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Mistral Party
"The streets here in Boston don’t look the same as my neighborhood in East LA, but I recognize the border between me and where the privileged get together and party."
By Luis Sierra
Last night, John Kerry supporters Robert Crowe and John Manning held a dinner honoring Teresa Heinz Kerry at a local Boston restaurant. Youth Radio’s Luis Sierra stopped by the restaurant while they were setting up for the big event. All the hustle and bustle reminded him of HIS days working in a restaurant…with a few differences.
625 dollars. For me, that’s a month’s rent, or a whole year of tuition at my community college. But at Mistral Restaurant in Boston, 625 dollars buys you a bottle of wine. And that’s not even their most expensive bottle.
I waited tables at an Italian restaurant in Los Angeles all through high school. So I didn’t think my behind-the-scenes visit to Mistral would bring any surprises. Mistral has the “flavor of Pro-vence” with a Mediterranean flavor, and I served pizza. How different could it be? Well, check out server Robert Annette’s job.
ROBERT (on tape)
These are starters, or show plates. When the guest arrives, they see the plate, it’s basically there for show. We remove the plates, and bring out bread and they use the bread plates.
LUIS
Wait a minute. When I put a plate down on the table, it was because the customer needed to eat off it. Seems like a whole lot of extra labor to me, all that setting and clearing, setting and clearing. But I guess to be fair, this IS the biggest event Mistral’s ever done, according to general manager Mark D’Alessandro…it even comes with a specialty DNC cocktail, the donkey martini.
MARK (on tape)
It’s made with Stolley peach and cranberry iced tea, with a lemon twist…
LUIS
Pizza joint or 5-star plush restaurant—one area I thought I could help the Mistral servers? Handling celebrities. I’m from LA, after all. And a political convention has its own special brand of stars. Mrs. Kerry even requested one server by name, Rory.
RORY (on tape)
Luis: Do you think there’s a difference between celebrities from Hollywood and celebrities who are politicians?
Rory: I’d rather not comment… No comment. But if Hilary Clinton comes, I might have to run over and say hello…If Bill was coming, I’d be pretty excited too.
LUIS
Maybe so. But the thing about rubbing elbows with the rich and famous, whether in Hollywood or Boston, is at the end of the night, you go back home…The streets here in Boston don’t look the same as my neighborhood in East LA, but I recognize the border between me and where the privileged get together and party.
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