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DOE'S EAT PLACE
Interviews and photographs by Amy Evans.
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Judy
Saulter
We just tell [the customers] what we got, you know. We don't have enough to put on a menu, so we just--we're an oral menu…and they think it's nice.
--Judy Saulter
Judy Saulter has worked as a waitress at Doe’s Eat Place since 1970. A native of Greenville, she enjoyed Doe’s hot tamales as a youth. So when she needed a job, she approached the Signas. Thirty-five years later, Judy is still there six nights a week, dictating the same menu of tamales, shrimp, salad and steaks that she memorized her first night on the job. When the place gets busy, and it always gets busy, Judy has a hand in a bit of everything from making salads to washing dishes. She’s even broiled a few steaks over the years. She knows every battered table top, each worn space in the floor. She feels so at home that, in 1988, she recruited her daughter, Debra, to join her as a server. Today, the Signa-Saulter family lines are blurred, and Doe’s customers are better off because of it.
• • • Listen to this 3-minute audio clip of Judy Saulter talking about waiting tables at Doe’s and the food she serves. [Windows Media Player required. Go here to download the player for free.]
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What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.
SUBJECT: Judy Saulter, server
DATE: September 15, 2005
LOCATION: Doe’s Eat Place-Greenville, MS
INTERVIEWER: Amy Evans
Amy Evans: This is Thursday, September 15, 2005 and I'm with Judy Saulter, a server here at Doe's Eat Place in Greenville. Judy, could you say your name and if you don't mind also your birth date, so we can have it on the record?
Judy Saulter: Judy Saulter, May 28, '43.
How long have you been working here at Doe's?
About thirty-five years.
And how did you get the job initially?
I just came up here and applied and they hired me…But it was mostly family you know when I came here. But--and that's how I got here.
And
what did you know about Doe's before you applied for the job?
Nothing. [Laughs]
Are you from Greenville originally?
Uh-hmm.
And you didn't know anything about Doe's Eat Place?
Uh-uh; it wasn't very famous back then.
Yeah; and never came here for a hot tamale or anything?
Oh yeah; I had hot tamales from here but that was all.
And so when you applied for a job here, did you--you just needed a job or you wanted to come specifically here or--?
I just needed a job.
Yeah; and so what's kept you here all these years?
The family--just a good place to work…Just--it's just like being at home with your family; because that's the way they treat you here.
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So do you have…some memories of--over the years of things that have happened or people who have come in and that have stuck with you?
Oh, yeah; we just--mostly all our customers, they come back, you know just regular--we have regular customers, you know just come in all the time. And you get to know them like you know they're family, too.
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Can you tell me about [your daughter] Debra [Padgett]?
Well, she's been here since she was about 20 years old. So she's been here probably about 17 years and she loves it, too. Just got her up here and got her doing the same thing that we do.
This--was this the first job that she had--working here?
I--I think so serving tables, uh-hm.
Do you like working with your daughter?
Yeah; I do.
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So can you describe maybe if you have a style of serving or your tableside manner as a waitress here at Doe's?
Well we just treat everybody like family and you know try to make them feel comfortable and at home and you know.
How do you do that exactly?
Just be real friendly to them and get to know them. [Laughs]
Like this table you have in the next room, this is their first time here? What kind of questions do you get from first-timers?
What's the best steak to eat? Or, they--you know like that couple they said they'd asked five people where the best place to eat was and all five people told them Doe's. And I said, "Well it is the best place to eat." So they said they was going to find out.
So what steak do you recommend?
Porterhouse.
Do you recommend a temperature? Do people usually pretty much know what they want?
Uh-hmm; yeah, most of them eat a medium-rare to rare, but every once in a while you get a medium well, which we try to talk them out of that.
And so what about the hot tamales? What about people from out of town who this is their first time to the Delta and they--they've not connected hot tamales with the Delta?
We try to get them to taste them. But we don't actually know how hot tamales got here either, but just about everybody sells hot tamales here in the Delta.
Do you like the hot tamales here?
I love them.
Why do you love them?
They're good. [Laughs]
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Yeah;
and have you had many steaks here over the thirty-five years?
Oh yeah; Doe cooks us one every once in a while.
Yeah; and how about those French fries--the famous fries?
Yeah; they're all homemade, home-cooked potatoes, peeled and diced here and just you know everything is down to earth here…Like being at home.
