The Coliseum (Peterlee)

What a relief!
After nine months of travelling daily to Newcastle for my washing-up job at La Capanella, a return journey that took over 2 ½ hours, I was offered the job of waiter at a new Italian restaurant that was about to open in Peterlee. When I confessed that I had never waited on tables, the Italian manager, desperate for staff, reassured me that it would not take me very long to learn the job. The first thing I learnt prior to the restaurant opening, was, with the help of a young Italian waiter, putting together flat-pack chairs from MFI. Our handiwork was not up to scratch because within the first two weeks, many of the chairs began collapsing from under customers. The boss sent them back and must have been so forceful that he got them swapped for some plastic ones. My training was definitely working and I soon stopped shaking and spilling soup all over customers. I was even able to mumble an answer when customers asked me a question. My shyness began to give way to well-rehearsed retorts, such as, when customers enquired if the fruit salad was fresh, my immediate answer was: “Freshly taken out of the tin!” Some people laughed. Others shook their heads and probably never came back again.
Within two months the Italian manager, for reasons that only the boss knew, left taking along most of his team. The chef and I were deputised to run the restaurant until he, in turn went home one evening never to return again. I found myself in charge of a two-month old Italian restaurant without Italian chef. The boss hired an ex-army chef and instructed me to show him the rudiments of Italian cuisine, such as lasagne and pizzas, sauces, etc. I did my best with what I had learnt in Newcastle and taught him all I knew about la Cucina Italiana. He, in turn showed me how to grill a sirloin and make garlic butter for the snails.
I was promoted to restaurant manager, although in name only, just two months after starting as a trainee-waiter. That must have been the fastest career climb to the top in the history of catering.
The restaurant was not that busy, and we soon¬ lost Dave leaving me to take orders, prepare drinks, cook and serve the food with no other help than that of a succession Youth Training Scheme apprentices. Looking back, I really wonder how I managed to do all these jobs at the same time. The boss owned a very busy outside catering business and, as a result, he rarely came to the restaurant. What I did not know, I learnt on the go, doing the best I could to keep the place open. With hindsight, it was the best training ground one could have wished for. From there, the only way was up. When I opened Krimo’s in Seaton Carew on May 4th 1985, the force was with us.