Moondoggie by Night; Baking, Mopping, Grilling by Day

Paying the bills, one bagel at a time.

A A A Comments By Brian J. Barr Wednesday, Aug 8 2007

Courtesy of Kevin Murphy

Kevin Murphy of Moondoggies, baker at Bagel Oasis.

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"It's pretty funny," says Kevin Murphy. "Everyone else will be at the counter getting yelled at by customers, and I'll be in the back just waiting for the bagels to be done."

According to Murphy, who sings and plays guitar in cosmic roots band the Moondoggies (see preview, p. 45), working at the Ravenna Bagel Oasis gives him plenty of time alone. He doesn't have to deal with paying customers. He doesn't have to get up early to make the bagel dough (the earliest he wakes up is 11 a.m.). Mostly, he just has to find out how many of each kind of bagel the servers will need. He then pulls the pre-rolled, uncooked bagels from the freezer and throws them into a 500-degree oven. For the next 50 minutes (that's how long it takes for the bagels to cook), he zones out. Sometimes, if a customer orders a fancy bagel sandwich, he prepares it. "It's a lot of repetition," he says.

For Murphy, working at Bagel Oasis is a breeze compared to his previous job at UPS. "[That's] a union job, y'know, so a lot of those guys just have big sticks up their asses," he says, whereas the employees of Bagel Oasis, including Murphy, are fairly chill.

"It's pretty mindless work," he says of his current gig. "I make bagels and grill food and mop."

bbarr@seattleweekly.com

Day Job is a look at how musicians pay the rent.

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