Fleet-footed and steady-handed, Greenport’s most nimble and quick wait staff strutted their stuff this morning on Main and Front streets, competing for cash prizes in the Fifth Annual Waiter Race.
Thirty people assembled at the start line outside the ELIH Opportunity Shop on Main Street at 10 a.m., each holding identical round trays on which was perched a bottle of Montauk Lemonade and wine glass. After Waiter Race coordinators filled each glass with lemonade, the race began — and one thing was clear from the outset: these folks were serious.
Defending champion Claudio’s Restaurant, which took top honors the last two years, made it a three-peat today when Veronica Jacobson, 20, of Riverhead was first to cross the finish line on Front Street, her lemonade-filled wine glass intact. Jacobson, who started working at Claudio’s two months ago when it opened for the season, broke the race record with a time of 2:38. She shaved nearly five seconds off last year’s winning time, posted by Claudio’s veteran waiter Edwin (“Salsa Legs”) Salazer of Greenport. Nick Claudio won the race on behalf of his family’s restaurant in 2014.
At first it looked like a tie between Jacobson and James Mullane of Claudio’s Clam Bar, but Mullane, 21, of Rocky Point, sloshed his lemonade over the top of his glass and was disqualified.
Salazar and many others met the same fate as they power-walked to the end of Main Street, back up to Front Street and up Front Street, as spectators and merchants stood on the sidewalks to cheer them on to the finish line outside The Market on Front Street.
The Market sponsors and organizes the annual event.
“It’s a fun event for the community and for our servers,” said Shelley Scoggin, co-owner of The Market.
The Waiter Race is a fundraiser for Eastern Long Island Hospital, she said. The race raised $1,300. Cash prizes of $300, $200 and $100 were awarded to the first, second and third place finishers.
Coming in behind Jacobsen today was Deb Taylor of Lucharito’s in second place and Chateau Butler of Deepwater Grill in third.
Wait staff from American Beech, Billy’s by the Bay, Claudio’s Clam Bar, Claudio’s Restaurant, Deepwater Grill, First and South, Little Creek Oyster, Lucharito’s, Peconic Landing, Salmander’s, San Simeon, and The Market competed.
Beverages were donated by Montauk Lemonade.
SoutholdLOCAL photos by Denise Civiletti
