When I started , the first month , I gave out numbers , '' Mrs. Barrezueta said as she sat at a table in the bar at Pietro 's late on a Thursday afternoon before her shift was to start at 5 p.m. That first month began two days before Christmas in 1970 , when Mrs. Barrezueta , a recent immigrant from Mendoza , Argentina , landed a job at Pietro 's with the help of a busboy there named George , a fellow Argentine .