Meran Paul, Features Editor
Obscenities used.
For the many students out and about on Wednesday to Saturday nights at fraternity or sorority parties, they often ask the question: to Pub or not to Pub. If they choose to go to the small, late-night restaurant serving bar food and munchies, Pub worker Margaret Evans is waiting to serve them.The Sewanee Purple sat down with her and learned about her life working before and at the Tiger Bay Pub.
Could you start by telling us something about yourself?
“Well, my name is Margaret Evans, and I work at the pub and I’ve been here a long time. I love what I do, and it’s a fun job.”
How long have you been working here and what makes Pub a unique experience for you?
“I have been working here since 2007. I started full-time in 2009. The unique thing about this job is the high speed that it takes to be able to put the food out for as many people as we have coming through. Everybody has a different experience when they come into the Pub to order food, so, of course, we always accommodate them. That makes me feel good that we can do that.”
How did you decide to work at the University of the South?
“My grandparents lived here in Sewanee. They were here on the Mountain for about 70 years. As a matter of fact, the first job that I ever had was here at The University of the South and that was in 1977. My Mom also worked for the University but we worked at the dining hall when it was Gailor Hall. I’ve just been in the area for all my life. This is just home to me.”
How has your time working here shaped your connection to the Sewanee community?
“I love kids. I enjoy working with students and interacting with them, even if we’re not working. You know, I’m still young at heart. Even though I’m old, I’m not old at heart, you know. I enjoy talking to the young adults because even though I’m a lot older than your regular managers. You know, you don’t find managers my age still working, which is only 64, but a lot of people get out of the food service around 50, or 55 years old. I don’t want to do that yet. I’m not quite ready. I like interacting and being with the students.”
Do you have any favorite memories at Sewanee, or, you know, any crazy student stories you want to share?
“Well, of course, back in about 2016/2017 the Pub was a little rough because [students] would come in drunk and they would try to make their own rules, do their own little thing. And, of course, we couldn’t do that. So we started to get a little tough on them and then things each year started to get a little better. Since we don’t sell alcohol anymore, I think that made it a little easier. It didn’t slow anybody down from drinking. You know, it gets a little loud here, it gets a little crazy sometimes, but it’s always under control now.”
Any good memories you want to share?
“We’ve had students that have graduated. One of them, Conly, would send me a pecan pie every Thanksgiving. I would get it at the SPO. Then you’ve got the alumni that come back that were here rowdy and it’s always good to see them. They say “Hey, Miss Margaret, remember when you threw me out?” and they just laugh. Yes, I do. I do remember that. But it’s like at that time I was really drunk and it’s like honey, you gotta go, you can’t stay. But anyhow, they would bring that up and say, “Yeah, Miss Margaret threw my ass out.” Yeah, I did. But at that time it was hectic and rough. Now, when they come in they are like, “It is so good to see you.” Glad you’re still here.” But it’s like, damn, I’ve been here a long time.”
What’s your go-to order from the menu and why?
“My personal item is gonna be the spicy chicken sandwich. My second would be the fried bagels. That little sweet treat that you can get that’s not overdoing it. It’s not too much. It’s just exactly right. And then if you need a meal, the sandwich is full with everything on it, and it’s filling. And of course, our house chips. Sometimes students ask me, “Miss Margaret, have you ever tried some item that we don’t have on a menu?” And I would go, no, but I will. I will see if I can order that, and we’ll try to put it on the menu. That makes them feel good. Because I could say I can try to get it and not even bother. But if they ask me, and I can get it, then I order it. And I say we’re gonna have a special night.”
What’s something people might not know about working in a University restaurant like this one?
“They don’t realize how many people we serve at night, especially on Friday and Saturday nights or any party week. It can be busy from Wednesday through Saturday. When you’re dealing with about 70 to 80 heads per hour, you’ve got a stack of tickets like that, that’s usually about 350 to 375 heads that come in that night. And that’s pretty good because we take care of a lot of students and feed a lot of students in a short amount of time, but it’s constantly cooking. You have to, for us to be able to do what we do, we have to constantly keep cooking the items.”
