ST. PETERSBURG — Larry Munch bought a magical spray this year at the Florida State Fair that was supposed to cure foot pain. No dice. After 37 years, Ruth Croudy will wait on her last table Sunday at Munch's Restaurant and Sundries. She was going to try to stick it out until April or May, but her feet are killing her.
In 1978, Ruth, Virley, Ines and the rest of the girls wore orange plaid polyester pants and smocks, uniforms that were hot and didn't breathe. The wage was 85 cents an hour and $40 in tips was a good day.
"Back then, you were only getting 50 cents per couple, but it added up," Croudy said Tuesday, fried chicken day at Munch's, after she'd wiped down the tables in her 13-table section. She raised three boys as a single mother on those tips, boys who each spent time washing dishes or in the kitchen at Munch's.
Croudy, 63, is the first to arrive three mornings a week, unlocking the door with her own key at 4 a.m. to get the potato salad and cole slaw started. It was Ruth's idea to start serving fried green tomatoes. It was Ruth's idea for the new T-shirt logos, tie-dyed T-shirts that constitute the uniform these days, with the famous Munchburger on the back. She's the one who tests the first piece of fried chicken every Tuesday morning. Larry, customers say, is going to be in trouble come Monday.
"We talk a lot about the business," Croudy says. "He was going to take the patty melt off the menu and I got upset. Now it's called the Ruthie Melt."
On a recent weekend day she earned $285 in tips. Her best day ever was upwards of $370. She trades the small bills in to Larry for bigger denominations, but she keeps the change.
"I save the quarters. Last year, in eight months I saved $675 in quarters. I keep them in coffee cans in my closet. But you don't get as many quarters as you used to."
She rolls them herself and takes them to the bank, money for vacations. After her retirement on Sunday she's going to rest her feet and relax for a bit with her husband, Tom, but then she's got plans: Arizona in May, Nebraska in June, Illinois in July.
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When she started, she would write out two full order books, 100 checks, before a customer walked in the door. All her regulars and their standing orders.
"I just didn't know the table numbers. But now the mind's gone," she says wryly of today. Customers are younger now, she says, partly because of Munch's foodie cred from being on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and partly a reflection of St. Petersburg's changing demographics. She says the young folks are polite and nice to wait on.
After Ruthie had been at Munch's for 20 years, the St. Petersburg Times did a story on her. Not much has changed since then: It's cash only (although Ruthie says putting in the ATM was one of Larry's best moves) and orders are still taken with pen and paper. She gets annoyed by the ring of cell phones and says iPad ordering systems just don't seem to work. She still presides over the same 13 tables, eight on the weekend, and she still looks forward to serving her favorite customers (on Sundays that's a table of mail carriers) and puts a smile on even for the challenging patrons.
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Explore all your optionsBut her biggest challenge may be yet to come.
"It's not going to be easy walking out that front door on Sunday. Larry has been the biggest part of my life," she says. "My job has lasted longer than my three husbands."
Contact Laura Reiley at lreiley@tampabay.com or (727) 892-2293.