When eating out at a restaurant, it’s not unusual to be greeted by a teenage hostess or served by a waiter who’s juggling college applications between shifts.
In fact, restaurants are the largest employer of teenagers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the restaurant industry employs 33% of working teens aged 16 to 19 years old.
But in Hudson, Wisconsin, the Urban Olive & Vine doesn’t just make a habit of hiring teens — they make a point of it.
For years, owners Chad and Carol Trainor have exclusively hired teenagers and supported them as they transitioned on to other opportunities.
“It was at a time when it wasn’t real easy to get a job, and Chad was the one who took me in and saw potential in me,” former employee Reid Filiatreaux told local news station KSTP news.
“There’s no one else in town, no one else in town who would hire as many high schoolers as he does,” he continued. “He goes out of [the] way to train them, to build them up.”
In early August, KARE 11 reporter Boyd Huppert stopped by to see the teens in action.
“Right now, we’re up to 30,” Chad told the Hudson outlet.
He did a quick head count to confirm.
“Yeah,” he said proudly, “30 teenagers.”
Chad went on to say that hiring ages range from “14 to 18.”
“They soak up information, they want to learn, they want to do well,” Chad reasoned.
But when Carol suddenly experienced a grand mal seizure in September 2023, everything changed for the couple. She spent the next eight months at the MHealth Fairview hospital in Minneapolis — largely in a coma — as Chad rarely left her side.
Early on, Chad considered shuttering the business completely. But their young employees didn’t let him consider it for long.
“I didn't ask one teenager to do anything extra,” Chad said. “They just did it.”
Before his days started by Carol’s side, Chad continued coming to the restaurant at the crack of dawn to work out weekly schedules. But the rest, he said, he had to turn over to the teens.
During those eight months, their employees came in early for opening, stayed late to close, watered Carol’s plants, and checked inboxes for monthly bills.
From high school sports games to local pageants, 18-year-old Lilly Benzer said that the Trainors were always in the crowd to support their staff.
“It's a family here,” Benzer said.
“Carol always offered help with school homework and just life in general,” Her 15-year-old coworker, Joe Stephenson, chimed in.
“It's almost unfair for it not to be reciprocated back to them,” Benzer said.
Sadly, Carol never clocked back into her beloved business.
“We didn't know it at the time; my wife was dying, and they just thought they were helping out because she needed help, they needed things covered until she came back,” Chad said, tearing up.
On May 5, Carol passed away at the age of 58. After its doors had stayed open for eight months straight, the restaurant briefly closed so that the employees — all 30 of them — could pay their respects.
“She was just a really amazing person,” Benzer said, her voice torn with emotion, as her coworker Acacia Kunkle gave her a reassuring hug.
Chad believes that without his staff, he wouldn’t have had a business to return to.
“Without them, the restaurant would not exist,” Chad says. “These kids became adults and ran our business and took care of me.”
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Header image via Urban Olive & Vine / Facebook
