Lou's Village, Since 1946

Staff

During its sixty years Lou’s Village had many memorable employees.  The staff at Lou’s belonged to the union, Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 19, which offered the highest wages and benefits and made it a desirable place to work. Several people worked at Lou’s for many years, even decades.

Memorable chefs from the 1950s and 1960s included Claude Keith, Clarence Keene, and Al Pouchard. In Lou’s final decade Chef Sion Mauamau, Jesus Rodriques and Tony Vividet kept the kitchen running and the diners happy with reliably excellent meals.

Maria van der Sluys was the most popular and efficient waitress from the 1960s through the 1980s. She had more “call parties”, requests to sit at her station, than any other wait person.

Lou’s always had popular and interesting bartenders.  One of the first was “Leo the Lion” who worked at Lou’s for 17 years and taught future bartender Artie Theodosis the ropes. Artie outdid his mentor and served drinks to customers for 20 years. Kimo Cramer worked for 30 years as a bartender, musician, manager and handyman at Lou’s. Larry Nevis was a faithful and popular bartender who started in 1985 and stayed until Lou’s closed in early 2006.

Santoro and Muller family members contributed to the restaurant as well. Lou’s sister, Sue Santoro, ran the office and dining room from the beginning through the 1960’s. Frank Muller’s brother, Eddie, helped as a bartender when needed. Eddie even met his future wife, Edie Lampe, at Lou's. She was the head banquet server from the 1950s through the ’90s.

Mary Donohue was the bookkeeper and office manager who kept the business end of Lou’s Village running efficiently for its final 15 years until Lou’s closed.

Other staff members stayed at Lou’s for decades. Abe Saguid was the main busboy from the 1940’s through the 80’s. From the 1950s through the 1980s George Mammaril was the pantry person and Danny Chew was dishwasher.

Last but not least was Ruben Rodriguez. Gloria Muller hired Ruben as a waiter in 1985. She quickly saw his potential and predicted that he would make a good manager, which he did. Ruben worked at the restaurant for 20 years and was there on Lou’s Village’s last day.

If you worked at Lou’s or have fond memories about a cook, waiter, waitress, hostess, bartender, or busboy, we would like to hear from you: lous@historysanjose.org.