Finding Love in a Mission

I remember arriving early on that very first day, walking around the entire city-block building looking anxiously for the Blue door I was to enter in from, and as I walked through the arches and colonnades of the dreamy spanish style architecture, I finally saw two sharply dressed men leave the lively lit cityside to swing open both sides of that big blue door...I had finally found it, but in my timidity I held my breath as I neared; it was now time to be confident. I look through the windows to see a crowded hallway and a line forming to clock-in from afar, before the door again flings open as a man with a headset exits, I enter and can feel the last draft of wind as a warmth then surrounded me. That quickly turned to slight panic as people started surging through me from both ends and I suddenly realized I don't know where I am or where I’m going, that is until I noticed I had passed a podium on my way in with a security detail sitted behind it. “Hi, I’m looking for Duane’s, it’s my first day and I’m not quite sure where to go” I said anxiously, “ok you’re going to go past this hallway and you’ll find the kitchen where you’ll go all the way right to find it, she said”.

As I passed through the crowded hallway, I turned a corner to find a cart full of dishes suddenly rolling towards me, but what really caught my eye was the look in the eye of the man behind it. He saw me and nearly stopped for a second, he had an intense gaze with colored eyes that gave him away, almost frightening because behind those eyes was an imposing figure and body language that exuded confidence compared to my sheepish stance to the corner. I lunged to one side to get out of his way and as I did I noticed how transfixed he was on me, it seemed out of place and I didn't know why. Once I entered the door that he was exiting, my jaws nearly dropped at the scene before me. While I had worked at restaurants before, I had never seen a kitchen as big or as professional as the one I had just entered into. Rows and rows of chefs hard at work, with each row preparing different foods, and students alongside masters learning and honing their skills. A wide array of dishes were being prepared for dinner that night, from the daily amuse bouche, to sea bass imported all the way from Scotland. This was another level of restauranteering that I was unaccustomed to, and I knew that I had to really take everything in and learn fast if I was going to work at the best place in town, a place that I had never really known existed in the fifteen or so years that I had lived in Riverside by that point. It was from the kitchen that my final destination was visible, through another set of bright Blue doors at the other end of the kitchen, making my way over after the initial shock and awe of the place.

When I entered the Blue doors into the dining room, I was stunned by the sight of chairs lined up in the middle of the room, a full staff of people sitting in them, with their uniforms on- shiny black slacks with dress shoes and wool flannel blazers stitched with the chic logo, Duane's Prime Steakhouse and Seafood, in beautiful calligraphy embroidered onto them. The room was silent, and almost everyone looked straight at me before a man in a tan suit turned around and said “oh, you made it!”. I nervously smiled back and briefly introduced myself before I was invited to pull up a leather chair to join their meeting. After gaining some composure I sat back in my chair and realized that the man in the tan suit was the same man I had seen walk in earlier through the employee entrance, and discovered that his name was Lauren and was one of the main people in charge of the entire hotel, a sommelier with years of industry experience behind him. After going over the night’s specialty dishes, a man’s silhouette appeared from the shoji doors that covered the kitchen entryway. He was the same man pushing the dish cart around earlier seemingly glaring at me. Behind him was the other suited man I had seen walking in with Lauren, it turned out to be Sam, a manager for one of the other hotel restaurants, of which the entire food and hospitality department was headed by Lauren. “I know we didn’t quite get the help we were looking for this season, so Javier here will be transferring over as a full time server and will be headed to housekeeping to receive his new blazer. That means he and Erick are your new additions this year, please be sure to give them a warm welcome, and I will be checking in with you all later tonight. It’s the 25th anniversary of the festival of lights this year, so we want to give a tip top performance.” I wasn’t anticipating Javier to now be a part of my foreseeable future, but he certainly already had my curiosity.

