Seana Lynch
Waitress at the Canterbury Ale & Eats, 534 15th Ave E (Capitol Hill), 322-8053.

Ask anyone who frequents the Canterbury, and you'll hear about Seana. She very well may be the perkiest and most earnest waitress. Ever.

Why won't you ever let people light their own cigarettes? You always rush over and light them yourself, no matter how busy you are.

"Superstition. Don't you know? Every time someone lights a cigarette with a candle, a fisherman out at sea dies."

How long have you been at the Canterbury?

"Four years. I've been [in Seattle] for five; I'm from New Mexico, and had lived there my whole life."

"--and I really appreciate the rain. I really do. I am such a peppy person, and I think New Mexico creates peppy people--it's always sunny, people are always waving to each other there. So I brought that with me to Seattle. And that's what I do for my customers; I want to make sure they're happy. People get so down here. And, you know, I was a cheerleader in high school, so I can smile through anything. I looove my customers."

So I guess you have a lot of regulars?

"Yup. They've probably been here as long as I have. [This place] has been the Canterbury since 1972, and before that it was called the Gaslight Inn."

All right. Nobody's this nice. What pisses you off? Isn't there anything your customers do that makes you angry? What's the one thing that will make you lose your temper and patience?

[Really, really long pause.] "Uh... [uncomfortable silence]... I'm not sure. I don't know what my customers really do to make me angry."

Huh?

"I don't know. I don't know what to say, about what... makes me angry."

Not even drunken, obnoxious tables? Rowdy behavior?

"I don't ever let them get to that point, because I truly care about them. I really don't know how to answer you."

So what compels you to stay here for so long?

"[My bosses] don't want me to leave. They give me raises all the time. They have my pictures up on the wall in recognition... they put 'Simply the Best' [Tina Turner] on the jukebox after I won Seattle Weekly's 'Best Waitress' award."

"Yup. Cross my heart and hope to die... stick a MILLION needles in my eye!"

Interview by Min Liao