Working it this weekend: the waitress, busboy & bartender

For resort-area hospitality workers, this Labor Day weekend has been just that, a weekend of labor that marks the end of a busy summer season.

The National Restaurant Association predicted that 35 percent of Americans would go out to eat this holiday weekend. Locally, add in the Rock ’n’ Roll Half Marathon, the American Music Festival and the start of the Neptune Festival, and the Oceanfront dining rooms were jamming.

While some people might dismiss restaurant jobs as menial, the resort area would be hurting without them. For Labor Day, we checked in with a trio of award-winning Oceanfront restaurant workers – a busboy, bartender and waitress – who told us about the good, the bad and the ugly nightmares.

THE WAITRESS

CAROLINE JONES AT ROCKAFELLER'S

Today, Labor Day, part of Caroline Jones' recurrent dreams likely will come true.

In her dreams, Jones arrives for her waitressing shift at Rockafeller's. The Rudee Inlet restaurant is brimming with diners. Jones gets right to work, but for some reason she can't deliver drink orders to her tables. The food is never ready. It's a night without end.

In another dream, tables are tucked into tree forts. The wait staff must use rope swings and a pulley system to deliver the food.

"I'd rather have a scary dream than a work dream," she said.

In real life, Jones is the Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau's wait staff person of the year. Although there won't be any rope swings, Rockafeller's is likely to be rocking today, the end of a busy three-day weekend.

Jones knows exactly how to manage the crowd.

"It's hard work," said Jones, 22, a May graduate of Old Dominion University with six years of waitressing experience in Williamsburg, Norfolk and at the Oceanfront. "We have a lot of high-stress things to deal with.... There were definitely nights this summer when it was so busy, I didn't think I'd get through it."

Waiting tables requires patience, speed, the ability to multitask and problem-solve, not to mention delivering high-quality service, no matter the mood of the customer.

Those traits, Jones says, will serve her well when she begins her career in marketing this fall. She's been honing the skills during 40- and 50-hour work weeks, wedging in double shifts - days that start at 10 a.m. and end near midnight.

Her best table this year: A large party that left her 20 percent on the bill and another 20 percent in cash.

What makes her groan: Patrons who pay their tab and then linger endlessly at the table when there's a line at the door.

But aside from that, she likes her job. In the summer season, time passes quickly and the money is good.

"Summer only happens one time a year," she said. "As long as you can do that for three months, you're OK."

THE BUSBOY

DILLON CLARK AT ROCKAFELLER’S

Dillon Clark started his restaurant career at age 14 rolling silverware at Rockafeller’s.

Today, at 22, he’s the Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau’s bus person of the year. And he knows what got him noticed.

“I just have a great work ethic,” he said, and added “I’m fast. The more tables I bus, the more money I make.”

A high-season workday for Clark starts at Rockafeller’s around 4 p.m., with setting tables, and stocking ice and glassware in the bar and wait station. It ends around midnight.

When the wait for a table is long, he clears tables and resets them just so in record speed, brushing crumbs from chairs, sweeping under tables, running food to the upper deck wait staff, all the while keeping an eye on the ice bins and glasses and pinch-hitting as an expediter in the kitchen.

“I do whatever is needed,” he said.

Menial work? Hardly.

“It’s one of the most important jobs in the restaurant,” he said. “If you don’t have a busboy, you will go down hard.”

Clark has few complaints – just those jamming 100-degree nights and children who crumble the cornbread onto the floor.

“That’s about it,” he said.

THE BARTENDER

JOEY HABR AT CROC'S 19th STREET BISTRO & CENTRAL 111

Joey Habr’s workdays start when many people’s are ending.

A shift for the Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau’s bartender of the year might begin at 6 p.m. and end at 2 a.m. Or it might run from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.

“I’m more of a night person, so it really suits me,” he said.

Habr, 26, tends bar at two places: Croc’s 19th Street Bistro near the Oceanfront and Central 111 in the Great Neck section of Virginia Beach.

His success comes by way of a gift of gab and the willingness to talk to each customer. Even on a bad day.

“Everybody has those nights,” he said. “But I’ve always had one of those mottos that home is home and work is work.”

Another must is learning customers’ drinks and names, including last names, so he doesn’t have to ask when they open a tab.

The best bartenders possess a measure of mad scientist and willingness to concoct new drinks. Habr’s current favorite invention is one he calls Skittles, made with four kinds of vodka, sour mix, cranberry and a splash of Sprite.

“It tastes just like a Skittle,” he said. “Girls love it especially.”

The best thing about his job: “The people I meet.”

The worst: “The people I meet,” he said, laughing. “It’s a pretty good job. I hate when it’s slow.”

Lorraine Eaton, (757) 446-2697, lorraine.eaton@pilotonline.com