Dishwashers hold the kitchen together.
Every restaurant owner and chef knows you can lose a line cook for a shift and still survive. Stressed, scrambling, but alive. Lose a dishwasher? Throw in the towel and call it a day.
Anthony Bourdain said it best: "Everything important I ever learned, I learned as a dishwasher and as a cook. You show up on time, you stay organized, you clean up after yourself, you think about the people you work with, you respect the people you work with, and you do the best you can."
Before I'd find my footing with the other cooks in professional kitchens, it was always the dishwasher who took me in. They'd show me where everything lived without judgment, how the 600 pans shared a rack with the 200s and 400s, stacked in a specific order based on who grabs what, and when. Or where the secret box with just spare lids to the small squeeze bottles is hidden. Just “please don’t tell the rest of the crew.”
Chefs like to believe they run the kitchen. But when their very specific tweezers—the tiny ones they tucked into the 16-quart Cambro full of sanitizer with the rest of the end-of-service silverware—suddenly go missing, there's only one person who knows exactly where they are. And they've probably already set them aside.
This piece was going to be about L.A. dishwashers’ favorite restaurants, with no expectations that the answer would be so simple, or telling: the restaurants dishwashers love most are the ones they're standing in. The ones that see them, value them, and take care of them.
In an industry currently reckoning with its own culture—the hierarchy and the quiet cruelties that get passed off as tradition—that answer means something. These are the spaces worth paying attention to. Not because these dishwashers couldn't be named anywhere else, but because they didn't want to.
We don't appreciate them enough, so let this be a start.
AMADOR ~ BOTANICA
"My favorite restaurant is Botanica," Amador says. "Because they value me and my work. The owners, Heather and Emily, are very people-forward. I feel good working here."
Amador has been a dishwasher for twenty-five years. Nine of them spent at Botanica.
"I'm honestly getting emotional, Amador is such a hard worker,” manager Megan tells L.A. TACO. “He doesn't just wash dishes, he's our maintenance guy, and he tends to all the plants." She gestured toward the outdoor dining area, draped in climbing vines and lined with potted plants that Amador keeps alive, the same way he keeps everything else running.
"When this article comes out, we're going to print it and frame it for you, Amador. You are a superstar," Megan shouts to him.
1620 Silver Lake Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026
DYLAN ~ EVIL COOKS
“My favorite restaurant in L.A. right now has to be Evil Cooks,” Dylan says. “ I love the tom yum aquachile.”
“If I’m not eating Evil Cooks, I grew up on Charlie’s Trio’s,” he says. “It’s one of those places you can’t go wrong, and you can switch it up there. My grandpa put in the pizza oven for Chuck (the original Charlie).”
After years of experience on both sides of the kitchen, Dylan found his calling in his own hot sauce business and weekend shifts at Evil Cooks. “I wash dishes for fun,” he jokes.
“I’m born and bred in Northeast L.A.,” he says proudly. “Growing up, I worked in kitchens, front of house, but when they opened up the brick and mortar, my wife and I helped out. Long story short, I left my day job at a downtown office so I could pursue my hot sauce business, Chile Del Abuelo, while working here on the weekends.”
Stepping outside for photos, Dylan mentions, almost in passing, that he also painted all the murals on the building. And that he co-founded the ALFA Foundation, a nonprofit that provides scholarships to students pursuing art studies from the Eastside to the San Gabriel Valley.
Evil Cooks ~3333 N. Eastern Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90032
Charlies Trio ~ 5769 Huntington Dr. N. Los Angeles, CA 90032
JUAN ~ BUB & GRANDMA'S
"My favorite restaurant is Bub and Grandma's," Juan says, in the middle of a busy service. "I have been here for a year. I like the work, I like the people, and I like the brisket sandwich."
"I am delighted," he says, smiling after taking a pause.
Cooper, the manager, lights up the same way when asked about Juan.
"Juan shows up with a smile on his face every single day," she says. "He brings sunshine to Bub and Grandma's."
3507 N. Eagle Rock Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90065
ALEJANDRO ~ ANTICO NUOVO
Chef de cuisine Arturo leads us through the dining room of Antico Nuovo—which smells of fresh bread—past the line cooks, deep in their prep, who were gassing up Alejandro. Saying things like “Alejandro, your time to shine!” or saying “Oooo, the press is here for you.”
You could tell the morale at this space was high.
