Word: alex
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Getting a post on Alex's staff requires no references. The manager asks you to fill out a napkin with name and telephone number, and before you can say "extra seasoning," you've got your multi-head T-shirts and grease-stained apron. Training begins immediately, with stern warnings about accuracy and whispered tales of employees skimming off the top at a clip of $120 a day. Like most, I struggled not to bless customers with extra change and never had time to consider seriously any plans for extra-curricular profits...
...high-tech machinery is now part of all fast food joints, and last summer had nothing to do with Whoppers or McSundaes or Gino's Glants. For three, months, chicken was the name of my game, Alex's Chicken plus, to be more specific...
...midst of Baltimore's recently rejuvenated Inner Harbor--that city's version of Faneuil Hall--sits an outpost of youthful chicken slingers clad in the orange and black colors of Alex's little kingdom. Moored in the harbor's greenish-brown water in the moth-balled U.S.S. Constellation, cousin of Boson's Constitution, and a favorites among the hordes of tourists who swarm through the twin glass-enclosed pavilions every day in the slimmer. They gawk at the awkward old boat and munch on Alex's chicken...
Money hassles were commonplace; just because Alex's was the cheapest joint on the pavilion everyone and his nagging kids assumed we wanted to rob them of precious pennies. But after wrangling with the manager--who would leave to add up all of the employee's money--disgruntled customers usually sauntered away, comparing Alex to various unflattering chicken parts...
Soda presents a major challenge in the battle of man versus machine, particularly at Alex's where the instrumentation is exclusively state of the art. The Coke-spitting units have to be programmed for the desired amount of soda and an appropriately sized cup. On my maiden run, however, I paired a small cup with a large soda, creating a substantial overflow, which mostly ended up on my orange-and-black Alex's uniform...