Molly Murphy's Bob & The Management Stories



I had forgotten the mixed up plates we used.  But I do remember being charged for breaking them.  Did you guys yell out "no paycheck" whenever you heard one break?
I can't remember who started that, but I fell one night in the kitchen, wet floor as always, and I'm laying there on my back, not sure if I can get up or not and Gene [Hildebrand] walks over and gets my time card and writes "one plate" on it, he had a heart of gold.     - Mack Harris





For some reason, Kurt Doerr was the only manager who wasn't afraid of the Big Bad B.T.  I think it was because he had so much going on in terms of being known in the industry and knowing he could get a job anywhere in the U.S. he wanted.  He just didn't put up with anyone's shiz.

One night Bob came in and threw lettuce across the salad car in one of his usual tirades.  Kurt Doerr calmly went over, picked the lettuce up and brought it back.  He handed it to the stunned tyrant and softly said, "Don't you EVER throw ANYTHING in my restaurant again or I walk and I'll take the entire crew with me."

We were all just standing there watching - secretly cheering him on.  I had never seen Kurt Doerr angry and frankly, it scared the crap out of me.  After that, Kurt Doerr earned our honest respect.  He was a good guy!     - Susie (Hazelton) Kitchen





Come on guys, the fact that we worked for such a SOB is as much part of our legacy as was putting on those darn costumes every night. I remember when I worked as a secretary for Molly's on the weekends (bet a lot of you didn't know that I did that too! haha), I would have to pay the delivery people cash when they delivered food to the back door because Tayar was notorious for not paying his debtors. And this was during the hayday of Molly's (early 80's) and the corporation certainly wasn't hurting for money. I'm sure the people at the corporate office could tell some doozzies about what went on behind the scenes.

The thing I remember most about him was how he would park that ugly classic car of his (was it an Excalibur?) out front as if announcing: "Our Lordship Has Arrived!" I think he did that to make sure that the door person could watch over it knowing that we'd all throw rotten tomatoes in the back seat if he parked it out back. lol He'd then throw open the front door, bullying his way through the restaurant for an hour or so, and when he was ready to go ~ he'd stand up by the podium and give several high shrill whistles that could be heard throughout the restaurant. His entourage would then scurry up there and follow him out, making sure they were at least 5 steps behind His Majesty. I was always so embarrassed for Jeffie when he'd do that. I would have kicked the living sheat out of him had I been her.

Another time, during a mandatory staff meeting on Saturday... Wait, break in story: as you all recall, we NEVER got paid for those long Sat morning staff meetings, dance practices, "on call" nights where we had to sit by the back door (sometimes for 2 hours) waiting to see if we had to work that night, then only to be sent home. Yep, that was a fine way to treat your employees! Ok, back to story....so we were all sitting there in the lounge that early Sat morning, listening to David Campbell, our manager at the time. In walks Tayar, he marches into the middle of the meeting and stands there like the pompous arse that he was, with his arms crossed, wearing that ugly scowl he always had on his face. He then breaks in, starts to yell at David about something and suddenly starts hitting David on the chest with a rolled up newspaper that he had in his hand. We all sat there with our mouths open and absolutely could not believe what we were seeing!!! David was a total wimp when it came to Tayar, so he just stood there and took it until finally Tayar stomped out in his usual tyrrade. I wanted to cry I felt so sorry for David that day, and wondered then how such an evil person could deserve to have such a wonderful group of people continue to work so hard to make him the rich man that he was.
    - Robin (Baker) Stiner


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I remember one Saturday night when we had Aunt Jemima night. We all had bandanas on our head and were carrying spatulas around (In honor of the "Pancake treatment" that Bill Murray gave his girl in Stripes) All the customers were loving it. Papa Luigi was handing out cocktail napkins so the customers could wear them, too.

In comes Jeffiee and she just happened to be wearing a green polka dot bandanna. She took one look around and whipped that thing off of her head so fast.

The greeter was some little chicky-doo who didn't know who she was and She's going "Hey lady how did you know it was Aunt Jemima night?"

She was not amused.....     - Susie (Hazelton) Kitchen



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