“I’ve been working at Antico Nuovo for a year now, and honestly, what I enjoy the most about my job is simply having one; it makes the time fly by,” Alejandro says. “What I like the most is teamwork and, well, everyone's kindness. When I’m not working, I used to study in the mornings, but now I focus on my rest.”
4653 Beverly Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90004
JESUS ~ SMOKE HOUSE
When we got to Smoke House, Chris Pratt was there. Seeing an actor there is classic Smoke House.
“I have been working at Smoke House for ten years,” Jesus says. “Every day is a learning experience for me. This job has taught me a lot. I’ve gotten better at cleaning and my attention to detail. My main focus is the dishes, but I also assist in every way I can. My passion is for helping others in the kitchen.”
Jesus notes that he is usually the person who is cutting and plating the restaurant’s iconic, cheesy garlic bread that ships nationwide.
Hectors tells us, “These guys in the dish-pit are the backbone to the business. They are super important to us, we really value them.”
4420 Lakeside Dr. Burbank, CA 91505
JOHNNIE ~ HMS BOUNTY
Johnnie lights up when asked how long he's been working at HMS Bounty,
"My dad is the owner," he says. "He started here when he was 17 as a chef's assistant, then ended up owning the place in the '70s. I came on in 2013 to help with the business. I do everything, dishwasher, server, entertainment."
On that last word, he produces a deck of custom HMS Bounty magic cards—made for him by a regular—and runs us through a trick. As if that weren't enough, he cues up a "Sounds of the 80s" station on Pandora, sets his phone on the table, stands up, and starts to pop-lock.
"When I'm washing dishes, I always find a way to make it entertaining," he says. "I sing, I perform. I keep it moving for me and for the guests."
“I don’t go out to eat at other restaurants, I like to eat here,” he continues.
Johnnie is the kind of person a famed establishment like The Bounty is built around. He loves the work, loves the room, loves performing, and it shows in every step he takes in this job.
3357 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90010
NICK ~ BAR BESITO
"You're here for Nick, he's the best," a server says as we enter Bar Besito, formerly known as Bar Siesta.
Nick has been at Bar Besito for six months, splitting his time between prepping and washing. But the way he talks about his station, you'd think he'd been here for years.
"My station is always clear, always clean, always cared for," he says. "Whenever someone's looking for something, I know where it is. I make sure the kitchen is organized so everyone has an easier time."
He brings this same sense of accountability beyond the dish pit. Nick has lived a few blocks away for 25 years, worked at L&E Oyster before landing here, and says nearly everyone on the block knows him by name.
"I take a lot of pride in working here," he says. "I care for my community."
"They're writing a piece to give the dishwashers some love," a manager told Nick when we first entered. "It's always the chef or the owner—and god bless 'em—but we all know we couldn't do it without you."
1710 Silver Lake Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026
WALTER ~ LITTLE FISH MELROSE HILL
“Walter is the G.O.A.T.”
“He’s literally the best.”
These are the things people say as we walk into Little Fish.
“My job is everything,” Walter says. “I’ve been here since they opened.I love doing my job, especially at Little Fish. Everyone here is the best: the chef, the people who come here, the staff, the food, it's all the best. I’m happy to be here and be a part of it.”
5035 Melrose Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90038
TORO ~ FORMERLY BAR MARMONT
Although Toro is no longer working in the hospitality world, he’s very passionate about his past in the field.
“I’m quite fond of waxing poetic about the philosophical aspects of dishwashing,” Toro says.
“I was a career dishwasher because of honor and ethics,” he continues. “I was 21 at Bar Marmont, got a bachelors degree in critical race theory, and somehow fell into the back of house after being a busboy through my adolescence. I fell in love with it.”
“It was my first taste of, like, lawless pirate adulthood. Lucky Peach magazine was the shit back then and there was an article about a chef going headfirst into the grease trap to clean it and I thought ‘hell yes’, every chef should be willing to do the unglamorous work. I wanna do unglamorous work.”
“Yes, it did suck, yes my friends did get off work hours before me and I did go home soaking wet walking up that hella steep hill after a brutal shift to get to my car,” Toro says. “The wild thing about dishing out here is that I’ve literally never met another white dishwasher. The fact that I don’t see white people starting from the ground up, from dish to cold to sauce or whatever, really showcases the tacit belief that there are certain jobs that white people just don’t deign to sully their fair hands with. Noble work in the service of others, unsung and strengthening community in some way. That's my shit.”
8171 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90046
