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Michael Mato |
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I sat down with Mato and fellow server Jessica after their shifts on a lovely Wednesday afternoon to hear Mato's life story over a plate of poppers and a pound of cheese fries. We talked until the tape ran out on my mini recorder and then some. So make yourself a martini and get comfortable. Even after considerable editing, this is a novella. Enjoy. Mato: Do you have your list of questions? Is this going to be like Miss America and I’m in an isolation booth? MC: No, I do have a list for most people, but I figured for you I would just wing it. I thought you were going to have a martini. Mato: We both are, aren’t we? MC: Well, I’m still on the clock, but you can. Mato: I’m going to. I’m havin’ a couple. MC: Chocolatinis? Mato: Chocolatinis. MC: Is that your favorite drink here? Mato: Yes it is. Chocolatinis - you can’t go wrong. MC: Besides the Herradurra; that’s your stand by. Mato: We drank that whole bottle Monday night! Me and Dustin! MC: You guys drank the whole bottle between the two of you? Wow... Mato: Yeah, we were down here for awhile. I didn’t get home till 1:00 - 1:30ish. MC: So how did you come to work here? Mato: It was a complete accident. I was one the most bizarre hires. It was, like, 8 years ago, I was in here - I think it was St. Patrick’s Day - just drunk off my ass, and one of the waitresses walked out. I had been drinking in here for about 6 months prior to this and Smigo came up to me and said, "If you’re here at 11:00 tomorrow morning, you’ve got the job." I never filled out an application until that day I came in to give him my schedule. It was just weird. MC: Where were you working before? Mato: I was at Lone Star and Ruby Tuesdays over in Davenport. I had just moved here from Philadelphia. And I’ve been here ever since. First it was just lunches. Then it was everything and now I’m trying to get back to just lunches. MC: Really? Mato: Bob won’t let me. (laughs) MC: So you grew up out in Philly. Mato: Uh-huh. East Coast - all East Coast. MC: Tell us a little bit about your family. Mato: My family’s the most disfunctional group of f***s you ever want to meet. Seriously! I was watching The Royal Tennenbaums the other day with Jenel and Josh and afterwards they were like, "That was a long movie about nothing," and I’m like, "No. That’s my family!" To a T. Yeah, I’ve lived everywhere from Philly down to Florida, spent six months in France as an exchange student... MC: Oh, that’s cool. Mato: It was real nice. Real nice. I loved it. MC: Didn’t you live in New York for awhile? Mato: I lived in New York for 3 months. I went up for my 25th birthday to Diana Ross in Central Park. The concert got rained out and I started talking to this guy standing next to me and I ended up crashing at his place for the next 3 months. MC: What’s the first concert you ever went to? Mato: Oh...oh! The Mama’s & the Papa’s, Beach Boys, I think Santana - I could be wrong on the Satana. It was May in 1970 - the first May Day in Washington D.C. outside of the Lincoln Memorial. I was ten years old and I went with my aunts. We were living in D.C. at the time - well, Alexandria - we were right across the river for my formative years. I was at the opening of the Kennedy Center. First night, 3rd row orchestra pit for Jesus Christ Superstar. Before it went to Broadway. I saw the original cast. My parents took me there for my 12th birthday. I think I had a priviledged life that way. MC: You went to a lot of theatre? Mato: A lot of theatre - Godspell I saw like 20 times in a year, it was just incredible. Yes, I think we did a lot of theatre, a lot of trips to New York City. Well, Wednesdays in New York it’s two for the price of one for all matinees on Broadway. So you could go, and if you got there early enough, you could do two matinees. MC: Not a bad deal. Mato: Not bad at all. And it’s only on Wednesdays. Yes, went to a lot of plays. I always wanted to be an actor. Or a dancer. MC: Where did you go to college? Mato: Slippery Rock State the first time and then the Medical College of Pennsylvania the second time. I have two degrees. Bachelor’s in Psychology and then I’m an L.P.N., so I don’t know if that would be another bachelor’s or an associate, but it was only a two year course. I can’t draw any blood or do anything with needles as an L.P.N. MC: What is that? Mato: Licensed Practical Nurse. They basically do everything that an R.N. does except give shots and draw blood. It was fun. I was working for the Department of Public Welfare when I did that, and I entered a "Grow Your Own Nurse" program through the state hospital I was working in. And as long as I maintained a 3.65 GPA they paid for everything. I paid for it up front, and when I got my degree they reimbursed me everything, all the way down to books and the whole bit. That was nice. MC: So, how long did you work in the mental health field? Mato: Ten years and one day. MC: And why did you get out of it? Mato: It just got to be too much. I was in a 24-hour lock-down psych