BS: Professional Dishwasher-People

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: Janie
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 09:20 PM

Soaking and then either scrubbing or a dishwasher/autoclave are the only things that will really clean silverware. If the turnover is fast enough, though, food doesn't have time to dry on it, so generally not a problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: Janie
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 09:17 PM

I've used the brushy things when tending bar and needing to wash glasses.

Did workstudy in the cafeteria in college and occasionally pulled autoclave duty. Heavy work, lugging those big plastic trays of dishes and silverware to the conveyor belt.

When Dani had her restaurant I pitched in on occasion and did a number of tasks, including dishwashing. (open mic, small restaurants and bars often do not have autoclaves or dishwashing machines.) It killed my back, bending over those big stainless steel tubs, and blistered my fingers with the hot water required to meet health dept. standards (understandably so.)

If I had to do it for a living I would, but it would cripple me at my age. I don't at all mind doing dishes at home, looking out the window at the birdfeeder. In a restaurant, I find it brutal and mind-numbing.

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: Peace
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 09:12 PM

Also washed dishes way back when I was 14 or 15 at a summer gymnastic camp as part of a 'scholarship' thing I was there on. (That was a fancy term for 'kids from poor families who needed financial help to go to the camp'.) It was bloody hard work. BUT, it was fun. I recall we had three sinks. Soak, wash and rinse.

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: Peace
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 09:05 PM

Been there, done that. Was a pot washer at the Night Owl Cafe back in the 1960s. Ten bucks a night and all the tuna fish sandwiches I could eat. I will never forget Joe Marra for that kindness.

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 08:36 PM

dish washer aka pearl diver aka dish dog.

Get the book "Dishwasher, One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in all 50 States." Lotsa lore.

A more refined term is scullion.

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 03:48 PM

Found it...it's by Cortec... click me

http://www.cortecvci.com/Products/single.php?code=10256

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 03:45 PM

Well, some free food, don't count on it. Bar glass washer, at Pizza Hut, no, but I've used them. They work OK, and don't break as many glasses as a machine.

Chemical is called 'Silver Brite'....blue ammonia soaking powder. Can't remember who makes it....and I'm pretty sure it's 'Brite' not
Bright

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 02:44 PM

PS one of the happiest people I know is a philosophy major working his way thru Kollidz, washing dishes. :~) I "compensate" him for the occasional table-clear with a shrimp (we call him Shrimp Boy because he drools for them), and he always has interesting things to say, too.

Didj'all get free fud, too?

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 02:41 PM

Any of y'all use them bar-glass standing brush thingies?


And is there a chem that removes ALL the crap off silverware?


~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 02:12 PM

I have done it as side work....not full time. Sprayer hose, plastic scraper and an all in one machine.

Dishwasher make higher hourly wage than wait staff, so NO sharing tips generally. Most of the dishwashers here are developmentally disabled so if they come help bus a really big, messy table, the wait staff will often share the tip for THAT party.

Around here, there is NO pooling of tips. You make it, you keep it. It's called incentive to be a better server.

The worst part is cleaning up deliberate messes, usually left by spoiled, snotty young people.

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 02:09 PM

Helped pay my way through High School (about 1960).

We'd rinse the stuff off, put the dishes in a rack, and send them through the dishwasher.

I hated smartasses who would grind pennies or other hard objects into the residue on the plate, because you couldn't just rinse it off into the garbage disposal.

Nowadays I suppose you'd wear rubber gloves, but back then we just used the hands we had.

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: open mike
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 01:55 PM

now dishwashing machines do most of the work,
well i guess the pre-scrubbing is MOST of the work..

the dishwasher (person) at the camp i recently attended was quite
a happy individual...he kept mentioning his fun-ometer.

in commercial applications, there is usually a sprayer to
rinse dishes prior to loading them into trays for the machine.

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: artbrooks
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 01:38 PM

I loved the off-duty perks (I was working in Grand Teton National Park). I hated the pay. The trick, I guess, was to use 2 sinks - one full of VERY hot soapy water and another to pre-scrub and then to rinse in. A stiff brush was (and still is) vital.

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 01:06 PM

What did you love about it, what did you hate, and what was the best trick you learned to getting it done well, and fast? Or the best tool/equipt you used for that?

(I MAY not be asking for help, just info)

And how did you get the wait-staff to share tips? Do you mean, for busing the tables?

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: open mike
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 01:00 PM

yes but did the wait-staff share their tips with you?

Subject: RE: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: artbrooks
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 12:52 PM

Yeah...but 1966 was a long time ago!

Subject: BS: Professional Dishwasher-People
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 12:36 PM

Ever washed dishes for a paycheck? I have questions.

~S~