After 27 years, Pietros manager says goodbye

While Ochsner is leaving Pietros, she will remain in Hood River as a customer service representative at US Bank, located on the Heights.

“I’ll be there to help customers secure loans and get credit cards and open accounts,” she said. “It will be completely different — I’ve worked in the restaurant business since I was 16, except for a four-year stint at JC Penney; it’s all I’ve ever done.”

She is ready for the change, although she expects it will be hard to “extract” herself from Pietros. “I’m looking forward to meeting new people and continuing the friendships I already have,” she said of her new position.

“It’s going to be difficult to leave — they’re all my kids,” she said of her Pietros coworkers. “They’re all my kids, regardless of age, and that’s how I treat them. But this will be a fun adventure, something new and different.”

Ochsner began working at Pietro’s (these days, there’s no apostrophe) in 1989 as a high school student and has held a variety of positions in the company, which has changed ownership more than once in her tenure. She started a cashier, then transitioned to shift supervisor and later to assistant manager. She was approached to take over the general manager position at the Hood River location in 2000, when then General Manager Kristen Gleason stepped down from that role.

Though she had managerial experience — she was head of home goods and later catalogue supervisor at JC Penney, in addition to her positions at Pietros and Spooky’s Pizza in The Dalles — she had never been a general manager. There were ups and downs as she quickly learned that “you have to have a relationship with your employees if you’re going to keep them and keep a decent business,” she said.

Being general manager also means she’s been responsible for whatever may come up at the restaurant — everything from installing new toilets and sinks to painting walls to washing dishes.

“You gotta do dishes sometimes because somebody doesn’t show up — it’s not just being the boss,” Ochsner said. “You have to walk beside the people you’re working with and show them you’re willing to do the jobs you’re asking them to do.”

Pietros Assistant Manager Kimi Franks said that Ochsner has helped many people find jobs when no one else would hire them — and that it’s hard to see her go.

“She gave me a chance when nobody else did — she does that in our community,” Franks said. “She is my recovery lifesaver. She gave me the chance to change my life.”

Franks said she came in for an interview after being released from jail, and Ochsner hired her; six months later, she had been promoted to manager. “She never gave up on me,” Franks said.

“I know it sounds cheesy, but I want to thank everyone I’ve ever worked with — each and every employee has shown me how to be a better person,” Ochsner said. “My best friend Paula used to work here and she helped me grown stronger in so many different areas. Vickie (Farley, former assistant manager, now retired) showed me how to be able to toe the line and get the kids to toe the line and still enjoy yourself at the same time. Kimi and Tara (Ibarra, assistant manager) helped me realize you can have good friends here and outside the store. And all the kids — there’s so many kids,” she said.

Ochsner’s son, Cody Grant, also worked at the restaurant from ages 13-30. “When he left here, he was the game supervisor/tech, and the stuff he learned here is helping him with his new job, enabled him to get a promotion in that job, and he’s only been there since August of last year. I’m really proud of him,” she said.

Having seen the difficulty in staffing, Ochsner said she has already agreed to come back on June 10 — Hood River Valley High School’s graduation day — in order for Ibarra to attend her son’s graduation.

“I don’t want to leave them high and dry, and I don’t want to leave the community high and dry either,” she said. “Without them, we would be nothing. I got to know so many people here because they had a bad experience or a good experience and wanted to talk to the manager in charge. I’ve formed a lot of relationships here, friendship-wise.”