Jacob Tyler Dunn Steak from p 29 Rodriguez saw Lasko come around through the back door. He had returned from running an errand but Rodriguez didn’t know he had been gone. It quickly hit her: Those pounding footsteps could not have been made by her boss. “I remember it was so vivid. I was like, ‘Oh it’s just Gary.’ Then he rolled around the backdoor,” she says. “I was alone, but I didn’t know I was alone.” The secondhand recollections from a 2021 company Christmas party are just as jarring. An employee’s daughter walked into the women’s restroom and saw a woman dressed like the Lady in Red sobbing. When the daughter left the rest- room and told others what she saw, they said there was no one dressed like that on the property. That same night, a woman who had worked at the restaurant for nearly 20 years was picked up by her son after the party. While waiting, her son saw a woman in clothing that matched the Lady in Red standing between the lights in the parking lot, where there was a swath of darkness. He asked his mother whether the party was a formal affair or perhaps a costume- themed soiree. But the son had never been inside the building. He always waited outside for his mother, so he had never seen the murals or the Lady. “When she heard that, she got chills because he didn’t know what he was seeing, but she knew what he was talking about,” Rodriguez says. Rodriguez and Lasko talk about people who have quit after their own encounters. A dishwasher lasted two weeks after a nearby stall door closed and the toilet flushed while he was alone in the men’s restroom. In 2012, the restaurant contracted with a cleaning company that entered the restaurant after closing. One morning, Lasko got a call from the company telling him that the specific crew that was there the night before refused to return. “They saw someone crouched in that 30 corner, where the trash can is,” Lasko says, pointing to a rubber trash can tucked under the bar near the entrance to the It’s worth coming to The Stockyards just to check out its darkly elegant and historic bar. Saloon. “It freaked them out, and they left.” Rodriguez remembers a trash bin falling hard onto its side with no explanation. She picked it up and returned it upright. It went down again. She walked away. Her co-worker Luis picked it up and said, “OK, I’ll pick it up. We’ll be nice to the ghost.” This time, it stayed. For many of the longtime employees, encounters have become part of the job. “I’ve been here for so long, if she wanted me out, I would’ve been out,” Rodriguez says. “Things happen for a reason. I try not to pay mind to it.” Hector Hernandez has worked at The Stockyards for 13 years. Every now and then, when he’s standing at the dish bin or in the middle of dinner prep, he feels as though someone is staring at him. The vibe is so intense, he says, but when he turns around or looks sideways toward the stairs, he always sees just air. “Everyone says it’s probably the ghost, but I don’t know. I believe everything can happen,” Hernandez says. Leadership team member Kathy Bellerose has heard the stories but says she personally has not witnessed anything unusual in her 17 years at The Stockyards. However, she recalls coming in one Sunday morning to see a large picture in the dining room drastically canted to the side. “But the cleaners could’ve bumped that,” she says. And her explanation for the chandeliers tinkling every now and then on their own: “That’s because of the vent blowing on it.” However, Bellerose believes her coworkers’ stories, and says the Lady’s non- malevolent spirit is behind every account. “She’s never harmed anyone, save for just being here,” Bellerose says. “The feeling of the presence is unnerving, but she just must be happy and not want to leave.” The Stockyards 5009 East Washington Street, #115 602-273-7378 stockyardssteakhouse.com OCT 27TH–NOV 2ND, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
