A short reason for longtime employment

Camaraderie, family atmosphere keep them at Buddy's

BY SUE MASON

STAFF WRITER

 

 

Tiffany Boyer of Westland has to admit the best part of her job is tasting what she makes.

 

Her co-workers call her a super salad maker, but she also whips up a mean spaghetti sauce and soups. Not her own recipes, mind you, but good just the same.

 

 "I don't know who comes up with the recipes, but they're delicious, like the tortilla soup," said Boyer. "It's spicy and has zing. We serve it with chips and it's become quite popular."

 

Boyer is just one of a host of workers at the Buddy's Restaurant and Pizzeria on Plymouth Road in Livonia who work to keep the chain one of the nation's five best pizza places as determined by the Food Network.

 

CLOSE TO HOME

 

She's also among a select group at the store that have two things in common -- they've all worked there for at least 10 years and they all live in Westland.

 

Boyer's been there 10 years and admits she doesn't see herself as a 20-year employee, especially since she's studying to be a nurse. She admits she's picked up some cooking tips from LaVerne Hatchett, who creates most of the Buddy's recipes and uses them at home.

 

"It's a family style," she said. "It's my home away from home."

 

Greg Miller has reached and exceeded that 20-year milestone. He's been working behind the scenes since 1984. He was working at another business when his brother, Chris, got him in the Livonia store.

 

He's a member of the pizza line, baking and cutting the pizzas and making sure they go to the right place.

 

He's also a pretty popular guy in the morning when he makes a pizza to test the oven. Someone has to eat his creation and it's his co-workers.

 

"It's still good after all these years," he said of the job, admitting that when he hired in, he didn't expect to be there 22 years. "It was a good opportunity. It's steady work, no layoffs. I'll always work in this industry."

 

Linda Leary started a year before Miller. Hired as a waitress, she also has worked as a bartender during her 23 years there.

 

"It's fun," she said. "When they hired me, I was married and I needed a part-time job. Now I'm a single mom and I'm working more than ever."

 

"Linda's got a lot of regulars who enjoy coming in to see her," added manager Jeanette Russell, who's worked for Buddy's since 1993. "We just hired her daughter, so she's following in her mother's footsteps."

 

Russell did five weeks of training at the Buddy's store in Dearborn before coming to the Livonia store.

 

FRIENDS AT WORK

 

Working at the restaurant for so many years has fostered a sense of camaraderie, she said.

 

"We have cliques and they're different ages, but it's not unusual for them to leave work and all go to the bar," she said. "It's a very close staff that works together. You usually don't see that."

 

Another longtimer is Sharon Phillips, who started out with Buddy's 17-18 years ago. She began as an assistant manager at the store on Northwestern Highway in Farmington Hills, did a few years at the Livonia store and opened one in Dearborn before returning to Livonia as its general manager three years ago.

 

"I had worked previously as a manager for another restaurant, but Buddy's is the best," she said. "Their flexibility is wonderful. We get a percentage of the gift card sales to do fun things with the employees. We've taken them bowling, had a Christmas party at Joy Manor. They allow us to do a lot of things you normally couldn't do."

 

But the thing she likes most as a manager is that there's "always an answer at the end of the phone."

 

"It's kind of nice as opposed to sink or swim," she said.

 

There's another longtime employee, Cookie Cicerelli, who also hails from Westland, but jury duty kept her from chiming in. But no matter, her colleagues covered all the bases.

 

"Another crazy thing you see when you've been in a job in the same place for so long is you see your former co-workers come back," said Leary. "They never go away, they just leave for the 'real world.'"

 

How long they will stay, the group doesn't really know, except for Boyer, but they can take heart in the fact that their employer has been around a bit longer. Buddy's is celebrating its 60th anniversary.

 

The business started as a blind pig in Detroit in 1939, but it was in 1946 that the name and the food were connected. That's when the original Sicilian pizza was introduced at the original location at Conant and Six Mile in Detroit, which remains open.

 

smason@hometownlife.com | (734) 953-2112

 

Originally published August 27, 2006