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| Adina Zeller has waited tables, off and on, for more than 17 years at the Lincoln City Mo's, which overlooks the scenic Siletz Bay and also boasts ocean views. OCT photo by Niki Price. |
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Mo's puts family first
By NIKI PRICE
Oregon Coast Today
When managers and employees are willing to work around individual schedules and family obligations, that’s a good employer. When the entire workspace is redesigned to accommodate a shorter-than-average person, that’s a good employee.
But both apply to Mo’s Restaurant in Lincoln City, where Toy Driver has been making clam chowder and baking bread for nearly 30 years. She’s been on the staff since the early days of the Taft Beach location, when the restaurant was half its present size and the menu board still covered in Mo Niemi’s careful, beautiful handwriting.
By the 1980s, Driver was an invaluable member of the Mo’s corporation — or family, as most members like to say. One day, when then-CEO Tom Becker was examining the kitchen for an upcoming renovation, he noticed that the diminutive Driver (she’s 5 feet tall in tennis shoes) was standing on milk crates and buckets to reach the chowder pots.
“She literally peeled potatoes and made chowder right here, for 30 years. Now, even the equipment in the back of the kitchen is built to her size,” said the restaurant’s manager, Peggy Preisz.
“She’s an amazing person. She works from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and never misses a day of work. We have to force her to take a vacation. I connect her with Mo’s, so much, and Mo’s is a family.”
Toy’s story
Toy Driver spent her first 30 years in Japan, in the Hunshu province. She was a surgeon at a Japanese hospital when she met her future husband, an American serviceman, in 1953. She emigrated to the United States, where the language barrier and other academic issues kept her from resuming her medical career. Instead, she followed her husband’s work until they landed on the Oregon coast in 1963.
Her first day at Mo’s was in the off-season, in early 1975. On her second day, the manager gave her a key to the Lincoln City restaurant. On her third day, the manager left Driver a set of written instructions and went on vacation.
“Every day, I waited for her to come back, but she was gone for three weeks. I heard later that she told Mo, ‘Don’t worry because Toy is here.’ So from the beginning it was very good, even though I had no idea what to do,” Driver said.
Even now, Driver still has a hard time being understood, and fully comprehending, the English around her. She always carries a notebook and a pen, which help her clarify words and spelling. Speaking English as a second language has made her especially aware of tone and tenor, as well as words. One of her all-time favorite voices belonged to Mo Niemi.
“Mo had a special voice, the type of voice that gave you (the feeling) that everything will be all right, will be OK. No matter what she said, it had assurance. She had a commanding voice. I’ve never known another voice like it,” she said. “I wish sometimes that the President of the United States, or the governor, would speak like that.”
“That was one of the reasons I stuck around here. She was such a wonderful person, and it seems like just yesterday that she was here.”
Although Mo Niemi died in 1992, the 79-year-old Driver still finds Mo’s an assuring place to work. When her husband died in 1987, Becker offered a kind word and a promise of financial help, she said. When storms threaten to send logs through the window and the power is out, there’s always someone there to help.
“When you hear a kind word in the right moment, somebody offering help, you never forget it,” she said. “When my husband died, he had life insurance and took care of me. I had many choices, and many ways to choose. I stay here, because I enjoy it. It’s a place with respect and trust.”
The next generation
Hectic, casual and reasonably priced, Mo’s is known as a good place to take small children. Adina Zeller, a waitress supervisor, says it’s also a great place to work if you have small children.
Zeller first started serving there when she was 18, in the summer before she went to Southern Oregon State University. When she came back to Lincoln City, to help take care of her ailing grandfather, Mo’s was waiting for her. She got married and had three boys — Dean, 11, Charles, 9, and David, 7 — and with a few breaks, has always had a home on the Mo’s floor.
In the busy season, she works 40 to 50 hours a week. During the school year, however, her schedule is modified to fit the school day, she said.
“Most of the time, I get out of work when school gets out. What other job would let you do that?” she said. “You can’t have another job like that. This place works with your family life.”
“For instance, when my dad had a stroke, I took a month off and it wasn’t a problem. They just said, ‘Go take care of your dad. Go take care of your family. We understand.’ And I never have to worry about my job. It’s really awesome.”
The management’s family commitment filters down to the staff, she said. They cover for each other, no questions asked, to maintain the volume for which Mo’s is famous. On a Saturday in January, Zeller said, they aren’t surprised to serve 2,000 people and go through 300 gallons of chowder.
It’s an exhausting and bustling job, but it suits Zeller’s bubbly personality to a tee. She enjoys meeting people from around the world, and keeping busy.
“I couldn’t really sit at an office job after working here. I would be fired the next day. I’d get bored,” she said.
“Mo’s is one of the most important things in my life, and I would do anything for this corporation,” Zeller said. “But they also know that my children come first. Without them, I’d be nothing.”
The company could say the same about its employees, added Peggy Preisz, the Newport Pacific Corporation manager who oversees the Mo’s in Lincoln City, Florence and Seaside.
“I always say that the staff takes care of the company, and the company takes care of the staff. We care about the people who work here,” she said. “I’ve worked for larger corporations and it’s a completely different picture. Mo’s has a family feeling that means a great deal to me and, I think, everyone else.”
The Lincoln City Mo’s Restaurant, at the end of SW51st St. in the Taft neighborhood, is open from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Reach them at 541-996-2535.
TideTables is an advertiser-sponsored feature of the Oregon Coast Today. To include your restaurant in an upcoming edition, call 541-921-2306 or email us. |
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| Toy Driver has worked at the Lincoln City Mo's since 1975. OCT photo by Niki Price. |
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