Denise
General manager
Runs the Cormorant year-round and has for eleven years. Fair and plainspoken, but the September conversation is one she has had too many times to make it feel easy for anyone, including her.
The Cormorant · Marrow Bay
The Cormorant
The Cormorant is forty-one rooms above the quay, plus a dining room that fills at seven and empties by nine. In July you're on your feet for ten hours and the tip jar is heavy. By February half the rooms are dark, the dining room seats maybe a dozen a night, and you're hoping for enough hours to make rent. The regulars know your name by August. The owners know the season's numbers before you do.
- Marrow Bay
- Coastal hospitality — inn, dining room and bar
- 3 connected Workdays
Team size
18 in July, 5 in February
Pay
Tipped minimum plus pooled tips, seasonal contract
Pace
Slammed or dead, rarely in between
Who you work with
The same people, shift after shift. Nobody here is the villain and nobody is always right.
Tobias
Kitchen lead
Runs a tight, loud kitchen and takes allergy tickets more seriously than almost anything else back there. Short with people when service is on, easy with them the second it isn't.
Marisol
Seasonal server, second year
Comes back every May from the community college two towns over, needs the summer money to matter. Knows the dining room better than most people who've worked here longer.
Wyatt
Seasonal server, first year
Nineteen, local, working his first real job while he figures out whether to leave Marrow Bay or stay. Eager and a little scattered, still learning what he doesn't know.
The Workdays
In order. What you decide early comes back later. Precision under pressure · Initiative without instruction · Talking honestly about pay
- 01The Allergy TablePlayableSaturday · 7:40 PMTable twelve asks if the chowder has shellfish in it. You think you know. Thinking isn't good enough tonight.Precision under pressureAsking instead of guessingClear communication with the kitchen
- 02The Slow TuesdayPlayableTuesday · 2:15 PMThree tables all day. The silverware is already polished. Denise is somewhere in the building deciding who she still needs.Initiative without instructionBeing visible without performingTolerating ambiguity
- 03The End-of-Season ConversationPlayableSaturday · 4:00 PMDenise wants to talk about hours, your final paycheck, and whether there's a place for you here past this month.Self-advocacyReceiving uncertain newsFinancial literacy