A waiter and naturalist, Tony Lorenz brings his expertise on marine life to the dinner table.

“There’s one!”

Tony Lorenz’s eyes widen as he points toward a distant ripple in an ocean that is constantly churning. His focus is on a whale that momentarily creased the waters and disappeared. The sighting is so brief that only a trained and watchful eye would notice. I look up and there’s nothing but open sea.

Fortunately, Lorenz is a marine naturalist who has been spotting whales, dolphins and other sea creatures for more that 26 years from his perch in the Carmel Highlands. He is an encyclopedia of marine life, able to reel off population numbers over the years as species rebound from near extinction, to describe the differences in spouting patterns of blue or gray or any other whale, to discuss feeding habits and trace migration routes.

A morning with him is like a graduate seminar, only more entertaining. The Pacific is spread out before you. The kitchen is busy preparing your order. There’s coffee or cocktails on call. And somewhere out there is a whale that remains a phantom to me.

“This spot is one of the best places on the West Coast to view gray whales,” Lorenz assures me, adding that during their epic migration from the Arctic to breeding and calving waters off Baja and back, he can count on seeing up to 200 a day. When the weather and seas are favorable, he calls sightings in to commercial whale watching boats in Monterey that otherwise would not venture from the friendlier confines of the bay.

But his role is an unofficial one – a hobby often practiced from indoors as he takes orders and delivers plates. Lorenz has been serving tables at Pacific’s Edge in the Hyatt Carmel Highlands – his day job – for that same 26-year span. As I sit at a table overlooking the water, he is as concerned about warming up my coffee as he is about spotting whales. Yet his gaze will always return to the sea.

When Aaron Dominguez took over as the director of food and beverage, he was puzzled by the waiter’s behavior.

“I said ‘why is this waiter staring out the window?’” he recalls. Now Dominguez considers Lorenz’s whale watching and knowledge of the deep to be assets that enhance the dining experience. Pacific’s Edge offers floor-to-ceiling views of the ocean and provides binoculars. “I thought I was coming in to focus on the food,” Dominguez adds. “It’s so much more. Tony is one of my most requested servers.”

“People jump out of their chairs, It can be disruptive.”

“There it is,” Lorenz says, again pointing to the same area, where the waters turn dark and deep. Again I look up a fraction too late. Spotting whales from a restaurant requires patience and timing. When guests – with an assist from Lorenz – see one of the massive creatures, the reaction is most often a combination of disbelief and elation. Some let out an unexpected peal of excitement.

“People jump out of their chairs,” Lorenz says. “It can be disruptive.”

He did indeed study marine biology, at UC Santa Cruz. He first took an interest in the topic after seeing the movie Jaws.

Landing at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands was a matter of chance. He needed a job when he moved to Monterey County, and the restaurant had an opening. Given the location, it didn’t take long for him to make a career out of hospitality.

To become good in the service industry is perhaps more demanding than the study of marine life, at least from Lorenz’s point of view. While it may take some time to catalog in one’s mind the 180 species of ocean and shore birds that populate the area, service involves a kind of improvisational theater that can be fast-paced and unpredictable. Servers must also acquire the ability to read the mood of a table.

“Most of it is non-verbal,” he says. “It becomes second nature.”

His understanding of the natural world is a bonus. It often happens that diners are inspired to take a whale watching excursion. Lorenz is happy to get them a spot on one of the boats.

“What we’re used to doing is service,” Dominguez observes. “Tony creates an experience.”