See a day in the life of a dishwasher in New York City

When you’re a dishwasher at Gage & Tollner, there are no slow times. At this historic Brooklyn fine-dining restaurant, revived three years ago, the dining room is always full, the kitchen doesn’t close between lunch and dinner, and there are thousands of dishes to rinse, but space is tight to do that.

That’s where we found Drevon Alston, who runs the Dish Pit. As chefs furiously arrange oysters and mussels on seafood platters and baste steaks with butter, Mr. Alston and his fellow dishwashers scrub pots, scrape charred grill grates and move stacks of plates up and down the stairs. Mr. Alston dreams of one day running his own kitchen. For now, he’s at the bottom of the restaurant’s hierarchy, filling one of the most important roles, but he’s determined to move up.