Jason Gould of Fleming’s Prime is Connecticut’s Server of the Year
Over the course of the pandemic, restaurants have suffered shutdowns, improvised new ways of operating and enforced unpopular restrictions. Closest to the public and those most often faced with COVID-19’s challenges and unpredictable guests are servers.
Unbent by those challenges is the relentless optimism of Jason Gould, who was named server of the year at the Connecticut Restaurant Association’s CRAzies awards.
“At first it was such a heightened state, people sanitizing their hands all the time, being very cautious. It’s calmed down now. People want to get out,” he said.
And while the pandemic was traumatic for the restaurant industry, “the community has been great, supporting us,” he said.
Gould, who works at Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse in West Hartford, has worked at Avon Old Farms Inn, Max A Mia, Trumbull Kitchen and Bricco, bartending or serving. Before Fleming’s, he worked at Grant’s.
Always, he’s committed to providing good service.
“A good server genuinely cares about the guest experience. There’s nothing worse than bad service,” Gould said. “You can have the best food, but bad service can ruin it. I come from a small town. People took care of each other. I feel a pressure for people to leave here happy.”
A native of Contocook, New Hampshire, Gould started his career in what he called “the only restaurant in the village,” Dimitri’s Pizza. “I shredded cheese. I cut pizza,” he said. Even before Dimitri’s, the dining industry had left an impression on him.
“My parents watched Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, the Frugal Gourmet. Growing up in Contocook, I wasn’t exposed to food like that,” said Gould, who is now 45 and lives in Canton.
Wherever he went, Gould found a job in a restaurant — in New Hampshire while studying at Keene, at Yellowstone National Park on school breaks, and by the ocean in Florida.
“I bartended and shucked oysters on the beach. When I wasn’t shucking oysters, I was sitting on the beach. It was incredible. My favorite thing in the world is the ocean.”
Gould settled in Connecticut and started as a bartender at Grant’s in West Hartford. “I thought I’d be at Grant’s for a summer. Ten years later, I was still there,” he said.
He developed a loyal following. Erica Popick of West Hartford said whenever she and her companions dropped by Grant’s, Gould remembered so much about them.
“We thought we were his favorite customers. He was just like that. He made everyone feel like they were his favorite customers,” Popick said. “It was the way he paid attention and came back to check on you. We didn’t know at the time he was a household name around here. Now, we wonder how many people were at their homes talking about Jay.”
When Grant’s closed in 2019, Gould started at Fleming’s. His Grant’s customers followed him there. “We wouldn’t have gone to Flemings as much if Jay hadn’t told us he was going there,” Popick said.
Gould had applied to be a bartender at Flemings, but was instead hired to be a server — what CRA president Scott Dolch calls “the front lines of the experience of the guest.
“When you go eat at a restaurant, you don’t usually see the owner or the GM unless there is problem. You talk to the hostess, and then your server is your experience, whether you have enjoyed it or not,” Dolch said. “The best servers really understand and own that. They also highlight the other parts of the restaurant. They know it isn’t all about them. There’s the sous chef, the chef, the line cooks in the back.”
Dolch said now more than ever, recognizing all members of the restaurant industry is important.
“We want to highlight all parts of our industry, not just the owners, not just the chefs,” he said. “We don’t want anyone to feel that they are being missed. We are putting everyone under one roof.”
Gould tends to agree. His acceptance speech at the CRAzies was the shortest of the evening: “This is for Fleming’s. Thank you everybody.”
Susan Dunne can be reached at [email protected].