Week 10 still no dice…. not good Friday, Nov 20 2009

So I have learned from this  experience of documenting The Grill, willing participation is hard to come by. I am very appreciative to the entire staff for being so willing to work with me this semester to get my project done! I am still working on getting good shots of patrons at The Grill.  Most people will let me take their picture but then follow it with, please don’t publish that one on a website or anything. I don’t want to to be shown.  This brings up a pretty big problem for me. I need those pictures, but can I really go against their wishes and use them? I am going to try again tonight to get willing participants to let me take pictures AND post them to the web or use them in a project. Hopefully it will work, I will try to post some over break if I can, but due to lack of needed software it might have to wait until the beginning of December!  I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

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Week 9 Wednesday, Nov 18 2009

This weeks goals were to really capture little things about The Grill that most people might just miss over.  I wanted to show the simplicity of the diner, but also bringing out its character.  I showed up around 6:30 p.m. to work more on dinner. I was hoping it would be busy because it is a big football game weekend, well that wasn’t the case. When I got to the restaurant, there was no one there. It gave me a chance to walk around and take detail shots of a lot of different things. I also got a chance to talk to the employees and build better relationships with them.

The Grill's neon signs light up College Avenue in Athens, Ga. on Nov. 12, 2009. The bright neon signs make the restaurant hard to miss if you are walking down the street. Photo: Katherine Poss, kposs@uga.edu

Neon signs, Coca-Cola memorabilia and interesting knick-knacks are displayed all over The Grill in Athens, Ga.

The Grill's uniform is a simple white t-shirt with The Grill's logo and slogan and black pants. The uniform adds to the diner feel.

A person sits at the marble top counter in the back of the restaurant on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009 at The Grill in Athens, Ga. The marble counter top contributes to the overall diner feel of The Grill.

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Week 8 Friday, Nov 6 2009

Tonight, I will be doing the more fun post of the semester. I am going to go to The Grill around 1:30 a.m. and stay until 3:00 a.m.  I am going to capture the atmosphere of a Friday night, home football game weekend, crowd.  It should be a lot of fun. Hopefully I will be able to get some good crowd shots, interesting perspectives employees faced with a mob of drunk college kids! But for now, here for some I took this week to make deadline! Enjoy!

Matt Hull, 34, manager at The Grill, waits for an order to be placed on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009 at The Grill in Athens, Ga.

The Grill is filled with Coke and cartoon memorabila that has been collected for the restaurant for many years.

Collector's items from the 1940s to the 1990s fill the shadow cases in The Grill.

 

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Forgot to post one… Thursday, Oct 29 2009

Hilary Davis, 19, an Animal Sciences from Athens, Ga., takes the order of diners at The Grill located in Athens, Ga., on Oct. 13, 2009. Davis enjoys working at The Grill because she is surrounded by her friends.

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Week 7… Thursday, Oct 29 2009

Over the next couple weeks I am going to try to get more people interaction.  I want to catch people interacting with the people they are dining with, but I also want to get the patrons and staff interacting.  It is starting to get tough to get people that will agree to being photographed, but the staff is going to try to help me with that! Thank goodness.

Here are some photos that I have been meaning to put up…

Matt Hull, 34, the 4:00 p.m. to midnight shift manager at The Grill, puts an order up in the kitchen window at the restaurant located in downtown Athens, Ga. Hull works up to 6 nights a week, but enjoys the dinner crowd.

Craig Meeks, 45, a banker from Athens, Ga., has breakfast at The Grill in Athens, Ga. with Steve Parker, 45, a Business Executive from Athens, Ga., on Friday, Sept. 4, 2009. They were meeting to discuss parts of Parker's business.

 

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Week 6 Updates Friday, Oct 23 2009

Andrea Opilka, 34, a restaurant owner from Athens, Ga., laughs with Jan McIddy, 52, a grandmother from Chicago Heights, Ill., on Thursday, September 22, 2009 at the Grill located in downtown Athens, Ga. The group was sharing stories about regular customers of Opilka's restaurant.

Andrea Opilka, 34, a restaurant owner from Athens, Ga., talks to Amber Griffin (center), 23, a musician from Athens, Ga., and Erika Rockson, 24, a musician and delivery driver from Athens, Ga., on Thursday, October 22, 2009 at The Grill in downtown Athens, Ga. The group was having an early dinner after their shift at Opilka's restaurant.

