After my Sunday night shift at the Arizona Pizza in Hadley this week, I clocked out, ordered food, and sat at the bar while my boss closed down the restaurant. He had given me my first real serving opportunity that night and I couldn't have been happier; until my mozzarella rounds arrived and I started inhaling those. Throughout my late night meal, I started thinking about a good interview subject for this assignment. I knew I needed someone interesting, someone confident and someone with a genuine personality that I could hold a conversation with. There was no better candidate than DShaw.
Dan Shaw (DShaw), the Assistant Manager and Corporate Trainer of Arizona Pizza, and my (awesome) boss, was calmly pacing and cleaning up when I asked to interview him. Turning the background music up, he replied, "that's funny, you're the second person this week who's wanted to interview me for a class. Yeah I'll do it," with his usual big smile, eyes squinted - happy, and of course, happy to help.
So what's interesting about your job?
"Well, it definitely keeps you on your toes. Dealing with different situations in the restaurant keeps it exciting here. Plus we turn over servers like crazy so just dealing with different employees all the time keeps things interesting." He's telling me this as I stuff more mozzarella rounds in my mouth and sip on a Pepsi. I find it amusing, too, that he's answering my question and keeping a perfect track of the money he's counting.
About how many people would you say work here?
"Back house I'd say there's... about 15; that's like the cooks and the dishwashers, and I consider the delivery drivers back of the house. And front of the house, like servers, bussers, hosts, all of us, there's probably around 25." He's still counting the money.
So what got you interested in managing a restaurant?
I'd have to say my first job did. My first job was at a Quizno's. I was 16 and my manager was a douche bag; he treated everyone like shit and I thought that if I could ever manager my own place that I'd never be like that. I wanted to be different and treat my employees right, and then that way they'd like working for me, too. All this really pissed off my ma tho. When I told her I wanted to cook and work in a restaurant she got real mad, like I was doing something wrong."
You cook too?
" Yeah I love to cook. So to prove it to her I cooked dinner at my house for three weeks and I guess she just gave up giving up on changing my mind. And I'm glad because I knew that this was what I wanted to be doing with my life when I was older. And now I'm 22, here, livin' the life!"
And what made you choose UMass after high school?
"When I was a junior my sister gave me a tour of UMass. She went there and introduced me to Dr. Lettuca, the head of the Hospitality and Tourism Management program. This guy made me love UMass I knew it was where I wanted to go because I wanted to be in his program."
And so once you were in Amherst, how'd you start at Arizona? (I'm finally done with my rounds and he's done counting the money; I've got his full attention.)
"Haha, that's another story in itself..." he said smiling. i don't think I've ever seen someone smile so much as DShaw. It contagious; I smiled too. "First semester of my junior year at UMass I got the job here as a server. I did that for awhile then Rob, the owner, started training me in the kitchen. That summer I interned as a manager and helped him open an Arizona Pizza in Clifton Park, New York..."
(I interrupt him for basically the 10th time.) Is that where you're from? (He's not frustrated by it, though).
"No, I'm from Binghamton, New York."
Big boat load-a-nothin'?
"Haha, yeah there's nothing up there, way up-state New York."
I figured. But anyway, you were saying...
"What was I saying? Oh, right the internship. So yeah, over the summer after my junior year I helped open that restaurant with Rob and I figured I wanted to look for an actual career my senior year. So I got I job at a buffet at the MGM at Foxwoods and that was cool. Not as much fun as I expected and I ended up moving on from that pretty soon. But it did give me ideas of how to make Arizona fun. So I came up with trivia night and beer promos. All that stuff was me, and I started thinking like, 'wow I'm taking all these ideas to corporate and telling them what to do.' It got me thinking I could run this place one day." He starts turning some lights off and takes out his manager's log to write in it. "I'm like the only person who ever writes in this thing, haha."
So Rob just gave you the manager job after your internship?
"Eh, wasn't exactly that easy. I didn't think he'd think of giving me a job as a manger so I told him I got a promotion offer at MGM, which wasn't even true..."
But you wish it was?
"Nah, working there even if they had promoted me didn't really matter to me. I'm not big on the casino thing, they're evil and pretty scummy." First negative words I've heard come out of his mouth; forgetting how he felt about his Quizno's boss, of course. "But Rob called me to come into Arizona one day, so I went in all dressed up and he started laughing and said 'Dan, you already have the job!" The Foo Fighters are playing in the background as the work playlist keeps spitting out songs; yeah, this place is pretty casual and I love it.
So obviously you took the job...
"Yeah, i wanted that job so much. I started part time at the Arizona in Lee the December of my senior year. It was like a 45 minute drive out there every time I worked so that fuckin' blew dick. Plus it was a dirty-ass restaurant. I worked some at this Arizona but Matt mostly worked the manager shifts. He trained me a lot though and showed me around; taught me how to be a good boss basically. He was like a mentor to me. Then when Matt left, Rob made Bruce full time manager and I almost quit because he'd promised me the job."
So what'd you do?
"I kept working part time, a whole buncha shit went down, then I came here and started managing; Bruce got demoted to a server and I got his job."
Haha, sweet.
"So I was pretty miserable for awhile."
But now your happy right?!
"Yeah, I'm happy now. I came down here full time. Every time I'm down here I'm happy. I love it here. Assembling your own crew of people is the best. They work to please you without you ever asking."
Well I'm glad to be a part of your work crew! Where do you want to go from here?
"Short term, I wanna jump around restaurant jobs and see how different places run things. Long term, I'd like to go down south and start up my own place," he says, eyes gleaming. "I just wanna love what I do and be happy. That's what I'm looking for."
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