Everybody knows Ashley at the Fillin’ Station

Afternoon showers Wednesday did not stop patrons from packing the patio at the Ole Biloxi Fillin’ Station as the sky turned purple and pink just before sunset.

As the tables filled, Ashley d’Aquin was on the move, greeting customers, grabbing beers from the bartender and typing in orders for crawfish nachos, chicken tenders and oysters Rockefeller. The plaid shirt tied by its sleeves around her waist swayed as she moved briskly between the outdoor area and the main dining room. Each time she walked back outside, she was delivering food, refilling sodas or grabbing checks for customers ready to pay their tabs.

The 30-year-old has been a familiar face for five years at the restaurant that had once been a service station. She works four days a week from 6 p.m. until close. Sometimes, she can get out early if the crowd is light. Other nights, every table is filled until 3 a.m. But even on the Fillin’ Station’s busiest nights, d’Aquin never misses a beat.

“It actually wasn’t super-easy at first,” she said. “I was kind of nervous about starting to work here from the get-go because I was afraid of the hours. It can get kind of stressful, but after a while you just start to push through it.”

The New Orleans native had been a server at chain restaurants that would close much earlier. She took a job at the Fillin’ Station after her friend Jerry, who owns the bar, asked her repeatedly to come work for him. She said she and Jerry worked together at Chili’s in D’Iberville.

But she said she soon learned moving from corporate management to working for a locally owned business was less tense than she anticipated.

“I’ve been here for five years, and I loved it immediately,” she said. “When I started working here, a whole new family takes you in. I just feel like I’m part of the family.”

And that family means co-workers, managers and guests. She has her regulars who come in every single day, and she can recite their orders from memory. She also has one-of-a-kind customers.

One, she said, was a ghost hunter who said he could feel the Masonic Temple building across the street was haunted.

On Wednesday, she watched as a small boy, fascinated by a flower near the entrance, picked it and tried to eat it.

“I’ve seen some things, man, and I’ve seen some stuff,” she said.

“I think it’s all different people of all different ages and walks and life —a lot of Biloxi locals and a lot of people from out of town. Most of her customers are locals, but she said she loves to hear visitors tell her a bartender at an area casino sent them to the Fillin’ Station for good local food.

“They always want to try crawfish or something they’ve never had before. It’s nice to work somewhere where they can come here and get something that they can’t get at home.”

D’Aquin greets all of her customers with a smile and immense knowledge of the menu. She usually doesn’t have to write orders down, and she said she loves to surprise repeat guests by remembering their orders the next time they are seated in her section.

She can almost always be seen wearing a fanny pack, which has become a staple wardrobe item. The one she was wearing Wednesday has held up for three years, she said.

Four years ago, the men working at the Fillin’ Station received button-down uniform shirts that mirrored a mechanic’s uniform. D’Aquin said she thought the women should have them as well.

The owner, she said, ordered the shirts for the women but forgot to give them out, so months later, she finally got her shirt, and she still wears it to work on occasion.

“I think I like to be myself anywhere I am, but of course at corporate places, there’s more rules ... you’re more free to be yourself at a locally owned place,” she said.

This story was originally published July 3, 2016 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Everybody knows Ashley at the Fillin’ Station."