‘We tried to pay Melissa, but she won’t take anything.’

For the past two years, Pete’s Grille in Waverly has been an after-Mass ritual for Melissa Fulton and her partner, Brian Keegan.

When the couple moved to Baltimore from Howard County, where they lived for decades until each of their spouses died and they found each other, they were anxious to swap suburbia for city life, where Keegan, 80, a retired chief engineer at NASA, spent his childhood. With the move came an exploration to find their places together.

After trying out various restaurants for years, Fulton, 75, said the couple knew Pete’s Grille was their breakfast spot because of its local feel and family atmosphere. Pete’s, which sits at the corner of 32nd and Greenmount Ave., is a mainstay in the community with regulars who have seen the restaurant through 45 years and five owners.

Fulton and Keegan were brought into the fold and were treated like family. And they felt the same way about the customers and the employees who ran the place.

That’s why when Debbie Crum, who has been head waitress at the restaurant going on 41 years and hired by Pete Rose, the original namesake owner, gave into a crippling knee pain that had become unresponsive to medication or procedures, Fulton said she was happy to step up while Crum recovers from knee surgery that has her out or six to eight weeks.

Fulton had one requirement: No compensation. That means no pay, no tips, no free meals.

“I said if you guys need any help, I am more than happy to help,” Fulton said. “They thought I was kidding, but after I kept saying it, they took me serious.”

Fulton, a former entrepreneur, who owned retail shops in airports, volunteers at the restaurant two to three days a week, as her schedule permits, she said. While she didn’t have previous waitressing experience, although her father owned a catering company where she worked as a child, she helps out at Pete’s by cleaning glassware and clearing and cleaning the restaurant’s countertop.

“The people here are hardworking people. I don’t have enough to do and the restaurant doesn’t have enough staff, so I am happy to do what I can,” Fulton said. Even after Crum recovers from knee surgery, Fulton said her offer to work is a standing offer. “If they need help, I will be there. I don’t want to see them or any other place go out of business,” she said. “I won’t accept a salary because I feel like this is family.”

“We have tried to pay Melissa, but she won’t take anything,” said Ray Crum, who has owned Pete’s Grille the past four years. Debbie Crum is Ray Crum’s ex-wife. She works at the restaurant with their daughter, Jennifer, Debbie Crum’s sister, Cathy and Ray Crum’s current wife, Rachel, who all share duties at the restaurant, since a workforce shortage has kept Crum from filing positions or backfilling for his ex-wife while she is out.

Pete’s Grille is a diner-style restaurant, where patrons sit side by side at a long gray laminate counter on black and chrome stools that can seat up to 20 guests. Pete’s Grille is part restaurant and part breakfast and lunch show as patrons watch the choreography as their food comes off the grill and plated in front of them and served down the counter line.

Before Covid, which would shutter thousands of restaurants around the country, Ray Crum made the decision to lengthen the counter to expand his eat-in capacity. In building out the counter, he also installed a carryout window where orders could be placed outside instead of having patrons with to-go orders having to shimmy behind patrons waiting to be seated at the counter.

The move was a stroke of luck for Crum because when restaurants were forced to shut down just six months later because of Covid, he could still operate by filling carryout orders placed outside and fulfilling orders placed through delivery services through the carryout window. Today, Pete’s is still enjoying a robust carryout business and could do more if better staffing was in place.

Crum said Pete’s Grille and his other restaurant Werner’s, a Baltimore landmark on Redwood Street, which he purchased and reopened in November, are both suffering from an inability to hire and retain workers, which Crum attributes, in part, to the over-availability of unemployment benefits. “We keep trying to hire people. They call, we set up interviews and people don’t show up, but say that they applied so they can keep getting their unemployment,” Crum said. Out of desperation, Crum has had to rely on family members and retirees like Melissa Fulton, who are willing to pitch in.

James T. VanRensselaer, who goes by Jay, is waiting for his call to volunteer. The 62-year-old retired Johns Hopkins photographer has eaten at the restaurant for years and nearly every day for the past six months, spending an hour or two each visit. He has his usual: western omelet with no cheese or tomatoes, well-done potatoes and bacon. VanRensselaer said he is there so often that he gets texts from employees at the restaurant letting him know that the restaurant will be closed when they don’t have enough staff to work. “I always say if you need me, text me because I am just five blocks away. I’d be happy to give a hand. I can wash dishes or move things,” he joked. “I support Pete’s because I want them around.”

As Debbie Crum recovers from surgery, with another four-to-six weeks’ recovery left, she said she is looking forward to resuming her duties, where she has served as many as 200 customers a day and double that on the weekends. She said she had been working in pain for more than a year because she didn’t want to leave the restaurant shorthanded. Because of Melissa Fulton, who has taken on some of her duties, along with her family and other volunteers who have offered to help, Crum said she feels comfortable taking the time to heal.

“I am grateful for everyone’s help,” she said. “This has been a wonderful blessing.”