As you may remember, I often admonish that “nothing is
forever”; especially when it comes to food service places. Well, nothing IS forever. After what seems (to me) like forever, I learned
that St. James Pub will be closing in the middle of the month. As you may further recall it is right near
the top of my list of “Just Right” places where everything is in harmony. Food, service, and the setting all work
together. I really enjoyed going there
for lunch with the white board of daily specials (like meat loaf, spaghetti), the servers that are more of my
generation than you see elsewhere in the box stores, the Keno machine over the
bar, pool table, and so on. A real
place.
It is a shame to see such a county treasure (a bit strong,
but you get my drift) close, especially a restaurant. There are of course many reasons a restaurant will
close, and food quality is probably not the top one (although it can assure it). I always have to remind myself that a
restaurant, like any other business, is in fact a business. They are not there
to make me feel good by putting a wonderful dish under my nose, they are there
to make money. They may love food as
much as we do, but they depend on it for a living. It is hard, hard, work. One of the red flags
for me is when I read about a new place and I see something like “I’ve
always dreamed of opening a restaurant!”.
I mentally give those places a year.
Anyway, more often than not, they are driven out of business by things
like leases, increased competition, cost of food, location, and so forth. One of my “sources” says that one of the
reasons that St. James closing is that Gate Three, the southernmost exit from
the base is now closed during lunch hours.
Anybody who is alert around here knows that the base supplies a huge
number of mouths to feed around lunchtime.
Almost an institution. I kind of
wonder if closing of the gate is a major contributor, it’s only a few miles
further from gate two. Another
speculation was pressure from Charlie’s Deli which is a bit closer to the base. Given a choice I would personally keep driving
past Charlie’s, for a lot of reasons I won’t go into now. Also, as much as I would like to, I wouldn’t
think the proliferation of the chains would be a big factor, although God knows
that their parking lots are always jammed.
So, we see another unique place leave the scene.. Butts in seats… put
yours in one, we need those special independent places. I hold my breath every
day for Courtney’s..
Shudders (although “shutters” of another kind are involved
here too)
Last night I went over to the Calvert Marine Museum to hear
a lecture by Dr. Henry Miller from Historic St. Mary’s City. It was the inaugural of the museum’s series
of PEM talks, condensed from a mouthful of Paleontology, the Environment, and
Maritime History. Henry’s topic was “An Overview of Human Use of the Chesapeake
through History”. It was a
fascinating talk and if you ever get to hear it, do it. A lot of food stuff in there...
Has this ever happened to you? Maybe it’s just me and my overworked sense of
propriety. Soon after Dr. Miller began
speaking I noticed a gentleman at the other end of my row of seats mount a
clipboard to his lap with some device, I suppose to take notes. Fine.
BUT he then proceeded to take out his phone, hold it up over his head
and take a picture of virtually every slide that went up on the screen. While I think this is rude to begin with,
what really set me off was that the damn thing gave out a loud “Beeeeeeeeep”
EVERY time an image was captured. EVERY time. Stern glares from me went unnoticed, although I have
to admit people sitting near the person didn’t seem phased. Is it me? Excuse me?
Can’t some people have a little regard or consideration for others than
themselves? Well, once it started,
despite my best attempts to “put it out of my mind”, I couldn’t. “and on this slide (beeeep) we see…”; “here is how early colonists farmed
(beeeeeeep) corn”; “a map (beeeep) of early Maryland….”; for
fifty minutes! What a jerk. While I enjoyed the
lecture I was unable to give it the full attention it deserved. By the time I left I was all worked up. The next lecture is the 21st,
when Jonathan McKnight presents “Invasive
Species in the Chesapeake”. There is
no charge except for the toll on your nerves if “beeper” shows up. I think if he does, I won’t. I was going to
speak to him afterwards, but he escaped.
Probably for the best.
So, although you normally don’t have to for St. James Pub,
and won’t have to in the future, consider when you go out to
DFD
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