PLAY IT AGAIN SAM AT THE TRIDENT BY MONTEREY MORRISSEY aka (LOUSY GROOVY CAP-I-TAN)
It was a typical Monday morning as I coasted down the hill from the Golden Gate Bridge and began carefully looking for that coveted neighborhood all-day parking spot so I could get to my kitchen shift at the Trident on time. Still quiet, still at ease, with a smile knowing I’d soon be sipping a French Roast if I was lucky.
Monday with Pierre (the Trident’s Chef) and the small crew was normally a day of cleaning, prep, cooking up, and filling the walk-in with the menu basics to get us through the week.
This was a different experience than any other shift. The Trident’s energetic buzz and hip tempo of any other shift was instead mellowed with comraderly and a humble satisfaction keeping the fires stoked, the pantry filled, and the kitchen keen to please.
We felt for what the place represented. It was more than just a job, more than just cool. This was unique in so many ways but at the core, it was about people. People who came here, who worked here, who played, laughed, loved, cried, and who just held it and smiled as they went on by. It was a vibe, a time … a soul of its own.
I drove past Sally Stanford’s and rounded the corner onto Bridgeway, noticing to my surprise an unusual amount of action going on around the Trident. Even in the street. What I was about to find out was today was not about to be a normal Monday but instead a trip deep into a Hollywood movie set, a la’ Woody Allen and his crew with “Play It Again Sam!”
I parked my car up the hill and worked my way through the grips and film crew members unloading their tools of the trade which mixed in out front with our morning produce, coffee, and linen deliveries, and pushed through to the back door.
I quickly punched in and peeked out of the kitchen onto the floor to see the crew busy bringing in lights and equipment and dressing the scene for the first shot, then a tight fist grabbed me by the collar and spun me around. “Lousy Groovy Cap-I-tan!,” (his nickname for me) Pierre’s stern voice and piercing blue eyes brought me to full attention. “Quick quick, see what cold side needs for prep, then be ready to serve and fill in as a busboy on the floor. Prep 50 pounds of onions, two buckets of garlic, and 20 pounds of shrimp, and wash the parsley to start the escargot butter and start the dishwasher it’s backing up and they’ll want us quite soon! All in his colorful and most authentic French accent, while he was wielding his knife at lighting speed and precision through the ingredients laid out before him and being tossed in one motion into his bubbling pot.
As the kitchen sprang into life the floor was beginning to film with film folk, the Assistant Director and PA wrangling the lights and camera, and they wrangled into position of the background actors throughout, filling the tables and creating the illusion of a full restaurant during a summer lunch rush complete with staff, which I think had a few carefully selected members from the Trident to bring authenticity to the work.
For our part, this also includes that we prepare all the food and drinks needed for the crowd that now fills the main dining room, the deck, and the bar, and voila’ the lunch rush scene is up and running.
And by the way, today is crystal clear and rapidly becoming one of those gorgeous days with sailboats passing and breathtaking views on a Hot Summer Day!
Showtime. It’s a fairly simple scene. Woody Allen and his best friend enter from the hostess station and walk through the Trident to join the rest of their party out on the deck. As the two men are walking and talking through the restaurant Woody Allen is eating an Eskimo Pie in his talking/eating nervous manner.
The “Heat” was now becoming an off-camera guest star of its own.
First, with all the cozy nooks and shadowy corners that are the Trident, they needed to use some rather large and pretty hot klieg Lights to make everything pop, from the room to the actors… but there were some downsides…
First off, some of the food was not taking kindly to the heat from the Klieg Lights and the day continued to get warmer as well. Things started losing their crispness and sandwich bread was turning to toasted curling and so on along with many touch-ups from the makeup crew kept them hopping as the actors were sweating profusely.
The kitchen was kept busy replacing whatever they would send back for repair or to replace while on the floor we needed to refresh drinks and portions as takes continued to roll. Remember that simple scene that started with…? Well, the Heat and the Eskimo Pie had their own issues.
In the litany of calls before the Director says ACTION, Lights, Sound, Speeding … a designated PA would pull out of a cooler a fresh Eskimo Pie and hand it to Woody where he then could be taking the first step and first bite with ACTION. He then would have to repeat this and every proceeding starting and stopping all the way through the dining room and out to the table on the deck. Waiting for each shot and at ready was a fresh Eskimo Pie, cut down to the approximate pre-eaten height so as not to break the continuity of the shot! Everything was melting, and all of their stock of Eskimo Pies was gone! Oh my god! Send a runner! More Pies!
Remember the little grocery store across the street, Production bought every conceivable chocolate-covered ice cream bar they could from them and the shoot was saved. That one scene took most of the day and set our prep back to be done later that night. But hey, we got two paychecks for that day. I won’t say which check was bigger and I got to walk through a scene alongside Woody Allen with a full bus box on my shoulder obscuring my face but it’s there!
In later years I wondered if the local notoriety of this visit from Hollywood played a little role in sparking the idea in a certain young man’s head (Robin Williams) about coming to work at the Trident.
A short time after the filming I was assigned to teach Robin how to be a dishwasher but he didn’t want any part of that, he knew where the action was and where he needed to be and that meant he needed to be on the floor. “No thanks, show me how to bus,” said Robin…and the rest is Trident history.
Thanks for the opportunity to share. Monterey Morrissey: momonterey@gmail.com