POPULAR WAITRESS SERVES UP FAREWELLS.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
LA CRESCENTA - It's the end of an era next week at Dominick's Italian Restaurant in La Crescenta. Flo Harmon is serving her last plate of spaghetti and meatballs Noun 1. spaghetti and meatballs - spaghetti with meatballs in a tomato sauce dish - a particular item of prepared food; "she prepared a special dish for dinner" . After 31 years of opening this family-owned Italian restaurant at 2 p.m. and closing it at 10 p.m. five days a week, the popular Brooklyn-born waitress is retiring. ``When you reach 66, what're you gonna gon·na Informal Contraction of going to: We're gonna win today. do?'' said owner Carmela Russo, taking the news hard. ``The woman's been on her feet her whole life. I hate to lose her.'' Carmela and her husband, Frank, bought the restaurant in 1969 from his uncle, Dominick, and kept the name. Flo came on board in 1970, calling Carmela one day from a pay phone to answer an ad in the local newspaper for an experienced waitress. ``She hired me over the phone,'' Flo recalled as she opened for business on Thursday afternoon. ``Carmela said, 'Please come, I'm so tired.' I came the next day and stayed 31 years.'' Sure, like all veteran waitresses, she's been on her feet most of her life and, yeah, they hurt, but that's not the main reason she's retiring next week. ``I want to spend more time with my grandkids,'' Flo said. ``I don't want to wake up one morning and realize they've grown and gone.'' Can't argue with that. Family comes before veal parmigiana Noun 1. veal parmigiana - sauteed veal cutlet in a breadcrumb-and-cheese coating served with tomato sauce veal parmesan dish - a particular item of prepared food; "she prepared a special dish for dinner" . Carmela, who's already retired, is taking Flo's retirement pretty hard, but not as hard as her longtime long·time adj. Having existed or persisted for a long time: a longtime friend; a longtime resident of Detroit. longtime Adjective loyal customers. Some of them began ordering Dominick's pizza or lasagna from Flo before they could read it on the menu. ``She's known some of her customers since they were babies, and now they're bringing in their own kids,'' said Diane Sweeney, who has been coming to Dominick's for 40 years. The Sunland woman paid Flo the highest compliment Not to be confused with Complement. Compliment may be
``She makes you feel like you're coming into her home,'' Sweeney said. Nice touch. ``When she has time, she sits and talks - wants to know how your family is doing and how your life is going,'' Sweeney said. ``Where do you find that kind of waitress anymore?'' You don't, said another longtime customer, Jane Omartian, who used to eat at Dominick's every week with her kids. She and her husband, Mike, are still eating there - now with their grandkids. ``She treats everyone like family and makes you feel so special,'' said Jane Omartian, who was in the restaurant last week when some of the guys from the La Crescenta substation of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department This article is about the Los Angeles County Sherriff's Department, not to be confused with the smaller Los Angeles County Police The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) is a local law enforcement agency that serves Los Angeles County, California. came in with a special plaque plaque (plak) 1. any patch or flat area. 2. a superficial, solid, elevated skin lesion. attachment plaques for Flo. ``She just has that knack for making people feel comfortable and special,'' said another 20-year customer, Pat Ralston. She's going to miss her customers, Flo said - miss them a lot. ``It's not stretching things to say that I love them, that they're like my family,'' she said. ``I've been waiting on their children, and now I'm waiting on their children's children.'' It's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a to start waiting on her own grandchildren GRANDCHILDREN, domestic relations. The children of one's children. Sometimes these may claim bequests given in a will to children, though in general they can make no such claim. 6 Co. 16. before it's too late and they're grown and gone, she said. She hates to say goodbye, but come around 10 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 29, she'll be serving her last plate of spaghetti and meatballs at Dominick's. Family comes before veal parmigiana. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Flo Harmon is serving farewells along with the food at Dominick's Italian Restaurant in La Crescenta, where she will retire Dec. 29 after 31 years on the job. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News |
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