ward with men between the ages of 18 and 45 that were violent. I did a lot of duckin’ and rollin’. You had to work for the state for 10 years and one day to get tenure, and then they doubled whatever was in your retirement fund - matched it dollar for dollar including interest - but you had to be there for ten years and one day. Most of the people I know that worked for the state only worked for ten years and one day. And that’s why I wait tables now, because I don’t have to worry about what’s going to happen when I hit 70. MC: So your retirement’s all set up. Mato: My retirement’s all set up. This is just - I like doing this. MC: You’ve got money in your pocket, you get to go do whatever you want.. Mato: Yep, that’s why I take five trips a year! (laughs) Yes, it’s a good thing. I do miss it sometimes. I learned a lot. It was a growing experience. Although, I was a little pissed off... When I graduated from high school, I went to college, and I wanted to get into corporate psychology and deal with corporate stress and burnout and all that stuff. But my guidance counselor neglected to tell me that there’d be 300,000 other people with the same degree as mine that were going to better schools than the one that I was accepted to. So I got out and had a paper on the wall. So I basically went and took a civil service exam after four years of college, and my parents weren’t too thrilled that I took a minimum wage job right out of school. But it eventually led into nursing, and by the time I quit I was up to $26-something an hour. But it started out - I think minimum wage at the time was $3.50 an hour or something. And that’s when they were still paying servers like $1.82 an hour. MC: Where did you start serving? Mato: Restaurant work in general? MC: Sure. Mato: I was ten years old, my parents didn’t believe in an allowance, a little restaurant called the Weenie Beanie on Jefferson Davis Boulevard in Alexandria, Virginia, I made shakes and fries on Saturday afternoon. It was basically and car hop drive-up thing and I just worked the fryer and the shake machine. Well, my parents had four kids. Dad was working three jobs just to support us and Mom. We didn’t have any extra money for allowances so we all worked by the time we were ten. In fact, I just got my thing back from Social Security. I’ve been paying into Social Security since 1971. MC: Wow. Mato: Yeah, when I was 11 they started taking taxes from me. MC: What’s your favorite thing about working here? Besides working with Jodean...(laughs) Mato: Actually, the people! And the uniforms. I ask people, "You like my uniform?" and they’re like, "What? What do you have to wear?" and I’m like "What I have on." And the customers are great, too, ‘cause they know everybody. They know me, they know my birthday, I know their wedding anniversaries and stuff. It’s like a big family. It really is. You don’t find that in a lot of places anymore. You’re not a number here. --Hey Dave! Can I have a chocolate martini? And I think Miss Jessica here wants a big whiskey and Coke! Dave: I’ve got a glass chilling for you right now. Mato: Yeah, it’s just a good place to work. MC: What’s your least favorite part? Mato: Working Friday and Saturday nights. I don’t like it. There’s too many people on. I make the same amount of money working a Monday or Tuesday night as I do coming in and doing, like, a nine hour day on Saturday. I don’t like the weekends. I don’t like carrying the ketchups up. MC: (laughs) Mato: I don’t like the steps. No, there’s not really that much bad about working here. It would be nice if we eventually got insurance. MC: Yes, I agree with you on that. Mato: But aside from that, we get Christmas bonuses, we have all our holidays off. MC: We have awesome 4th of July and Christmas parties. Mato: Oh, yeah! And if you need anything, you can go to Martha or Dan and they’ll give you their last nickel. It’s just a real good place. And I’m surprised not as many people have been here as long as I have, except for Bob and Jo and Vickers and Kevin - I think we’re the five dinosaurs. MC: Behnken was here for quite
awhile too, wasn’t he? About 7 years? MC: She used to do my job - Mato: - When I moved here from Philadelphia, she was the first person I met, gambling on the President. MC: Really? Mato: And we became the best of friends and like 8 months later we’re both working together here. Oh, it was just too bizarre. And she remembered me because back then I was drinking Philadelphia Iced Teas - instead of sour mix they put a little pineapple and a little orange juice. And she knew exactly what it was when I walked up to the bar at the boat the first night, ‘cause she was in um..No, it was at the Blackhawk Hotel, ‘cause we were at some kind of convention for high rollers. And she was in charge of the banquet that night. Yeah, and I’ve known her ever since. MC: Now, did she and Dan meet at the Blue Cat? Mato: Yes, they did. They met, fell in love, and got married right under this roof. Seems to happen a lot. Her sister did the same thing. Met that dude Brad that was a waiter and they ended up getting