A love poem to the Cedar Rapids Olive Garden From Pam “Pamelita” “Croutonica” “What the Dillio?” Dillon
When I walk through the doors of the C.R. O.G.
I always know that a smile is not far from me,
whether from Midge or Carie, from Hector, Habib?
If you’re sad when you walk in, you’re glad when you leave. 😉
It’s a magical place if you only believe.
If you think you know what to expect, you’re deceived.
You’ll have this guest and that guest in this mood or that.
And they’ll dip fifty breadsticks in ten sides of ranch.
Through the alley you’ll whistle or shout something profane,
to keep all your guests from driving you insane.
Then you’ll use your green linen to wipe blood, tears, and sweat,
during each split you’re working to pay off your debt.
Just keep cool and remember your goal for the night
in cab or in chard, sampling red, blush, or white,
even if you take their order and they say it’s not right
eat it all, say it’s bad, and won’t pay for a bite
you just show them that charm and you shine your eyes bright
fill your room with one hundred percent guest delight. 😉
Some days OG is awful and some days it’s just fine
and we taste tiramisu while Josh samples out wine.
You ask your room partner to follow with drinks,
so they follow with insults, strange noises, and winks,
You say I’m in the weeds, and they say, “Join the club.”
But they help when you need it, and you feel the love.
In the side station servers spill guts to each other
when the restaurant is slow, of course, and side work is over…
And not on the clock because that would be wrong…
but it’s the way that we bond when our days are so long.
In the crammed up coat room, we eat half price steak gorg
then we snapchat ourselves being alfredo whores.
While we fatten our waistlines with each tasty dip
and with every new table we fatten our tips.
So we walk out some nights with a big stack of cash
and we walk out some nights with a bruise and a rash
but we laughed and we smiled, and upsold desserts
and we yelled at the line (but they yelled at us first!)
Julia joked, Kareme asked, “How can I support you team?”
Iris bounced all over and Josh tried to be mean.
But even when he tries (and he assuredly fails),
we just start up our cars and we drive to Cocktails.
(Cheers!) You may not always serve at the C.R. O.G.,
It may not last forever, I guess we will see…
but as long as you’re there just do one thing for me,
know that everyone there is OG family. ❤
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