My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Memoir by the youngest child in a big family (9) growing up in a restaurant tradition with a side of Catholicism.
The most fully-developed character is the dad, a.k.a. George. He is a complex make-up of a generous but penny-pinching man who takes his family, all of whom work for him at the restaurant, on fancy trips to restaurant conventions where he drops $1200 at the restaurant fancy meal, but gets into a rage over someone opening the hotel fridge and eating a can of peanuts, going out and replacing it with a Walgreen's can. He is a loving, interested father and spouse at home, but at the restaurant he strikes fear and shame into all his kids and staff.
Over all, the family is very "close" and supportive of each other, and Julia, the youngest, single adult-child, appears to have a major role in caring for her parents as they age and moves back in with her father before his passing. It seems very clear that this family loves each other in a way that is not often written about in many memoirs. Heart-warming is one old-y fashioned-y phrase that comes to mind.
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See Julia Pandl as "Pancake Girl" in this youtube rendition of her roles at the Pendl Brunch.
