By GINA PACHERILLE: COOPERSTOWN
Louis Tadross, who has just marked his 50th anniversary at The Otesaga and its sister, The Cooper Inn, began working in kitchens when he was 12.
“I was sick of asking my dad for money every time I wanted to go the movies,” Tadross, who was raised in Meadville, Pa., recalled in an interview, “so I went to get a job at a diner.”
Tadross worked in the diner for 10 years washing dishes – his boss, Helen Kessler, who died last year at 104, was like a step-mom to him – then enlisted in the National Guard.
After six months active duty, he joined the Treadway company in Meadville as a chef. “The only requirement for the job was that I buy my owns knifes,” he said with a laugh.
He was transferred to Dover, Del., then – on New Year’s Day, 1961 – to The Otesaga, which was being managed by Treadway.
“The first thing I said when I arrived was: Are we ready to go back to Dover yet?” The Otesaga was overwhelming: “I’d never worked for a place that big before.”
Tadross prepared the daily menu, ordered the food and cooked. “It was a lot of work,” he remembered.
Over five decades, Tadross has worked under six managers. After the Treadway era, he saw the Clark family resume oversight of the operation.
“They are great people to work for,” he said. He once worked seven days a week, but is scaling back now. “Maybe I got my work ethic from my father,” said Tadross, recalling his dad toiled on the Erie & Lackawanna Railroad.
Tadross has four children, Matt, Shane, Melissa and Shanna.
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