9 Things You Didn’t Know About Working at Hillside:
1. Watching cookies being made is such a tease.
You know how you stand in front of the glass case, debating whether or not you want a famous Hillside cookie? Well, imagine having to work a four-hour shift standing a foot away from 30 chocolate chip cookies slowly baking in the oven. Yeah, it sucks. Just buy the cookie so one of us can be happy.
2. People who order plain burgers are our heroes.
So “Mike” comes up to the counter and orders a burger with pepper jack and Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, bacon, onions (what kind do you want? Roasted or red?), red onions, mushrooms, jalapeños, salsa, but wait, no salsa, and roasted onions instead of red, and chips instead of fries, and a pickle. Really, Mike? Sometimes people like “John,” who order no cheese and only mushrooms on their burger, are a nice break during the dinner rush.
3. There are a ton of Hillside employees who are vegetarians.
It’s surprising, but true, that many of the people who make your burgers are themselves anti-beef. I was a vegetarian myself until this year, when the very first burger I ever tried in my life turned out to be a Hillside burger (best choice I ever made by the way).
4. Lip-reading orders through the glass has become our specialty.
Most of the time, we actually have no idea what people are ordering (by the way, the lowest capacity for human hearing, a.k.a. the amount of sound coming out of most peoples’ mouths when they order, is zero decibels).
5. It’s about 15-20 degrees hotter behind the counter than it is in front of it.
It’s amazing how much of a difference a foot and a half makes, especially when you forget that all of Hillside isn’t as sweltering hot as you are. That grill can be a mean son-of-a-gun sometimes, so when you see our foreheads glistening, it’s not because we’re really nervous.
6. We make burger orders in rounds.
Surprisingly, most people don’t notice this, but for dinner we usually grill burgers in groups of 15+. You don’t know how many people come up to the counter asking if we lost their order, when in fact it’s first in line for the next round. We rarely misplace food orders — show us a little trust people!
7. People make up some crazy names when they order.
I’ve heard everything from Nemo, to Captain Underpants (we didn’t let that one pass through), to Simba (Disney theme?). Depending on the mood I’m in, they can get pretty entertaining. Only when we have to eventually call them out loud does it get embarrassing.
8. Making coffee is actually pretty fun.
The coffee bar, besides being known for its hustle and bustle between 8 and 11am, is a prime place to spend any shift of the day. Time goes by fast, you get to smell like coffee instead of sandwich ingredients, and on those days when you’re not feeling like a people-person, all you have to do is shout out orders. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.
9. All of the people that work there are fantastic.
But really, there must be a clause somewhere in our contracts that says only awesome people can work there. I love working with everyone and somehow we always find ways to get some laughs in during every shift.
Photo Sources:
http://bcm.bc.edu/issues/winter_2004/ll_hillside.html