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The Work We Do: Georgia Neighley, goodfood.

My name is Georgia Neighley and I’m a proud employee of goodfood. in Mattituck. I’ve been working here actually just since this past spring. I work five days, so it’s a full-time gig. I work your regular 9 to 5 and, it depends, every day is always different. I get here, I make coffee, I work together with the kitchen staff and we get all the empanadas out and the salads and such and then from there, it could go anywhere. 

I do the front-of-the-house counter work, but it ranges from there too; I get together everything for paper orders and I work on the books. I’m a jack-of-all-trades, I guess, in this place. I can’t forget to mention the fact that we have the best coffee in town and that I’m constantly surrounded by this delicious food all day, which can be quite torturous and just the staff, they’re really like family. And then I have my customers. I have my regulars who I see every day. I’ll answer the phone, I’ll hear a voice and I know exactly what they’re going to order. I’m quite close with a few people. 

We have a wide range of things, different ethnic foods. The owner, Luchi, she’s from Uruguay so a lot of our food comes from her upbringing there and a strong passion for fresh flavors, local foods. We have everything from tacos, empanadas to just regular old falafel and everything. 

I’ve learned a lot from all aspects of the business. I know a lot more about cooking and also just what it takes to run a business because I do work so closely with the owner and I do help her out on a lot of things. I value the insight I’ve received on how to keep things running smoothly, which is not easy. It can get very challenging. Sometimes I get here and I open the door at 9 o’clock and there’s just a line of people out the door. That can get very difficult but also rewarding because once the crowd leaves and you get to sit back and look and say, “Hey, we just did that guys. We made it through.” 

I really enjoy working in the back of the house. Whenever I’m not swamped with people up here, I can go back and chop some vegetables, help out making the empanadas and then I also really like to do the more business side of the operation. My favorite thing is definitely just the people I work with. I love them so dearly. It really is just a really awesome place to work. 

“The Work We Do” is a Suffolk Times multimedia project profiling workers on the North Fork. It is made possible by Peconic Landing in Greenport. See photos on Instagram @thesuffolktimes.