As hundreds of cyclists poured through the Summit City, there was hope that the event would not only bring some exercise and entertainment to the participants but hopefully a changed view of the community in general.
A few new rules baffled some old champs at Monday’s Fort Wayne Newspapers Three Rivers Festival Waiter/Waitress Contest, which endured a last-minute venue change, 90-minute delay and torrential downpour to crown a first-time team of well-prepared servers.
The victorious squad, the Teca Trifecta from Mexican restaurant El Azteca, 535 E. State Blvd., began daily practice routines in the establishment’s parking lot starting two weeks ago, said Kim Myers, an El Azteca server and team member.
Around 10 a.m. every day, the three-person crew, which also includes busboy Guillermo Acuna and bartender Theresa Fagan, attempted to replicate the annual competition’s format just before their morning shifts.
The dedicated regimen proved fruitful Monday afternoon as Teca Trifecta ousted the contest’s former champions, the Marriott Banquet Red Coats, earning $150 each, individual trophies and a commemorative placard for restaurant display.
The festival event centers on a relay race in which three restaurant employees must perform three separate stages of workplace tasks, including setting a table, serving water and bread, and clearing the table.
For contest judge and Sysco human resources director Andre Robinson, this year’s occasion was marked by an intense competitiveness and an amped-up audience.
Despite early-afternoon storms that forced contest organizers to switch the location from Freimann Square to the Headwaters Park East pavilion, he said the “high energy” was palpable from the first horn. The venue change amounted to a nearly 90-minute late start as heavy rain pounded on the pavilion roof and shuttered nearby food vendors.
“A lot more teams, a lot more cheering,” Robinson said, describing this year’s atmosphere. “The difference was the slight change in rules.”
The revised guidelines, which added slippery salad leaves and topple-prone goblets in the final round, were a “brand new challenge” to Red Coats competitor Grant Stieglitz.
Still, Stieglitz said, his waiter team, which also includes banquet manager Gary DeCamp and server Kyle Tew, will “absolutely” return for next year’s competition.
“Top five is just as good,” he said. “You can’t win it every year.”
El Azteca’s Myers, on the contrary, embraced the new rules. Competing for the fifth year, she said the changes made the Waiter/Waitress Contest “easier” than in past years.
Robinson agreed the altered format was particularly troublesome for some teams, especially those “rushing and not being particular about perfection.”
He called this core problem “speed versus doing it right” and visibly disapproved throughout Monday afternoon as servers carelessly fumbled dinner rolls and occasionally tilted water pitchers.
Regardless of the heightened rivalries, parking-lot drills and fickle salads, Myers said the festival tradition always serves to unify the city’s food service community.
“I love seeing all the restaurant people down here,” she said.