How long do these continuous stretches of being super busy with cooking last?
“About two and a half to three hours on Saturday. It starts at about 11 p.m. and it ends at 2 a.m.. Some nights it starts at 9 p.m. and ends at 2 a.m.. The thing is you just have to keep going. You can’t say, “Well, I’ve already fixed 25 burgers.” It’s just you keep going with the flow and never look at the clock. Sometimes I say, “Wayne step [to] the corner and tell me how long the line is. He says it’s way down the hall. and I go, we need to cook more food in.”
How do you manage these super busy times when there’s a long line of students outside?
“You just have to keep cooking and keep serving. That’s all you do. I mean, there’s nothing else. Well, we play the music that entertains them. We don’t even try to entertain them at that time because we’re just trying to cook food. You gotta get in that groove. If you can’t get in the groove it makes it very hard for everybody, but once you get in that groove everything flows so smoothly.”
Do you have any advice for students?
“What people need to realize, before they ever step out of the house during the day, is that you’re not the only one out there in this world and, you know, even though you may have a bad start to a day, that doesn’t give you the right to ruin someone else’s day. I’ve seen students coming here and down and out, and we’ve always picked them up somehow. You always have to come up with something that makes them feel better. And to me, that’s important because, you know, you got some of these students that probably [haven’t] left home before until they come here. And then you have some of the students that have a little bit of issues just being here. So, no matter what it is, if they let us know, we always try to help them. We try to smooth it out a little bit for them. You go to bed that night, and you’re gonna get up the next day. You can make it a bad day or you can make it a good day. I like to make it a good day. People can make their jobs depressive, and we don’t want to do that. We like to be happy here.”
If you had to sum up your experience there, that Sewanee, in a few words, or a few sentences?
“It’s been a wonderful opportunity working for the University. I love what I do. and it’s been a blessing. I love my job, I love dealing with the kids. It feels like I was just meant to be, you know? It’s hard to describe if you’ve ever been somewhere that you feel like you belong. Well, that’s what it was when I first came here.”
Would you mind sharing other jobs you have held for working at Bob?
“I’ve run a convenience store. I’ve run different businesses. I had a gym. I was a competitor before I came here, I was a bodybuilder. In my younger years, I was very sports-active and I wanted to lift weights. I did good, I started competing, I owned my own gym, and then when I started doing more contests, I kind of slacked off, and then I ended up donating the equipment to the high school because I couldn’t run a business and train people if I was trying to train my own self. I had a trainer, but I was trying to work during the day training women who wanted to lose weight, and then in the evening time I would go to a trainer and train for what I was doing, and it made it extremely hard. I worked out for probably 12 years, lifting weights or bodybuilding, competing. I’ve earned my black belt. Then, I took time off and built a convenience store and I worked [there] for about 20 years. Well, actually after the convenience store I was diagnosed with cancer. I’m good now. I’m cleared. I got well, I came here and got a job. The good Lord healed me. That’s what I’d say. And I’ve been here ever since. And I love it.”
Anything else you’d like to share with us?
“The students know that we are here to take care of them and even though some say, well, you know, “I don’t like the pub. They’re mean or they’re hateful.” If anybody comes off to be in that manner, it’s because they’ve probably put us in that situation. If you come in drunk, you get a little belligerent or something, you know, we will have to call you out but it doesn’t mean we don’t like you. And when you talk to them, the next time they come in, they listen. They changed their attitudes. We make sure not only do we take care of the students that we’re feeding, but we also take care of the students behind the line that are working for us too. That’s very important to me. You know, I’ll see students all the time in Monteagle at CVS or at other stores up there, and they come up to me and are like, “Miss Margaret, how are you doing?” My granddaughter says, “That’s a student, isn’t it?” Yes, it is. Students keep coming to the pub and that makes us feel good because if they come in, it means they like the food and they like the environment. And that means we’re doing something right.”