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"  Melissa Calcagni, 22 Hometown: Allentown, PA Hostess at: El Rey, Philadelphia ESQUIRE: So how does it feel to be selected as &amp;#039;Hostess of the Week&amp;#039;? What&amp;#039;s the first thought off the top of your head? MELISSA CALCAGNI: It&amp;#039;s amazing and I feel honored. ESQ: How long have you been a hostess?  MC: About two years now. ESQ: What kind of work did you do before being a hostess?  MC: My very first job was scooping ice cream at Ice Cream World. ESQ: Did you end up with one really buff arm and one really small arm?   MC: Yes, I did. And I actually, I used to get yelled at all the time because I used to make the swirls too big from the soft-serve. I wasn&amp;#039;t really cut out for that, I guess. ESQ: Why do you think you&amp;#039;ve been selected at &amp;#039;Hostess of the Week&amp;#039;? What makes you so good at it?   MC: I think I&amp;#039;m just extremely personable and I treat every guest when they come in as if they&amp;#039;re guests in my own home.  ESQ: Do you get people trying to grease your palm a little in hopes of getting a table more quickly?  MC: Oh, all the time, especially because there&amp;#039;s no kind of reservation system. They think that we&amp;#039;ll hold tables for VIPs, which we don&amp;#039;t. A lot of times I literally have to explain, &amp;quot;It will not help you to give me any money.&amp;quot; ESQ: And do they tell you to hold on to it anyway?  MC: Yeah, all the time.  ESQ: Do you have to deal with drunk guys who maybe had a few too many drinks with dinner, trying to be sweet on their way out the door?  MC: Oh, all the time. Especially because El Rey just does tequila, beer, and wine. It&amp;#039;s a tequila bar. And our margaritas tend to be very strong, so... we do have to deal with that a lot. ESQ: Has anyone landed a date with you using that approach?  MC: No, not really. No. I&amp;#039;ve gotten a bunch of phone numbers, but I&amp;#039;ve never followed up on those. ESQ: You probably get to see other people out on dates fairly often. Have you ever seen one of those go wrong? MC: I think the worst thing I&amp;#039;ve ever seen was when someone showed up on a blind date, and halfway through the date, the guy asked to be escorted out the back door and not to tell his date. So she was sitting there, waiting, thinking he was going to the bathroom, when really he left out the back door. Which was so terrible. ESQ: Did he stiff her with the tab?  MC: Yeah. We ended up comping most of the food and getting her a couple of drinks. But that was by far the worst thing I&amp;#039;ve ever seen happen.  ESQ: Do you see yourself continuing to work in the restaurant business? MC: I do. I graduated from Temple with a marketing degree in May. And just over the past two years of working in a restaurant I&amp;#039;ve learned to love the restaurant industry, which is why I&amp;#039;m completely fine, being a hostess right now. I&amp;#039;m taking the year off and deciding what I really want to do professionally. But I definitely think that I&amp;#039;m leaning towards something in the restaurant industry. Like the opening of new restaurants, or the special events department, something like that. ESQ: What is the craziest thing that has ever happened to you while hostessing? MC: The very best night of my life was hostessing at Buddakan, when Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth came in. I was shaking. I&amp;#039;m a huge Phillies fan, and they&amp;#039;re my two favorite players, and I was so excited when I found out they were coming in. And it was a long Saturday night, too. They were coming in late night after a game. It completely turned my mood around. And of course when they came in you had to just act like they&amp;#039;re just another guest, but on the inside I was jumping for joy. And then I continued to purposely walk past their table like six or seven times trying to make eye contact with them. That was my favorite night in hostess history.  ESQ: What can I do to be the perfect customer? MC: Be patient with us if there is a wait. Please. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/restaurants/interviews/a8424/hostess-elrey-091410/>