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Can you tell me a little bit about what the restaurant was like when you started and Doe, Sr. was living?
Well it wasn't--it wasn't as busy then as we are now. We didn't have that room back there. We just served here [in the kitchen] and in there [in the side dining room]. And through the years it has just you know doubled, tripled, but when I first came here we wasn't real busy; so.
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So what's a really busy night for you here?
Well sometimes, you know all during the week we're busy, like some Tuesdays and Wednesdays you can't get in here. But usually on the weekends you have to have a reservation to get in like on Friday and Saturday nights or you have to wait and wait and wait; so. But sometimes during the week it's just as busy also.
Can you talk about when you get to work what your shift is like? What you do when you first get here and how you close up and stuff like that?
Well when we first get here we put our crackers and ketchups out and butter and lemons and make our tea, fill the beer box up, see that everything is--the salt and pepper shakers are filled. And then at night we close up, we put all our tea up and our crackers up and fill our ketchup bottles and clean everything up and be ready for tomorrow. [Laughs]
Uh-hm; do you work six days a week--five days a week?
I do--six.
And so what do you do--how do you spend your days if you work here every--every night?
Well, I have three grandchildren I take care of; so my days are filled also. I have to get up at six o'clock in the morning to get them to school and then pick them up in the evening and then get ready to come to work.
Yeah; what has it been like working here over the years without a printed menu, but--I mean you serve the same things but your clientele has changed over the years with the popularity and what's that like when people come in and--?
I
don't mind it at all. We just tell them what we got, you know. We just--we
don't have enough to put on a menu, so we just--we're an oral menu; so--and
they think it's nice. Now sometimes they want to know what the price is
but very seldom will someone ask you, "Well how much does it cost?"
How have you seen the prices change over the years since you've been here?
Not that much, uh-um; I think when I came here the hot tamales were $4.50 a dozen. Well they've only went up $2.00 since I've been here. And let's see; the steaks--the steaks have went up about $5.00 or $6.00 each, but you know beef has just skyrocketed. But really and truly the prices have remained almost the same. Not much at all.
Is there something you think you serve the most of like do people get--maybe by number sell more tamales than shrimp or Porterhouse over any other thing or--?
We--we serve more Porterhouse for two, like you know what I just cut up, but since we've gotten those little fillets, the fillets have took off big time. We can't serve--we hardly ever serve small T-bones anymore. We just serve the Porterhouse to the men and the fillets to the ladies.
When did--when did the fillet get on the menu?
About four years ago.
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Do you have some memorable stories or funny stories over the years of customers who came through?
Not really; I have so many of them I can't you know--there's a lot of them. It's a lot of things that went on here in 35 years; I know that. [Laughs]
And it's been a good way for you to make a living, obviously.
Yes, yep--very well.
And how long do you think you'll stay at it?
Well I guess I'll stay here 'til they run me off or I get too old to work. But Florence is 80; she's still here. [Laughs] I don't think I want to be here that long though.
How about the other employees that you've worked with over the years? Have there been many other servers or--?
Ours start and they stay here. The ones that have left you know like Estelle, now she died; she was a server here. And then Thomasine, she left and went to--moved to North Carolina. And we've had Sue here; she's been here not long after I came here. And then we got Debra Ann here and Tina; she came from Doe's, too, Tina did, and we just don't go through them, you know any waitresses. They stay.
[H]ow important do you think Doe's is to the community here?
Well I--it brings a lot of people here; it brings a lot
of people here; like we had a couple last night that was traveling from
somewhere. They cut--they drove three hours out of the way to come here
and eat--just to come by here and eat. So that's how important it is…And
we've had people fly--we have people fly in from Texarkana, Arkansas,
to eat here and we used to have people fly in from Oklahoma City. We don't
have them anymore. I don't know 
what
happened to them.
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So have you ever--do you take on other responsibilities here like does everybody chip in to make the salad if Aunt Florence is busy or--?
Uh-hm; we all--we--if Florence is busy tending the cash register, we make the salad and well we do all of it. We wash the dishes and dry dishes. If we need something real quick and everybody is busy we'll do that, too. And we have cooked steaks. [Laughs]…It is really fun here….It's the job you can enjoy going to, and I guess that's why everybody stays.
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To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.
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