My name is Michael Toomey. I worked at the Trident from 1970 until the last days in 1980. I found this site by accident. I don’t know where to begin, except up to this date it was the best job I ever had.
In one of the pictures you’ll see a North Bay Produce truck and that’s where I’ve been the last 24 years. I still have one friend that I stay in touch with. That’s Jones Pollard. He was a busboy at that time. Above my bed I still have the Trident menu framed.
I started off on the broiler and was making $5 an hour. It was a decent wage for the times. I worked with Jim Susana and Big John. I remember the Trident closing briefly in 1976 by Ron, the owner, for repairs. Shortly thereafter Jim Susana died in a motorcycle accident. We were all across the street in a meeting when Jim’s brother walked in and told us the horrible news. We were all in shock. It gets worse. In 1974 Pierre was diagnosed with cancer and that’s when I became Chef.
I think I was 25 years old and had no idea what I was doing. Add to the fact that I was doing one hundred cross tops a day and all the other stuff that was going around then, I don’t know how I managed to get through the day, or should I say days? I didn’t have a clue what food costs were, and all the other responsibilities that went along with running a kitchen. If it weren’t for the kindness and the compassion of Lisa Sharp I don’t think I would have made it. Lisa, I just want to take this opportunity to say, “Thank You!”
Between the years of 75 and 76 it was apparent that Pierre was losing his battle with cancer. One afternoon he looked at me and said, “Goofy, come into my office.” In his office he handed me a folder with all the Trident recipes. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “the management will try to procure them, whatever you do, keep them to yourself.” He also gave me all his knives and other apparatuses. He came in less frequently until his death in 1978.
Pierre lived about two blocks away from the Trident at the time, and after work I would go to his house periodically and talk about what specials I’d served that day. It’s so devastating to see a man deterorate so rapidly. As predicted they did come after the recipes, and I never did give them up. In the last two years the menu started to change along with an era. I was fortunate to be a part of it, and the memoirs that parallel.
Yes I worked with Robin Williams. We closed the restaurant for the Rolling Stones and the mighty Led Zeppelin along with many famous people that passed through.. the women were something to die for. I was married at the time and swear I never touched one but came pretty close.
Sundays were always coke night. My wife at the time was working down the street at a T-shirt place called Stevens. We’d go back to my place and pull all nighters. Before you knew it, here comes the sun. The Trident was closed on Mondays, and was a prep day. Anyway, I’m 55 now but look back on those years as the best days of my life.
Mike Toomey can be emailed at: toomboom@comcast.net