Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 3, 1994 TAG: 9407050109
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Matt Chittum
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By day she serves up reading, science and math lessons to fourth- and fifth-graders at Roanoke's Grandin Court Elementary School. By night, she shoulders trays of filet mignon and buffalo burgers at First Street Fine Food & Drink on the Roanoke City Market.
Teaching, of course, is her chosen career, but she can't seem to put down the order pad in favor of a lesson plan book.
"Whatever I make [waiting tables] is blow money or for saving," she says. "And I just really like First Street. I wouldn't wait tables if it had to be someplace else. I could never wait tables only."
Customers are shocked to learn that she is a full-time teacher, she says, but she has no shame about waiting tables. "I don't feel any need to justify myself."
But Moreth doesn't take her second job lightly, either.
"I feel a real sense of obligation to First Street," she says. "In a privately owned restaurant, you really do care about how the restaurant is perceived."
At only 23, Moreth has already journeyed far and wide in the restaurant business, in corporately owned and private establishments. She started at Pizza Inn at 18. She left a job selling shoes in Tanglewood Mall because she saw a friend making more money in less time waiting tables. Since then, she's made stops at Western Sizzlin', Famous Anthony's, Alfredo's and the now-defunct New Market Grill.
But after five years, she's still not weary of the endless trek from kitchen to dining room and back again.
She's developed some pet peeves over the years, like when people fight over the check, or don't pay attention when she approaches the table, and most of all, "I don't want to see people kissing in my restaurant."
But the usual customer gripes don't bother Moreth anymore.
"I just start thinking "I'll be out of here in a couple of hours, and [they'll] be somewhere still complaining'."
by CNB