Remember the Garden Cafe at The Sheraton in Waterbury?

The second job that I ever had in my life was at the Sheraton Hotel Waterbury. What a gorgeous facility. The centerpiece of the beautiful hotel was an open-air atrium, and the Garden Cafe.

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It was such a pleasure to walk around that atrium, a winding concrete path took you around the whole courtyard, filled with live trees and plants. It was such a unique feature and made you feel like you weren't in a 279 room hotel, but more like you were at a Rainforest Café, without the animatronics.

I just moved, and while I was going through some of my old photos, I found an old page from the paper wrapped around one of my old glasses. God, the memories of that beautiful place came flooding back when I unfurled it. Mr. Steak, General Cinema at the Naugatuck Valley Mall, Amigos on Meriden Road!

I loved working at the Sheraton for the Calabrese family. It was truly a family business. In fact, it was the only time that I worked alongside my brothers. My older brother Mark was the Assistant Controller, and my younger brother Steve was hauling tables (With John DeBarros) in banquet set up.

I especially loved working nights when the atrium was dark and the Garden Café was humming with laughter and guests having a good time. I remember that It was a privilege to work at that bar, and Sadie's/Bentley's, for the bartenders, it was a plum assignment.

I got into radio in 1991 and left my job at the Sheraton, which eventually was sold and transformed into CoCo Key. I found an old Google image of 3580 East Main Street from 2009, remember when it looked like this?

Now, 3580 East Main Street in Waterbury is home to Restaurant Depot.

Sometimes when I go to Costco, or drive by on my way to my beloved Tiramisu, I think about that beautiful hotel and all the great memories that I have of working there. I hope that what I've written does that for you too.

UPDATE:

Last night after I got home, I got an e-mail from Matt Pedroso, who used to work at the Sheraton with all of us Baltrush boys back in the day, and Matt was able to do a walkthrough of the Sheraton a couple of weeks before it was demolished. Thank you so much for your kind words Matt, and for allowing me to show some of your photos here in the article.