‘Why would I quit?’: Mass. woman celebrates 50 years as IHOP waitress

On a September night in 1974, Elaine Gingras, then 25 years old, arrived at an IHOP on Route 9 in Shrewsbury.

She was getting ready for her first day as a server — a job with which she had previous experience having worked at restaurants in Woolworth’s department store when she was 16-years-old and Denholm’s department store when she was in college.

Even though it was her first day, Gingras said she wasn’t worried.

“At the time, I was a young mother, so I was a bit shy,” Gingras said. “But I waitressed all my life, so I had to figure out how they did things here.”

Fifty years later, Woolworths and Denholm’s in Worcester have closed but the IHOP on Route 9 is still open — and Gingras is still serving customers.

As of September 2024, Gingras, 75, now living in Rutland, has worked as an IHOP employee for 50 years and told MassLive she intends to keep working there for many more years. During her 50 years, Gingras has helped train new employees — many of whom still work at the IHOP today.

“It was 30 years ago. I started in high school — after my sophomore year,” said Brandon Underwood, the general manager of the Shrewsbury IHOP. “In the beginning, I learned a lot of patience from Elaine.”

Gingras said she also served in the managerial position of head waitress from the late 1990s until stepping down from the position in 2009.

“I was a manager at the front of the house,” she said. “I was at the front of the house and in charge of the servers.”

Linda Mara, an IHOP server who has worked at the Shrewsbury location since 1978, said Gingras was the one who mentored her when she began.

“It was much simpler back then,” Mara said. “I remember on a Friday night when I met her and she’s just stunning. She’s a wonderful trainer, she was a manager for some time and there’s nothing she can’t do.”

‘I’ve seen generations’

Interacting with customers is what gives Gingras the most joy. For years, she has served individuals and families who are regulars at the IHOP, asking them about their day, where they are from, if they are traveling someplace and even helping them if they were working on a puzzle.

“Some of them have passed on,” Gingras said. “I see families come in with their kids in infancy, and now I see their kids with their kids. I’ve seen generations.”

On one occasion, Gingras said she waited on a celebrity’s table. In 2005, Gingras noticed a man reading a newspaper with a bodyguard by his side. Talking to Mara, Gingras said she recognized that the man was none other than Neil Diamond.

“I slid into the booth right next to him and said, ‘You’re Neil Diamond, aren’t you?’ and he said yes,” Gingras said. “The bodyguard looked really stern.”

After confirming it was Diamond, Gingras took his order, which she still remembers to this day.

“He had bacon and eggs, toast and coffee,” she said. “Then he told me to be quiet about it.”

Before working at IHOP, Gingras graduated college with a teaching degree. When she began her job serving, she simultaneously worked as a preschool teacher and then worked as a substitute teacher for 10 years.

At one point, Gingras said she applied for another teaching position but said the job did not work out. Even though she did not get the job she wanted, Gingras found joy in what she did at IHOP and ultimately decided to stay on as a hostess.

When she’s not working at the restaurant, Gingras said she and her husband like to travel. The two would take trips to Aruba, The Bahamas, Bermuda and other islands located in the Caribbean.

“We did that in our younger years,” she said. “Now we like doing road trips. Mainly in Vermont, since my daughter is there.”

Welcome to the family

Gingras has been to the weddings of staff members, including Mara’s. Gingras’s daughter also babysat for Mara’s children so that she could work at the IHOP. Mara said that Gingras has been an asset to the team, no matter the situation.

“If one of us is sick, she is unbelievable,” Mara said. “She is kind and generous.”

Mara admits there are days when being a hostess can be tough but said Gingras was always there to provide support — just as family members support each other.

“We all lift each other,” Mara said. “When someone new comes aboard, I tell them ‘welcome to the family.’”

Gingras shares the same feelings towards Mara, her co-workers and her customers.

She thought her time at IHOP would be temporary, but after 50 years of working at the Shrewsbury restaurant, it became clear that she did not want to stop and had no plans to do so.

“I told myself, this will be good until my daughter goes to school. Then I told myself, this will be good until I work more hours and it just snowballed from there,” she said. “Why would I quit? I come home with money in my pocket and my husband asks me, ‘how are you going to give up that?’”

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