The meeting came to an end shortly thereafter, and what that meant was that it was showtime. We had about 45 minutes to prepare for our guests, and I was under the tutelage of Orlando, an older busser who had worked there since the hotel’s renovation and grand reopening in the 90;s, which revitalized the entire downtown district with the arrival of a new tradition- the Festival of Lights every holiday season. I was proud to be a part of something that was so important to my town, a place that I had only recently grown to admire because of its rapid industrialization to a modern city. A place with so much old and new. Orlando with all his experience still had so much appreciation of this work and that inspired me, and we became unlikely friends. Most of the servers treated me with a great deal of respect and it was easy to get along with almost everyone, however, there was someone that made me uneasy and that was Javier. He was boisterous and unpredictable, and had this way of keeping people on their toes whether it was saying something borderline inappropriate or trivially fascinating. Working somewhere fast paced with tensions already high, and in the middle of a festival bringing in thousands of patrons, on top of being new, made his quick wit that much more valuable. I was clumsy, quiet, and anxious in comparison, and I didn’t know why being near him made it more so.

Before we knew it we were open for dinner, so fresh bread was baking in the oven, the lights were dimmed, a slow Sinatra brought ambience, and the artwork illuminated. A slow start allowed me to get to small talk with some of my new work mates, like the tenured servers who were primarily older women, and while friendly, were somewhat suspicious of young new arrivals like Javier and myself, but they were practically brand ambassadors in their own right, having their respective experiences in fine dining and throughout their years at the hotel. My excuse was my quiet nature, but Javier’s occasional vulgarity made them uneasy. Through them, I discovered that “Javi”, as he liked to be called, was a former marine who had served in Afghanistan, and that for me, explained his rough exterior and worldly nature. I was impressed, and so were most people that met him with one patron calling him, “the most interesting man in the world”. He entertained his guests with his infinite knowledge of the hotel art and history, and would tell them about Vasili Verechagin’s The battle of San Juan Hill which stood prominently at the center of the restaurant, and who’s frame alone was worth over a million dollars. He would tell them about the original owners, and the building’s over 100 year history and 30 year construction of quintessential mission revival style architecture.

The place of course was quite romantic, and indeed it was where many went to sow their own seeds of infatuation and love. The secret to Duane’s exclusivity was its location, hidden in the most intimate part of the hotel, making it so that guests experience the whole of the hotel and its beauty before stepping down into a whole new world. High ceilings, wooden interior and support beams that flow down into giant planters, colored stained glass windows letting natural light in, and brand new rug that looked medieval and brought everything together.

It was in this environment and a combination of new and exciting experiences along with all of the magic of the space, that made me realize that my interest in Javi was more than just a general interest in who he was. That entire night I had attended to couples, young and old, new lovers and long time partners alike. I had seen the lengths to which men drunk on love would go to impress their beautiful ladies and treat them to the experience that was Duane’s in its entirety.

I would be lying if I said that I wanted what they all possessed, as I had never really even been on a date at 21 years old, so It was to my surprise then when at the end of the night Javi singled me out to ask me if I would join him for a drink after work. I couldn’t tell you how nervous I was even in that moment having totally been smitten by this stranger the entire night. I had caught his eye and he mine, and I just couldn’t wait for the night to end so I can spend more time getting to know Javi.

The night ended late, but leaving the historic hotel was like stepping back into the real world. You leave to find the local cityscapes all around, and all the bustle of any downtown city, ours the biggest between LA and San Diego, meaning there were plenty of options for us. It was late like I said, but just enough of a window for us to have our own night out. We settled on a hole in the wall that turned out to be quite lively at that hour, and he picked a quiet corner for us to side across from one another. As nervous as he made me, I was confident enough in that moment to really just let loose and be myself. He made it easy because he was so attentive, his eyes beamed the entire night like they had when he first saw me, and he would never break his eye contact, it was always me who would turn away. I was drinking a glass of merlot that was nowhere near the quality of that offered at Duane’s, but there was nothing that paired better with the whole experience. Up until this point I hadn’t told him how I felt about him, but I was hoping that this whole date wasn’t too good to be true. Everything was going so well so I finally got the courage to ask him what had been on my mind pretty much the whole night, which was, “why me?” He thought about it only briefly before saying, “Well I'm new to the city and wanted to get to know you, but also, I’m getting married tomorrow.”