In the fall of 2017, I attended the 40th class reunion of Bishop Moore High School in Orlando, Florida. I did not attend Bishop Moore, but my wife did, and we had a great time reminiscing with all of her classmates. What I can tell you is that this reunion was by far the greatest setup for a reunion or party of any kind. One of the classmate’s parents had turned their beautiful house on the lake over to the class, and there they recreated so many memories from the Orlando area.
For the food, they created small “stores” where an iconic restaurant had their wares available to eat. So there wasn’t just food catered; they actually had that restaurant, complete with signage and actors playing employees. One Orlando restaurant was famous for having pushy, rude waitstaff, and, sure enough, the actors played their parts perfectly. What fun!
I was especially glad to see that Lee and Rick’s Oyster Bar was represented at the gala.
For one, I love oysters. And two, I worked at Lee and Rick’s as a “waiter” during my college years at the University of Central Florida. I say “waiter” loosely because what I did was shuck oysters—dozens and dozens of oysters—each and every night. It was such a fun, crazy, dirty, smelly job! At the end of my shift, my official Lee and Rick’s T-shirt was covered in nasty mix of oyster shells, cocktail sauce, and melted butter. Yuck!
Lee and Rick’s was a great lesson in customer service. You don’t have to work at a snooty five-star restaurant to understand what customer service means: service is understanding what the expectations are and exceeding those expectations. The people who came into Lee and Rick’s expected great-tasting Apalachicola oysters served up nice and cold (if raw) or piping hot, right out of the steamer. Keeping multiple customers satisfied as they ate oysters as fast as I could pop a top and slide it front of them was my primary goal. The tips were fantastic—especially when the pro golfers were in town. Oh, and I had my first date with my beautiful wife Samantha at Lee and Rick’s (but that’s another story for another time).
Thanks, Bishop Moore Class of 1977, for the walk down memory lane. I thoroughly enjoyed the oysters, the great memorabilia, and the outstanding music. Even the downpour on Saturday could not dampen the spirits of your great class.