| In the beginning of
the week, one of my hosts came to me and said, "Sharyn, I
just took a reservation from Dustin Hoffman's secretary for
Saturday night. It's a party of 7 or 8 for dinner. They are going to bring a
mariachi band."
Okay, I can take jokes, but this wasn't that funny. "I
don't believe you."
"Really, I did."
I think she was telling the
truth. "Well, we'll see when they get here, won't we,"
I said.
A couple of days later, I happened to answer the phone when
the "secretary"
called back to confirm.
"Hi, I just wanted to confirm a reservation for this Saturday
night. Hoffman,
for 7 people."
"Sure. I have you down. It's a birthday?" "Yes. Mr. Hoffman's father-in-law loves Mexican
food."
"Well, we'll be ready."
So, it was for real...
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I happened to be working in the kitchen that night. What a
bummer, I thought to myself, as I did my line check. He was one
of my favorite actors and I was stuck in the kitchen. Just
my luck!
We had arranged for their party to be on the patio, away from the
rest of the
crowd so that they would not be bothered by autograph hounds or
star gazers. But word came back to the kitchen that
Dustin was talking with all of the customers and buying
margaritas for everyone out there! And, of course, having a couple
himself!
Apparently, the party
was having a ball and their mariachi band was pretty good was
really starting to wail.
At some point,
Dustin decided he wanted to play with them. The
server came
running up to me in the kitchen, breathless. "Sharyn, Dustin wants a
pot to use as a bongo
drum to play with the mariachi band!"
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"You're kidding me?" I laughed. "Well,
ok..." And we tried to pick out an appropriate kettle
or pot for a mariachi band. I picked out my biggest stock pot
thinking that he was going to put
it on the ground and bang on it that way. Now, I had to see
Dustin Hoffman jamming on one of our pots, so I asked another
manager to cover, telling him that "Dustin needed
me...now!"
When I approached the Hoffman
table, he immediately
started laughing.
"Nooooo, I need one that I can put between my knees...
You know, a bongo drum."
"Oh. Sorry. I'll go get a small one," I
replied. I was somewhat star struck, and also quite amazed
at the goings on around table 123! There were people
dancing, the band playing, every table had a pitcher of margaritas
and in the middle of it all, there was Dustin Hoffman, laughing at
me, telling me he needed a different kind of pot to bang on!
"Can I come back and pick one out," he asked.
"Of course" I said. I brought him back into the kitchen
to pick out the perfect instrument. He went through the entire shelf looking for just the right
"bongo" and
finally found one.
"I'm going to use this one."
"No problem, I just want it back when you're done."
The line was getting a little
backed up at that point and I had to jump behind and help out, so
I didn't ever get to see Dustin wailing on my kitchen
equipment. From what I heard, he is a pretty good bongo player, but I bet the
margaritas
helped!
As he left, the server brought back the check to me. Dustin
had left me a
little note:
"Sharyn-Thanks for the pot! --Dustin
Hoffman".
I will never throw that away...
email: sgardner@rhsmith.umd.edu
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