Very Red Head looking for Job and Salad

[Fyre]

First question: In Manhattan, there are tons of places that have a very extensive make your own salad with a lot of different ingredients to add including very varied chicken choices (usually grilled, thai, cajun, and others), shrimp and lots of dressing choices. They also have mixed greens or romaine as opposed to boring iceberg. I am wondering if there are any places in Northern NJ that have that type of thing? It's the perfect thing that isn't that expensive and is great to grab and go to work. Diner salad bars are completely incomparable.

Second, does anyone know a restaurant or bar looking for a bartender or waitress that is very consistently busy? I live in West Milford and will drive within a reasonable distance in Northern Bergen County or Passaic County. Suffern area works too. I have six years in the restaurant biz. Nothing too upscale or too uptight. Prefer high volume over ultra high quality if you know what I mean. I have very red hair that some places might not love, but it's not blue or green or purple. It's just very vibrantly red. I am looking for full time only (I support myself and my mother) and am hoping to find the right job before the Summer. Feel free to PM me if you have any info/leads.. Any help is very greatly appreciated!

[tommy]

as for your first question, it sounds like the typical "mongolian grill" might fit your need.

Gobi Grill, in hboken at 746 Park Ave is one of those places.

in my experience, it's just as horrible as any other mongolian grill. but they seen to do a steady business, so maybe it's decent.

i love red hair. what types of places discriminate against red hair?

[Fyre]

i love red hair. what types of places discriminate against red hair?

It's more of an unnatural red.. actually totally unnatural :) I'm not a redhead at all without my dye.

I was turned down by TGI Friday's once.. Yes, the place that made their waitstaff dress like clowns told me my hair was not a natural color and unacceptable. Ha. That was funny. I really, really did not want to work there and it was only a good thing cuz I would have hated it. I've had my fill of working in corporate/chain restaurants.

I was told by a couple of non chain restaurants that I'd have to change my hair if I wanted to work there.

I couldn't work at ESPN Zone in the City because of my hair.. that is owned by Disney and is a superduper corporate place with exact regulations on every single thing in the world. Earing size, makeup/nail color, how you do silverware rollups... it was ok, I couldn't function in a place like that anyway.

Most places don't really have a problem with it; one place I worked at, one manager confided to me after a few months that when I first showed up to work after I was hired, she ran in the back and asked the manager who hired me: WHO did you hire?? But, she saw after a short time that I am a really good waitress and had many tables compliment me. I don't think my hair is that crazy, I get lots of compliments randomly wheather at work or in the mall or walking down the street and women of all sorts ask me all the time how I get my hair that red and what I use and where they can get it.

[StInGeR]

Sorry no comment or answers cept for c'mon Tommy get it together

Cheers

Tom

[Rosie]

Fyre--Check out the Star Ledger which always has ads for waitstaff.

[Katherine]

I recently started dyeing my hair red (to coordinate with my freckles), and the color I bought at the supermarket doesn't look remotely natural (at least I don't think so). In particular, around the hairline, due to the sequence of application and the amount of gray, the color is somewhere between magenta and burgundy.

This would not be too noticeable, except that I wear my hair up most of the time.

At a St Patrick's day food schmooze, a woman said to me, "You must be Irish, you have red hair."

What I thought was, "You must be colorblind."

Everybody I tell this too gets a huge kick out of it, because the hair's a little weird.

[Rachel Perlow]

I can't see how a Mongolian Grill compares to a salad bar? Anyway, there are a lot of produce stores that have these types of salad bars in NJ too. Two I can think of are the one in the Rite Aid strip mall off Vauxhall Rd in Millburn and the one next to the Florham Park Diner in Florham Park. Hope they have what you need. I suggest you call your local produce stores to find ones that have what you are looking for.

Moderator Note: I've changed this thread title to make it more descriptive than "Two Questions."

[Cook456]

The Whole Foods Stores have a wonderful salad bar and prepared food section.They also have a chef preparing fresh sushi.

If you are not familiar with these stores, they are organic food stores. So, you can be assured that you are purcahsing the best quality available. ...something that you cannot be assured of at those Korean salad bars in the city.

[tommy]

I can't see how a Mongolian Grill compares to a salad bar?

i misread the question as one referring to those horrible places in NYC where you pick all of your ingredients and have a guy heat them up.

as for salad bars, mrs. tommy jokes that Charlie Brown's is great. she's yet to convince me to test out that theory, though.

[Curlz]

Mrs. Tommy isn't lying, Tommy! 'tho I really don't like Charlie Brown's, when I want a legit salad bar, it's the first place I think of...

[rozrapp]

I have very red hair that some places might not love, but it's not blue or green or purple.  It's just very vibrantly red. 

While, unfortunately, it's not in the vicinity of where you want to work, I thought I'd just mention that in Middletown (Monmouth County), there's a casual restaurant called Redheads Bistro & Bar.

[tanabutler]

I was turned down by TGI Friday's once.. Yes, the place that made their waitstaff dress like clowns told me my hair was not a natural color and unacceptable. Ha. That was funny. I really, really did not want to work there and it was only a good thing cuz I would have hated it. I've had my fill of working in corporate/chain restaurants.

How odd. I am the first girl I know to have had purple hair....while I worked at TGIF in San Diego and Torrance. Not stained-glass purple, but eggplant-colored. I also had Lois Lane comic book blue-black hair. Nobody ever said anything to me about it. I was on the Traveling Team, even. (This was in the Eighties.)

