|
Top notch: Calling it quits after 30 years at the Ranch |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Written by Paul Raymore
|
|
Tuesday, 25 March 2008 |
|
|
|
|
From party animal to meditation guru, Jon L. Weedn has grown up with the River Ranch Lodge and Restaurant, and vice versa. But 30 years after first coming to work at the Ranch, the day has come for Weedn to hang up his hat as the well-loved bartender known to all simply as Jon L.
During a time when bottled beers were 75 cents and cocktails $1.10, Jon L., as he is known to all, moved to Tahoe from Southern California to try his luck at skiing. Starting as a prep cook at the River Ranch in 1977, Jon L. moved his way up the ranks where he filled every position as bus boy, cocktail server, front desk reservations, kitchen manager, entertainment booker, and patio manager where he earned his title “Jack of all Trades.” Jon L. eventually found his talent mixing drinks at the bar which was the perfect venue for expressing his gift of gab.
 For a proper farewell and chance to say good bye to an old friend, the River Ranch will be hosting Jon L.’s Retirement Bash on Thursday, April 3 from 5 to 8 p.m. in the bar featuring the world famous “Jungle Jonny” drinks along with complimentary appetizers.
The River Ranch is located at the corner of Highway 89 at Alpine Meadows Road, in between Tahoe City and Squaw Valley, and is open weekends for lunch and nightly for dinner. Call (530) 583-4264 for more information.
Because anybody who’s spent over 30 years in the Tahoe service industry has undoubtedly learned a thing or two that would be useful for the rest of us to know, the Tahoe World sent Web Editor Paul Raymore over to the River Ranch last week to speak with the man himself, Jon L. Weedn. A summary of the knowledge gleaned in that interview is below:
• I came up for a wintertime... And after I stayed for a winter, that was it. I wasn’t that keen on going back to Southern California... I came for a ski season and spent a lifetime.
• It wasn’t like now where you have to have three jobs. It was really possible to be a ski bum at that time.
 • Back in those days [when he was bar tending at Bar One in Squaw Valley] it was a total madhouse. They had four Austrian ski instructors that had a band and played in the afternoon, and all the chicks from San Francisco in their Nordicas or their furry after-ski boots would be out there dancing up a storm. People had different drinking habits in those days. They must have had more stress in their lives because people medicated themselves a lot harder in those days.
• It was in 1977 that I came to the River Ranch. I moved to Tahoe in 1973, so it took me four years to find home.
• I went to San Diego State and I graduated from Long Beach State. Those were both great school in those days; especially San Diego State, there were 3.7 girls for every guy there when I went there.
• At Lake Tahoe, back in that day, we said: “Short, fat, ugly or mean, come to Squaw Valley and you’ll be a queen.” There were no girls up here. And, God love them, the girls that were up here were of a hardier style than the ones today. It was a more Spartan lifestyle back in that day. So it took somebody with some fortitude and the softer, prettier types really didn’t seem to make it very well.
• When Denny offered me a job as a bartender [at the River Ranch], my training consisted of him having me come in on a Saturday morning, showing me the bar and saying, “Why don’t you just set it up however you think it should look.” So I did that, and after about 20 minutes Denny came back out and said, “That looks really good.” And then he told me what the prices were and that was the extent of my bartender training at the River Ranch.
 • I’ve really worked in every area of operations here at the River Ranch. I was lucky enough to be part of the management team, I ran the patio, cooked, worked on the floor, did everything throughout the restaurant. So in that respect, it was a great learning experience.
• I’ve personally hired at least 100 or 150 employees myself and seen them come and go. When I ran the patio we’d hire 40 or 50 new people every year, and you were lucky if three or four would stay and become longer-term employees at the River Ranch.
• That transient nature is hard to adapt to, with all the new faces coming in all the time, but it’s also exciting.
• Good relationships kind of grow in the same direction. When I started out here at the River Ranch, it was a roaring, out-of-control adolescent, and so was I. And fortunately, we’ve matured together.
• It was always fun; people always came here and felt that there was a sense of home and family, but it was wild in the early days. Now it’s a tamer place, but just as friendly.
• So many things have happened here that it would be really difficult to pin the tail on the donkey on one particular escapade. There have been so many stories about what happened on the patio when the party came down the river with the rafters...
• The nights were always the most dangerous here at the River Ranch though.
• One of the things that kept me at this job for so long wasn’t the food and beverage industry, it was the people. And that’s the part that I might miss the most.
• But I’m pretty excited about some of the things I’m going to get to do. Number one is having a regular sleep pattern instead of feeling jet lagged every week.
 • I will continue with the ski coaching because that’s just a blast. I love working with the kids... I still probably ski 80 days a year and I’m out there 45 days with the kids [on the Squaw Valley Race Team].
• I’ve been facilitating a meditation class for going on three or four years [currently 6:30 p.m. on Monday nights at For Goodness Sake in Truckee]... It’s an opportunity to teach people to change their attitudes from the inside instead of the outside.
• All these years here, at the River Ranch, it’s kind of been from the outside. But I think there’s so much stress in the world that if people didn’t medicate themselves, there would be some issues.
• I certainly was an expert in using every sort of thing to get to the state of mind that you wanted to have, as were many others of the era. But sooner or later you always figure out that things outside yourself are always going up and down, and when we start figuring out how to have a little peace of mind from the inside, it can always be there and it grows. And although nothing is permanent, it’s certainly more permanent than the transient sort of things that people usually get a kick out of.
• What I really think it takes to be successful in the service industry or working behind a bar is that open attitude of honestly trying to care for every person who walks in. Not judging them, not looking at people in terms of the size of the gratuity that they leave, but looking a little more closely at who they are and trying to wish them well. Having that sort of a positive attitude about people is what’s going to make you survive in this business. And when you have that sort of attitude it’s what’s going to make you successful in this business, because everybody perceives it: You have to be having fun; and you have to like people.
• My gratitude to the River Ranch for being the other part of the relationship over the course of the last 30 years. To the owners — they were always just really awesome, Pete and Denny and Bric.
• Over the years, when you work in a tipping industry, my gratitude [goes out ] to all the people who have basically given you gifts. I look at it like that. All the generosity and all the relationships I’ve had with people who’ve walked through that door — I’m really grateful for that.
|
Good times and good luck, Jon L.
Written by GatorsFan on 2008-03-29 14:39:35
Hope all goes well for you. Don't worry: The RR will be the same without you, only different. (LOL) Remember my motto: "Never grow up!" |
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 25 March 2008 )
|
|
|
