By Ljudmila Petrovic
Photo by Mark Burnham
If you’ve spent any time at the Highland Pub, you’ve probably met Darryl, the man who makes a visit to the campus pub like an episode of Cheers. “I like to get to know people,” he says. “You should be able to go to a place where you’re not just another sale, not just another tip.”
Darryl started working at the pub in 1996 as a line cook after his friend got into an altercation with another employee, and Darryl was asked to step in for a shift. He was told that he’d be paid for his work at the end of the day, but that he wasn’t hired.
The next day, he got called back to work again, and again was paid, but told he was not hired. After a week of this, Darryl gave an ultimatum: call him back on Monday and hire him, or find somebody else. He’s been a presence at the Highland ever since.
He became an SFU student himself by 2000, where he changed majors several times before discovering archaeology, which he says he intuitively understood and pursued into graduate school.
“If one is observant, [the pub] can be a very anthropological setting,” he says. “My knowledge of basic primate psychology serves me right.
Like most of us, Darryl has had a wide array of jobs, including hauling scrap metal, washing cars in a car auction, and a childhood gig mowing Bill Vander Zalm’s lawn. “But I just keep coming back to the service industry for some reason,” he shrugs.
People always ask him why he’s been around for so long, and Darryl credits it to his love for working with people, the diversity of the campus pub’s staff and clientele, and the flexibility the schedule provides.
“The only continent I haven’t met somebody from is Antarctica,” he say. “But there’s no people from there.” Having such a diverse environment on campus provides tthe opportunity to interact with people you normally wouldn’t interact with and learn things you would never think to research, something that Darryl appreciates about his staff and clientele.
“For a long time, most people didn’t even know my name, I was just ‘the pub guy,’” he tells me. He recalls an instance around five years ago when he was on the 135, on a second or third date with his now fiance, and he noticed a few people pointing at him. “Look, it’s the pub guy! He’s on a date!” Darryl reenacts, laughing.
Having been around the pub for so long, Darryl has an arsenal of stories. Some he keeps to himself, waving his hand and saying he doesn’t want to embarrass anyone; others, he recollects with a chuckle, like the Saturday that Ernie Coombs (better known as Mr. Dressup) came to talk to the pub for a Q and A session.
“It was really cool to see Mr. Dressup drink a beer,” Darryl recollects. Other times, he’s found himself mitigating some interesting situations including, but by no means limited to, dealing with inappropriate happenings in the pub bathroom.
“I take the safety of the people that come here very seriously, making sure that people have a way home and doing more than just doing our due diligence,” Darryl summarizes. Over the years, his approach has been met with several instances when people have gotten angry and lashed out at him, but Darryl says that in 99 per cent of those cases, the student came back the next day to apologize. “It’s not my job to judge people. I treat everyone with respect until they act otherwise.“
Darryl is full of reminiscence, but he also looks to the future of the pub, chatting about the patio opening, plans for more live music, and how much the staff looks forward to working with the new management.
Darryl may be the friendly “pub guy,” but he’s also a fiance, a father of two, and the kind of man you would want to have your back.