married. MC: What have been some of your favorite memories of the Blue Cat? Mato: Oh, God... I don’t know. Whenever anything weird ever happened I was always gone by the time the frenetic stuff started....Pork Chops! I miss Pork Chops! MC: What’s that? Mato: Friday and Saturday nights - well, actually, it was every night of the week - we used to be busier than we are now - but ever hour, you’d hear them call "Pork Chop!" over the loud speakers, and wherever you were, you’d stop doing what you did and went to the closest service bar and everybody did a shot. And then you’d turn around and go back to work. And they used to do that Friday and Saturday nights all the time and then whenever it was a busy night they’d do that. And even if you weren’t on the clock, if you worked here, you still went to the bar and did a shot. MC: You know, I’ve seen references to Pork Chops down in the office, and I always wondered what the heck that was. Mato: Oh yeah. And that was like an incentive for everyone to do their jobs really well on Friday and Saturday nights. MC: Why don’t we do it anymore? Did some laws change, or...? Mato: I don’t know why they stopped that. Jessica: Sounds like something we ought to get going again. Mato: Yeah, it kept everybody happy. The customers knew it. And every now and then they’d invite a couple of customers to do it, and they thought that was the biggest thing, that they were doing shots with the staff while they were working. MC: Yeah, there’s probably some laws against that now. Mato: Yeah, there probably is. MC: Club Ron was good, too. We used to have Scooter’s boyfriend working back in the kitchen. And he used to wear these outfits with feather boas and leopard skin hip huggers or he’d be in leather from head to toe and shave his head. And he’d be cookin’ back there. And you’d look back there and he’d be standing on a bucket with Abba blaring, flicking the lights on and off, and just dancing his ass off back there. It was Club Ron in the kitchen. I also miss Halloweens, when everyone used to dress up. They used to send you home if you didn’t come in costume. (takes sip) Ah...good martini. You need to have one! MC: Maybe I’ll have one as my shifter. I like them, ‘cause they make them wih Bailey’s. That’s the best part. What’s your favorite item on the menu? Mato: I don’t really have one. I like it all. MC: Any specials you look forward to? Mato: I like the Chicken Coops. And now that we have Joel, I like the fact that he’ll do the rare tuna. That’s what I had the other week, when he did the seared tuna with the curry lime vinaigrette. That was so good! So good! I like the seafood. The snapper in parchment the other day looked SO GOOD! I love the beer dinners, too. MC: You go to every one. Mato: I’ve been to every single one of them. I love to cook. I’m baking now like crazy. I got rid of the bread machine and now I’m doing it all by hand. I can’t bake a cake or cookies to save my soul, but I can do bread. And pizzas. The house smells so good when you’ve got bread in the oven. MC: I’m not a baker. I use my bread machine. I like to cook, but I don’t really care to bake. Mato: Well, that’s something I’ve just started, like, in the past two years. Making bread. I love making homemade pizza. That is just so easy. It takes me, like, a half hour. It takes about $3 to make, when you have to order the same pie for $16. MC: So, what are you reading right now? Mato: What am I reading? Oh! This one - Dragon Prince - it’s a trilogy. But I’m so backed up on my reading it’s pathetic. I just didn’t do my summer reading this year. MC: Didn’t take enough vacations? Not enough airplane time? Mato: (laughs) Yeah...I like books that make you laugh out loud. They’re always the best. Although, I can read technical stuff, too. I was this close to getting The Encyclopedia of God from my book club. MC: Really? Mato: Uh-huh. I’m into religion. MC: Where do you stand on that? Mato: On God? I think it’s a female and I think she’s black. Seriously! And eventually I think in the next hundred years we’re all gonna look like we’re Asian anyway. MC: Really? Mato: Yeah. If you think about it, people originated in the warmer climes, they were dark skinned. And then they moved and by going north, that’s when we started getting lighter, right? I mean, we came from Africa. That’s where it started. Look, everybody that talks about Christ and you see this picture of this blonde haired, blue eyed God, it’s like, NO! He was Arabic! He was tan! He had dark hair, dark eyes, you know? MC: Do you believe in ghosts? Mato: Yes. I saw my mother a few days after she died. She was at the foot of my bed and I was sort of half awake and she said, "Don’t worry, I’m alright, and someday you’ll understand." So I had my closure before I even went to the funeral. MC: Any experiences with the Blue Cat ghost? Mato: No. MC: Don’t spend enough time in the basement, eh? Mato: Nope. MC: I do... (giggles) Well, enjoy the rest of your martini. It’s always a pleasure. Mato: Yeah. MC: Cheers. Mato: Cheers.
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by
Melissa Coulter 9/4/02