[tommy]

Mrs. Tommy isn't lying, Tommy! 'tho I really don't like Charlie Brown's, when I want a legit salad bar, it's the first place I think of...

i will say that i say the same about CB's. although, i haven't been to a CB's since college. but i do remember that salad bar. i used to go to one that was near montclair. it's been so long that i have no idea where it might actually be.

[Curlz]

There's one on Rt. 120 in E. Rutherford (off 17, en route to the back end of Giants stadium) and one in Millburn; those are the only two I know of. And fwiw, it's a 'classic' salad bar--basic lettuces/spinach, but they usually have some corn and/or pasta salads + things like chopped liver (!), cottage cheese, beets, etc. Like I said--what I think of in a salad bar...

Aside from CB's, I've always liked the salad bar at King's Super Markets, but then I have to buy tuna/turkey to put in it from the deli.

[Jason Perlow]

Fyre: Stickey's BBQ in Teaneck, which is opening in a week, and looks to be a big, busy, barbecue joint, is hiring waitstaff.

[coughy]

There was a Charlie Brown's on Rt. 23 in Cedar Grove which is now a CVS. There is one in Upper Montclair behind the Bellevue Theatre.

[BarbaraNJ]

Whole Foods also has my vote for salad bar diversity.

They seem to have a nice selection of greens and veggies, as well as some of their "homemade" vegetable, pasta and bean salads. There is usually chicken and tofu done a couple of ways, as well as two or three choices of hot soup.

Since they are a sort of upscale market, the selections are normally quite fresh and don't appear "picked over" or tired and dried out.

The nearest to you is likely Ridgewood, and the others are Montclair, Edgewater and Short Hills.

If you go to Ridgewood, try your luck at wait jobs there. While some of the places are really pretentious, there are also some funky places. There are so many eating establishments, you may be there the entire day!!!

[Rosie]

BarbaraNJ--welcome to eGullet. Was wondering which places in Ridgewood you found pretentious?

[ghostrider]

Whole Foods also has my vote for salad bar diversity.

They seem to have a nice selection of greens and veggies, as well as some of their "homemade" vegetable, pasta and bean salads. There is usually chicken and tofu done a couple of ways, as well as two or three choices of hot soup.

Since they are a sort of upscale market, the selections are normally quite fresh and don't appear "picked over" or tired and dried out.

The nearest to you is likely Ridgewood, and the others are Montclair, Edgewater and Short Hills.

The Montclair Whole Foods does not have a salad bar, the store is physically too small - it reminds me of NYC supermarkets - tho they do have a superb prepared foods counter.

There's one on Rt. 120 in E. Rutherford (off 17, en route to the back end of Giants stadium)

Oddly coincidentally enough, there also used to be a Mongolian Grill on Rt 120 in E. Rutherford. It went out of business some years ago (along with LT's Marina).

[tommy]

BarbaraNJ--welcome to eGullet. Was wondering which places in Ridgewood you found pretentious?

latour.

[suzilightning]

perhaps into mount olive? in the trade zone there are a panera, longhorn, romano's macaroni grill, chili's , and one or two others i'm sure i'm forgetting. is this the kind of high volume you were looking for? and there is supposed to be a steak house opening up near rockaway mall late this year/early next. right now i know plaza bistro in sparta is hiring waitstaff but they don't do the volume the chains do.

hope this helps - and i'll keep my ears open.

[Fyre]

there are a panera, longhorn, romano's macaroni grill, chili's , and one or two others i'm sure i'm forgetting. is this the kind of high volume you were looking for?

I am definitely not looking to work at a chain. Even though chain restaurants may have high volume, they are the worst places to waitress. Crazy tip outs, small stations (where I work, we do 8 to 10 table stations no lie.. in a chain, you get 4 tables maximum), not much turnover, and the most bs anywhere. I am looking for a privately owned restaurant or bar that is always busy. The kind of place that always has a wait every night. :)

[Rosie]

Fyre--You may also want to check under Openings and Closings on Table Hopping With Rosie and call some of the newly opened restaurants.

http://www.njmonthly.com/rosie/openclose.html

New restaurants sometimes don't keep their initial staff. Also, check with Village Green in Ridgewood. Don't know if they hired anyone yet but they were short staffed.

[Lreda]

there are a panera, longhorn, romano's macaroni grill, chili's , and one or two others i'm sure i'm forgetting. is this the kind of high volume you were looking for?

I am definitely not looking to work at a chain. Even though chain restaurants may have high volume, they are the worst places to waitress. Crazy tip outs, small stations (where I work, we do 8 to 10 table stations no lie.. in a chain, you get 4 tables maximum), not much turnover, and the most bs anywhere. I am looking for a privately owned restaurant or bar that is always busy. The kind of place that always has a wait every night. :)

Fyre, I'm always looking to upgrade my staff. If interested contact me with a PM. I might have a couple of bartending shifts but I need a good server fo the floor.

Lou

Edited March 22, 2004 by Lreda (log)

[ghostrider]

There's a place called Cafe Cafe (Latin cuisine) that opened just a few weeks ago in my town (Rutherford) that still has a "Help Wanted" sign in the window.

I have no idea if they're attracting the kind of volume you're seeking - knowing this town, I kinda doubt it - but they're clearly hiring!

16 Glen Rd, just off our main street (Park Ave) a block up from Station Square.

I also noticed that our Moroccan place (was on Park Ave just a few doors up from Station Sq) has gone out of biz & is being replaced with something called La Reggia Bistro (Confused cuisine?). Presumably they'll be hiring at some point.

Our town is probably a bit too sleepy & sober (the whole town is BYO) to have an "always busy" place, but some of them stay in business.