As most of Boston is turning off the lights and going home, Megan Cooke’s day at The Pour House on Boylston St. in Back Bay is just getting started. Cooke looks at the clock—it’s 5:00 p.m. “It’s about to get insanely hectic in here,” she sighs.
Cooke, one of the restaurant’s waitresses, and her co-workers are gearing up for the busiest time of their day. They’re organizing the stacks of menus, rolling silverware into napkins, and wiping down the scuffed wood bar—they’re mentally preparing for the large rush of people they are about to see walk through their doors. “We usually get a bunch of large parties of people coming straight from work around this time,” Cooke reveals. “We kinda have a routine that we follow and we need to stick to it or the night just won’t end well.” As the bartenders finish drying the last dirty glass, crowds of people wearing their work attire flood the narrow entryway and swarm to the dark, cracked booths in the back of the first floor. As they take off their thick, winter coats and begin chatting about their busy day full of phone calls, presentations, and work meetings, Cooke is frantically running around carrying over-sized trays of water, scribbling her customers’ orders in her spiral-bound notebook, and realizing that she just began another long night of work.
What is it like being a waitress at one of Boston’s hot spots for after-work dinner and drinks? For Cooke, it’s fun—“I like being a waitress,” she explains. “It might not be the most glamorous job out there, but I get to talk to people that I would never have talked to if I wasn’t a waitress, and I really love to talk...”
"It might not be the most glamorous job out there, but I get to talk to people that I would never have talked to if I wasn’t a waitress"
Cooke’s 23-year old coworker, Erin McRae disagrees. “Honestly, it’s actually a lot more stressful than I thought it would be…I still have to do so much schoolwork on top of working long shifts here. Plus, I’d like to have at least a little bit of a social life.” While Cooke finds amusement in her work, she also echoes McRae’s thoughts on how exhausting their job can be—the most taxing part of her day is beginning her shift and realizing that she’s going to have to be on her feet for the rest of the night. Regardless of how drained they might feel during and after their shift, as soon as the 5:00 p.m. rush pours in, Cooke, McRae, and their coworkers have to get into the right mindset—they’re about to be scurrying back and forth between the tables, the bar, and the kitchen all while attempting to not spill any drinks or drop any food.
The hard work Cooke and McRae exert is invisible to many of those crowding the bar. “I never really thought about it,” admits business consultant Jason Cardwell, who comes in with co-workers most Thursdays and Fridays. “I’ve never worked in the service industry, so I don’t even know what it’d be like…” Danny Percivalle, another repeat-customer who works as a software engineer at a technology start-up, says that he can’t “imagine working in a restaurant because it’s probably more stressful than my job.”
And what does the staff look forward to? “You have no idea how relieved I am when I check my phone and I see that it’s finally 2:00 a.m.,” McRae reflects. “It’s probably the best part of my night.” After washing the dishes, clearing the tables, and mopping the floors, everyone gets to clock out and go home. Cooke explains that once her shift is over, “I go home, change into my pj’s, and treat myself to a large glass of wine… it’s the only way to relax after a day at work.” As she does, she knows that it’ll all start again at 5:00 p.m. at The Pour House tomorrow.
