ALAMEDA, Calif.—After four decades of serving customers at Ole’s Waffle Shop in Alameda, longtime waitress Dolores Jeanpierre retired on Dec. 14, 2021. Her regular customers stopped by the shop on her last day to express their gratitude.
In an interview with NTD Television, Dolores, co-workers, and customers shared their fond memories from years gone by.
Dolores was hired in 1978 and worked at Ole’s for 42 years. She shared that the restaurant, her co-workers, and customers mean everything to her.
“Ole’s means to me … it’s in my heart. It’s like family. It’s a personal meaning for me; it’s not just a restaurant job or a coffee shop. It’s a deep feeling for me, it’s very deep. I love everything about it,” expressed Dolores.
She explained that throughout the years, it was the kindness of her co-workers and appreciation from her customers that kept her going.
“Well, 28 years coming out of Fremont … I’d get up at 3 in the morning, and I leave Fremont at 3:30, get here at 4 o’clock, open the doors at 5:30 for the customers,” she reminisced. “Just the appreciation they showed back to me kept me going, and that’s why I didn’t want to leave.”
She says the most important advice she can give to people, no matter the occupation, is to be kind.
“It’s to treat people very nice and very kind. Treat them the way you want to be treated, no matter who they are.” She added, “ … we had a lot of Raiders customers, … a lot of the Oakland A’s, you have the Warriors, but everybody is equal,” she said.
store owners and staff say they will miss her, and she will always be part of the family.
Ken Monize, co-owner of Ole’s Waffle Shop with his wife Vickie, said, “She’ll always be a part of this business; she will never go away. We’ve got sketches of her, drawings of her, paintings of her, as we do all of our employees.” Monize continued, “We can put any painting of a bird or whatever, up on the wall, but we choose to put our employees on the walls because those are the people that make this business work. It’s not me, it’s not my wife. It’s the staff, it’s the community, it’s the customers.”
Longtime customers visited the restaurant to give her gifts and flowers, sign her retirement journal, and say their farewells.
“We’re going to miss her a lot.” said customer Steven Rundle, “She’s very friendly, making sure my coffee cup was always full and always came and talked, took the time to stop and talk and see how everybody was doing.” Rundle said he has known Dolores for many years and attended football games with her. “She’s historic,” Rundle concluded.
Another customer and longtime friend, Keith Garrard, said Dolores always remembers people by name and makes everyone feel welcome in the restaurant. He described the first time Dolores greeted him by name.
Garrard said he had only been in Ole’s once and over month later he returned.
“I just barely got in the door, and she said ‘Hi, it was Keith, wasn’t it?’ … and I said, ‘Yeah! I’m in, I’m a member of the club!’”
He says Dolores would chat with customers and continue chatting with them as she waited at other tables. Eventually, others would join the conversation until the restaurant was filled with joyful discussion. Keith fondly calls it the “Ole’s ambience.”
Dolores has made 42 years of wonderful memories with her customers and co-workers at Ole’s Waffle Shop. She says it is time to relax and take it easy but will still be around to catch up with the friends she made over the years.
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