It's a Thursday afternoon in downtown Detroit and Faisal Ali, a waiter at the iconic Lafayette Coney Island is shouting out his orders across the way, navigating the pathways between the nondescript tables, delivering the hot dogs and fries and beverages to tail-wagging customers.
He's been at it quite a while. The native Yemenite says he's been waiting tables at Lafayette since he was 16. He's now 38.
He says he loves it, and from the gleam in his eye, he seems quite sincere about that. He says he still eats hot dogs on occasion, but he brings in his own beef dogs and dresses them up with chili. He's Muslim and Lafayette coney dogs contain pork.
But he says everyday he eats a chili-cheese fry and a loose hamburger. He works six, and sometimes seven days a week, eight or nine hours a shift.
Deadline Detroit's Allan Lengel sat down with Ali for brief chat.
