"wet t-shirt contest..."

Saturday night...busy...I should've been getting my ass handed to me on the wok. Instead, my number came up in the cook to dishwasher lotto. Pretty sweet. I took the time to prepare. I made a dishdawg mix...came ready to relax. Possibly a bit too ready to relax. I was pretty fucking smug...busting out dishes, pots, whatever...no worries, not a care. Then around 8 o'clock the bus tubs started coming back full force. I'm not saying I couldn't handle it, but I definitly had the attitude that if I could bang the line on a busy night, dish would be all cake-y. Maybe my age is really starting to catch up...I was feeling a bit beat up, but I made it through unscathed, none the less. I still got out before 1...and I definitely won the wet t-shirt contest! I'll take my chance to hang in dish whenever I'm needed, but keep me on the line where I feel at home. 

"Blowin' the dust off..."

Now seems as good a time as any to update this thing, as I'm about to head off for my first shift as a dishwasher in a very long time. Sure I've stepped in, pulled a partial dish shift when we were down, but always seem to get back to cooking. Tonight will be the first time I've been just a dishwasher since I was 17. You see the recession has hit Soba, and they have decided not to hire...needless to say each cook gets to pull a shift as dishdawg. I'm kind of excited. I made a playlist and I'm ready to chill in my hole and be left alone (for the most part)...no stress, no yelling...just dishes and rock! I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

Whistlers Mother(fucker).

I guess maybe I've been a bit on edge lately, but I've been increasingly annoyed by several of the most recent additions to dishland. This dudes cool enough, but man he drives me nuts. I've witnessed shifts from start to finish where he didn't shut up. If he wasn't talking he was just making noises (not like the ones "freddy/jason killer" made...I'll tell you more about him later). Weird beeps & space drum noises mostly...Lately he's taken to whistling, not tunes mind you, just inane, mindless whistling. It's fuckin annoying, but whats worse is that hes got me whistling more too. It's a goddamn epidemic! At least the dishes are clean more often...I guess I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue...

Tell me sump'n

Looking for people with good dishwasher stories. I've become increasingly lazy...

JM part one...

I still remember The first time I met him, an older smartly dressed african-american gentleman, it seems like only yesterday. He was a cool cat. A real 'lifer' type dishwasher. He had worked in some higher end places, and of course some dives. He had a ton of stories, and I enjoyed the slow times of the evening hearing about them all. He was a veteran and had a shit ton of stories about getting shot and drinking in foreign lands. (check later installments for the best drinking/suicide story I ever heard) His biggest downfall was that he hated the severs...I mean He fucking despised them! He could often be heard muttering something to the effect of "thesedamnkidsandIdon'tknowandtheydon'tlisten...I think the bane of his existence was the trash. It later became mine as I went a bit "medley". He couldn't understand why no one could figure out how to take out trash. He was a very organized man. One of the best dishwashers I ever worked with as far as cleaning goes. He did have a pen-chance for chatting a bit too much when we were actually busy though. I still remember listening to the radio. We listened to a lot of 100.7. His jam was "Rubber Band Man" and he fuckin got down when it came on! This was only the beginning, however, as chaos and "the trash" would drive him to his ultimate end.

"Hey! Yer outta detergent homeboy!!"

Hello and welcome to pots have two sides? I pose this as a question because I'm not sure that anyone else realizes this. Now lemme take a moment to clear some things up. This is in noway a hateful site against dishwashers...in fact, I think this celebrates the beautiful diversity that lies within a restaurant kitchen. Dishwashers are generally the most colorful characters you are likely to ever meet. They are quite often volatile, intense, and yes sometimes completly batshit crazy! This is part of the reason you work with so many different ones, and thank god for that...at least I'll never run out of things to write about! I spend a lot of time "studying" the dishwasher, trying to figure out what makes him tick. How do they discern in their mind, just where to put each item and what exactly is "clean"? I hope to share with you various stories and anecdotes about the kitchens I have been in...at least until I lose interest (which will probably be in a week or so). So check back every so often to see whats driving me fucking nuts!!!