Andrea Opilka, 34, a restaurant owner from Athens, Ga., sits next to Jan McIddy, 52, a grandmother from Chicago Heights, Ill., and talks to Erika Rickson,24, a musician and delivery driver from Athens, Ga., on Thrusday, Sept. 22, 2009 at The Grill in downtown Athens, Ga. The group was enjoying an early dinner after finishing their shift at Opilka's restaurant

Since I finally got employee interaction last week, I have moved my focused to more of the patron atmosphere. The Grill is not just about going to a restaurant to eat, in my opinion, it is a great atmosphere to go if you want to hang out with friends. The staff is always upbeat, you can play music on the juke box and just enjoy being out. I want to capture the non-restaurant feel in the next couple of weeks. I don’t want to have pictures of people eating three plates of french fries with feta cheese dip, I want the interaction before and after dinner. I want to get the feeling of the restaurant that has more to offer than just food!

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INTERACTION, finally! Tuesday, Oct 13 2009

I went back to The Grill on Friday, October 9 and finally got employees interacting. This was definitely attributed to the fact that more people were working. The first photo is a portrait of one of the managers of The Grill and the rest is a sample, I will post some more later this week!

Matt Hull, 34, manager of The Grill, stands for a portrait on Friday, October 9, 2009 at the restaurant in Athens, Ga. Hull is the 4:00 p.m. to midnight shift manager for The Grill.

Kelly McKay (left), 23, a history major from Marietta, Ga., and Matt Hull, 34, manager of The Grill from Athens, Ga., discuss an issue brought up by a customer on Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 during their shift at the restaurant. McKay and Hull laugh at the situation after it was resolved.

Hilary Davis, 19, an animal sciences major from Athens, Ga., and Matt Hull, 34, manager of The Grill, sort out an order on Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 at the restaurant in Athens, Ga. The serves try to work together so they do not get behind in the dinner-time rush.

Aly Ingram, 23, a graduate of University of Georgia's Terry College of Business from Auburn, Ala., laughs with Hilary Davis, 19, an animal science major from Athens, Ga., on Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 at The Grill in Athens, Ga. Davis said she enjoyed working at The Grill because she gets to work with all of her friends.

Daniel Clark, 25, a comparative literature major and musician from Athens, Ga., talks to Kelly McKay, 23, a history major from Marietta, Ga., about the table of 7 children they had to serve on Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 at The Grill in Athens, Ga. Clark and McKay were tired of the kids being rude and their parents not caring to correct them.

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Bad week for documenting employee relationships… Friday, Oct 9 2009

I went to The Grill to try again get more photos of employee relationships, well that did not work again. When I got there, only one server was working. So I waited until shift change because there were going to be 2 working later.  The two employees arrived, and poor things, had just taken three test and one was sick.  So they politely asked me not to take any pictures of them. What can you do?!  I talked to the Manager and he said there would be a different serving staff there tonight if I wanted to try again, well of course I am going to but it doesn’t help me meet my personal deadline to get some pictures of employee relationships up this week. So I will try again tonight and see what happens.

In the mean time here are a few edited pictures I haven’t posted yet.

Evan Amburn, 18, a middle education major at Gainesville University from Waycross, Ga., rings up a customers bill on Wednesday, September 30, 2009.

Jesse Bradshaw leans on the counter while Crystal Byrd marks off drink orders during lunch at The Grill in downtown Athens, Ga. The lunch rush usually starts around noon and is over by 2 p.m.

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Detail Shots Friday, Oct 2 2009

An open newspaper and a book sit on the back table where the serves sit during down time on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009 at The Grill in Athens, Ga. The serves don't always get to read because the lunch hour can get pretty business for the 2 servers working.

The serves at have newspapers and books the read in their down time while working the lunch shift on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009 at The Grill in Athens, Ga. They do not get much time to read, but would much that be working than waiting on people to come to lunch.

I posted these pictures as potential detail shots to use in my project.  I was really trying to capture employee relationships over this week, but I wasn’t able to get any really good moments. I plan to go back today and over the weekend and try again.  On Wednesday, the staff was stretched a little thin and had so much to do they did not have time to do much interacting.  Those shots are a work in progress but they will come!  I really just needed something to post for today’s deadline. Let me know what you think of these as supporting pictures! Thanks!

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Still not too busy Friday, Sep 18 2009

Only four tables were taken by customers at The Grill in Athens, Ga. on Friday, Sept. 18, 2009. For a Friday, the staff said that business was very slow.

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