving class in England - especially the day after Thanksgiving.
Marin has about 500 restaurants, which means that, conservatively speaking, there are some 5,000 people working in the restaurant business in the county alone - more than the combined populations of Ross and Belvedere, and about half the total population of Mill Valley. This also means that on any given holiday, a large portion of them will be working.
Despite the perks of the restaurant business - flexible schedules, the ability to make more money by picking up extra shifts, the hustle and bustle - the downside can sometimes be as tough to swallow as dried-out turkey. Most of us don't get a choice; the holidays are the busiest time of the year and we have to
There are long hours - 10- or 11-hour days - and late dinners, often in the back kitchen. I once calculated that on a normal 6.5-hour shift I walk at least 10 miles. Considering someone's asking you for something every 20 seconds or so, it's no wonder that at the end of the night no one wants to hear anything but the sound of chewing.
In the current economic climate, many of us are thankful enough just to be employed. But when you finally rise Friday morning from your tryptophan-induced slumber, remember that many of those 5,000 people in the restaurant business are seeing their loved ones for the first time in 24 hours and for many, getting their first turkey of the season.
So, here are some tidbits to consider while they're enjoying their belated Thanksgiving:
- The first recorded Thanksgiving meal between settlers and natives in the New World actually happened on Sept. 8, 1565, when Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed at what is now known as Matanzas Bay near St. Augustine, Fla. Together with the Timucua Indians, the admiral and his entourage celebrated with a feast featuring a main course of bean soup.
- The Pilgrims were English settlers who had emigrated to Leiden, Netherlands, first (they lived there for 11 years). When they left for the New World they stopped in Plymouth, England, (the home of Plymouth gin) for a couple of months before continuing on.
- The Mayflower was originally a merchant ship that specialized in transporting French wine, mainly from the Gascony region (including Bordeaux). The ship also carried hemp, vinegar, brandy and herring.
- The Mayflower carried more than 7,500 gallons of alcohol on its voyage to America.
- The first Native American the settlers encountered spoke English and asked for beer. He was named Squanto and had been a slave in England. He was given "strong water" instead, which was some sort of distillate.
- The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock because they had run out of beer. "We could not now take time for further search our victuals being much spent, especially our beer," according to one journal.
- One of the first buildings the Pilgrims built, not surprisingly, was a brewery.
- The Pilgrims served some type of alcohol at "virtually all functions, including ordinations, funerals, and regular Sabbath meals," according to one source.
- Benjamin Franklin had wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United States, but Thomas Jefferson opposed him, supporting the bald eagle. When Franklin lost, legend has it that he then named the male turkey "tom" in order to spite Jefferson.
- Just because your Thanksgiving is over doesn't mean that someone else's isn't just beginning.
Jeff Burkhart is an award-winning bartender at a Marin bar/restaurant and an author. His columns appear weekly in Here. Contact him at jeffb@thebarflyonline.com.
