Those who know me know that I am a people person. One of my favorite pass times is getting to know people from different walks of life and that is evident on my blog. I am always fortunate that fate brings me to find an awesome group of people to work with, and at my recent job I found just that. I work at a restaurant called Pardos. It is a Peuvian cuisine restaurant that stands out from others due to their signature “Rotisserie Chicken”. When you walk past the restaurant the first thing that attracts your attention is the aroma of the chicken that is freshly prepared every day. In all honestly, that was what brought me into the restaurant. When you come in what will keep you coming back is the variety of the menu, affordability, and the freshness of the food. I guarantee that you will have a fresh hot plate of food every time you visit. Not only do we have wonderful food at Pardos but we also have a wonderful staff. It truly feels like I work with my family. (And no, they didn’t pay me to say all of this). I eat their food ever single day. Every single one of my coworkers can valouge for that. 

 

One thing that really stood out to me about my coworkers at Pardos is how hard they work. Everyone there gives it their all at every shift. No matter what is going on outside Pardos doors. When its time to get things done, they get it done. Another thing that stood out to me is that most of the staff is Hispanic, but we all come from different walks of life. Some of us are Americanized Hispanics and some of us our fairly new to this country. One thing we all have in common however is that we all work hard. We all have a common understanding of one another and we all know that we are a team, and with out one or the other we cannot move forward.

 

Our establishment had a recent scare. A man came in and claimed to want to purchase the restaurant. My managers thought that this man would close the deal with the owner’s of our establishment. When the staff heard of news we were all devastated. None of us knew what to do and most of the staff had families that they needed to provide for. I have never witnessed a group of people come together the way the Pardos team did in time of need. None of us knew what would happen. So what we did rather than getting upset was gather together and celebrate. What else was left? We did what any good Spanish, Miami establishment would do. We celebrated what we had. A family. People who are different but are working for a common ground. To have a roof over their heads, and that roof was Pardos. We threw a going away party and celebrated the night away. That night all I could feel amongst us was love and joy. There was no frustrastion or silly arguments. Just love and hope. Hope that our future was secured. We also helped one another to look for alternate jobs and reminded one another not to worry. We lifed one another. After the huge scare we later found out that the owner of Pardos would not close the deal with this man. We were all saved and we kept our jobs.

Photographed above is the head chef of Pardos. Hector. He is the head of the kitchen. Literally. He is positive, and always keeps the ball rolling at our place. I admire him for his kind heart, his patience and his will to keep us all sane during the madness but in his own clever way. You see, he knows us all differently so he handles every personality in the restaurant in the same way. He is honest and firm when he needs to be, and gentle and kind as well. He is also humble. He loves what he does and it shows. He has been living in American for 21 years now. He arrived here in 1995. Since he has been here he has worked in over 30 different locations in Miami. If you meet him you will never know this about him though. He just works hard at what he loves. Claiming no glory. I guess that’s what we all have in common at my job. We love hard and work hard. This all makes coming to work effortless. 

In future post I will continue to help you guys get to know my coworkers like I have. I’m calling this series people of pardos.