Stravinski's Italian Restaurant
Chapter 7 | Scene 5
Old Vito slowly walks into the back kitchen area and yells. "Hey! Lucky Bucks at my oven at seven o'clock!" He turns and starts walking back, but then pauses and turns again. "Oh, and I need more pizza dough from the freezer."
Scott the salad guy is rushing to finish a couple of chop-chop salads and yells to the back of the kitchen, "Yo! Scotty! Go get Vito a pack of pizza dough." He tops off the salads with some parmesan cheese and puts them at the end of his workstation, stuffing the order slip in between them. "Hey! I got salads ready!" he yells to nobody in particular. He turns back towards the dishwashing station and yells again. "Yo! Scotty! You getting that pizza dough?" He pauses. "And make sure you have $20 for Lucky Bucks!"
Scotty, the dishwasher, is drying his hands on a dish rag as he walks up to the salad station. "What's 'Lucky Bucks'?"
"You'll see," says Scott. "Just get that pizza dough for Vito. Hurry up."
Scotty weaves his way around a couple of frantic cooks and even-more-frantic waiters on his way to the walk-in freezer and finds a bag of pizza dough and brings it up front to Old Vito's pizza making station.
Old Vito is finishing the final touches on a meatball and sausage pizza. He grabs a pinch of oregano and tosses it across the pizza. Half of it lands on his apron and the floor. He scoops it up with an oven paddle, turns around, opens the oven, and slides the pizza in. In a single motion, he slides the paddle under a finished pizza and pulls it out.
He looks up and sees Scotty with the bag of dough. "There, there…" he points with a bony finger. "Put it there!"
Scotty sees the empty plastic bin next to the table, opens the bag of dough and drops it in.
As Vito slides the pizza onto a pizza tray – Marcus runs up and says "Yo Vito! Is that my pizza?" He reaches for the tray before Old Vito can answer.
"Ack!" Vito slams the pizza cutter down on the table, nearly taking off Marcus' fingers. "It's not cut up yet!" he yells.
Marcus yanks his hand back. "Jesus!"
In four swift motions, Vito slices up the pizza into eight slices and shoves the tray in the direction of Marcus. "Here! Take it!"
"Okay, okay!" says Marcus. "You don't have to kill me! It's crazy out there. I have to drop off this pizza." He grabs the tray and says, "But don't start Lucky Bucks without me! I'll be right back."
"We're starting at seven – with or without you," says Vito. "You all got 10 minutes! Spread the word!" he yells.
Scotty is still standing at the end of the pizza table.
Old Vito looks at him for a second. "Whadda waiting for?" he says. "Go get a couple of markers from the counter."
Scotty shrugs. He's confused, but walks to the front of the kitchen and to the takeout counter.
Angela is there – running a credit card through the machine and looks over at Scotty. "Whadda need, Scotty?"
"Ah…Old Vito asked me to get some magic markers."
"Oh, no," she says. "Not now. It's too busy for that."
"Too busy for what?" says Vinnie, coming from the lobby where there's twenty people standing around waiting for a table.
"Lucky Bucks," she answers. "Vito's running Lucky Bucks on a busy Saturday night."
Waiters start flying past the counter, making their way into the kitchen, including Marcus – who's got a look of panic on his face. He sees Vinnie. "Come on! Let's get this show on the road! I've got an angry party of 8 out there who are waiting for their drinks."
Vinnie grins and Angela says, "You gotta be kidding me?!"
"It will only take a minute," says Vinnie holding up his hands. "Don’t worry about it." He backtracks through the lobby and pokes his head into the crowded bar and gives Nick, the old bartender, a wave then heads to the kitchen again.
Nick taps Lawrence on the shoulder, who's finishing up a list of cocktails for Marcus. "Come on kid, let's go," he says.
Lawrence, looks at the clock. It's 7 o'clock. He shakes his head. "No, go ahead without me. It's too busy. I gotta finish up this drink order."
Nick gently grabs his arm and says, "No, no. You know the rules. Everybody's in. Let's go. We'll only be a minute."
Back in the kitchen, at Old Vito's pizza station, a crowd of 50+ Stravinski's Italian Restaurant employees – cooks, waiters, busboys, dishwashers, hostesses, and owners Vinnie Stravinski and his older sister Angela – all gather around the pizza table. They are all noisily fighting over and passing around a pair of magic markers. Nick and Lawrence are the last to the kitchen and Old Vito barks something out which creates an opening for his old friend Nick to belly up to the table.
Someone hands Nick a marker and the kitchen goes quiet for a moment. He fumbles around into the front pocket of his baggy black pants and pulls out a giant roll of cash – and peels off a $20 bill. He places the bill on the table and with the black marker he boldly writes "N-I-C-K" across the face of it.
Old Vito holds a large brown paper bag and opens it up in front of Nick who ceremoniously drops in his $20 bill.
There's only a small pause before someone let's out a "Yeah! Let's go!" and then frantically more hands are reaching out to stuff $20 bills with bold printed names on them – into the bag.
At this moment, at the peak of a busy Saturday night dinner rush, there isn't a single employee on the dining room floor or in the bar or at the hostess or takeout stations. Some customers are starting to look around for their waiter to either place their dinner order or request a check. A few impatient patrons at the bar are considering reaching over the bar and serving themselves. A line of takeout customers is starting to form at the counter. But nobody is working. Not at this moment. Not during Lucky Bucks.
Unseen by customers, but certainly heard, there's a momentary pause in employment duties to participate in Lucky Bucks, a game of tradition. A game of chance. A chance to win over $1000 in $20 bills. Yeah, those bills will all have the names of your co-workers written on them. But they are still worth the same.
The rules are simple. One entry per employee. All workers must participate. And Vinnie is the only one who can pull the winner.
The final bills are stuffed into the oversized paper bag. Old Vito is responsible for thoroughly mixing and stirring up the bills, lest anyone think that holding out to be the last one into the bag would help their chances. Old Vito is thorough.
"Alright Vito. That's enough," says Vinnie. "We gotta get back to work."
Old Vito gives it one last stir and pulls his hand out. He hold the bag high and opens it up.
Vinnie has to reach up to get his hand in. He takes his time. Stirring around the bills. Having fun with it. He smiles.
"Come on Vinnie!" Someone yells. "Whadda trying to do? Feeling for you own twenty?"
Vinnie laughs. "I never win. You know that." It's true.
Finally, he settles on a bill, pauses and quickly pulls it out. He clutches it to his chest as fast as he can, but a few people catch a glimpse of the name, and let out groans of disappointment.
"Who is it!" someone yells.
People are clawing at his hands and he finally holds it up so all can see.
Groans all around. There can be only one happy person.
The name on the bill is "Miguel". One of the busboys.
Miguel is standing near the back entrance to the dining room, still holding a busboy tray, waiting to get back to work. A huge smile on this face.
Vinnie has a smile too. "Congratulation Miguel!"
"Gracias…" he says, nodding and smiling. He's never won before. A couple of people slap him on the back in genuine congratulations.
But then, as quickly as it began, everyone scatters to repair the damages with their customers or duties.
Vinnie puts the "Miguel" $20 bill back in the bag and Old Vito rolls the top closed and hands the bag to Miguel. "Here you go kid. There's gotta be over $1000 in there! Enjoy!"
"Gracias!" He tucks it under his arm and runs out onto the floor to clear some messy tables.
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