re: Which Fast Food Restaurant Did You Work At?

I sold drugs in high school. Better pay, better benefits, better future even.

Waffle House.

Night shift was bad with all the drunks. I guess the good thing is they let us eat a lot of the food for free, including burgers and chili.

Pepperoni's Pizza on old Jefferson

Lasted 6 days at Robee's Roast Beef (which became Roy Rogers which became Arby's). Bitch cashier was yelling at me becuase we had a line out the door b/c I didnt know what I was doing and our stoner manager went for a ride. Told her to F herself and walked out in middle of the rush.

At age 17, I needed money for graduation trip to Florida. My friend who graduated a year before me had rapidly climbed the ladder to asst. manager at the local KFC. Told me the store in the adjacent town was hiring and hooked me up with a VIP interview. Guy hired me and my buddy on the spot. But KFC was serious about this shite. I had to go two days in a row to the Big Chicken in Marietta,Ga for orientation. Three hours each day. Got the handbook and was issued a uniform. I was a 32 waist at the time but was given what they had which was a 30. And they came up to my ankles. Tried them on at the Big Chicken bathroom and I looked like a fig in skinny jeans. Skinny jeans were not in in 1987. Told the quartermaster that they were to tight but he said wear them until they got some that fit me.

Went to work the first night on a Friday evening shift. Dude had me scheduled Friday, Saturay and Sunday nights. During the interview he told me I would train on the register. When I arrived, he put me in the kitchen to be trained by Curtis. Curtis was a 50+ year old black man who took the chicken frying procedure serious. He was a veteran. Much respect to Curtis for having pride in the only job he could probably get. He taught me the right way. Grab two pieces of chicken. One in each hand. Dip in the marinade....tap,tap my hands to shake of excess juice. He made me say Tap Tap as I did it. Into the flour/spice bin. Tap tap. Back into the marinade. Tap Tap. Once more in the flour. Tap Tap and then rack. Once I got 4 full trays racked it was into the fryer. Had flour and marinade all over me by 10pm.

At 10pm, Curtis (having seniority) got to go home. But he had taught me well and I handled the load until we closed at 11pm. But I was by myself other than the manager who sat on his arse talking on the phone in the office.

Not knowing what was next at 11pm, I walked to the office and stood there until he asked what I needed. "What do I need to do now?" I asked. He pointed to the dishwasher and the mountain of pans and racks and told me to get busy. Curtis had shown me how to work the dish machine earlier, knowing I was going to be doing all the dishes after close. I walked out around 12:30am after washing all the dishes and wiping down everything. I walked out that night soaked head to toe and in wet polyester pants that made me look like I had just left a homosexual disco club.

He did the same thing on Saturday night. On Sunday, I was eating lunch at grandmas and as it was approaching 3:00pm , mom asked what time she needed to drive me to work. But I had called in an hour before and gave him some BS excuse as to why I had to quit. Never even went and got my check for the 2 shifts I worked. I did not want to face Curtis who had taken such pride in training me. I took a job doing Saturday gopher work for my buddies brothers masonry company.

Ironically, I ended up working my way through UGA as a kitchen manager and later became the head chef/ manager at a restaurant for several years after college. But that experience at KFC was the worst food service experience I ever had.

I worked at a Popeye's in Lafayette (first store in Lafayette) in High School back in the late 70s. It was not a bad job at all. I hated the cleanup after hours. It was fairly clean because we gave a shite and did a good job. The fast food workforce in Lafayette 40 years ago was quite different than what you see now.

Chickfila

Buddy of mine managed the one in Baton Rouge off Siegen circa 1999