Just a memory now
The great thing about Facebook is that it's an endless stream of news, opinion, stupidity and coolness; this is also the bad thing about it, because it's easy to see something and then move on to the next thing without stopping to think too much about it.
So it was that I didn't take the time to write about Peter's Grill closing last month until, in one of my periodic wanderings through my LJ archives, I found this rave review of the place. It brought back a lot of memories. Peter's and I go way back - not all 99 years, of course, but I remember going there before it moved to the Foshay Tower and finally to the US Trust Building on the corner of Second Avenue and Eighth Street South. It was the last of a dying breed, the downtown restaurants that were really oversized diners, serving plain food at a reasonable price in a comfortable (but not TOO comfortable) environment. I remember thinking now and again that one definition of wealth would be having enough money to eat at Peter's every day...and tip the veteran waitresses appropriately, of course. Probably spent way too much money there over the years and ate way too many carbs (aside from the outstanding apple pie) but it was all worth it at the time, and I will miss it badly. Makes me wish I'd been able to get down there for a meal or two on my last few passes through town for Detour, though I know it wouldn't have made any difference in the end.
I'd like to think the Atsidakos family will find someone interested in reopening the place, but I am here now and not there so it really shouldn't matter that much to me. Except it does, because I have a lot of pleasant memories of the place.
So it was that I didn't take the time to write about Peter's Grill closing last month until, in one of my periodic wanderings through my LJ archives, I found this rave review of the place. It brought back a lot of memories. Peter's and I go way back - not all 99 years, of course, but I remember going there before it moved to the Foshay Tower and finally to the US Trust Building on the corner of Second Avenue and Eighth Street South. It was the last of a dying breed, the downtown restaurants that were really oversized diners, serving plain food at a reasonable price in a comfortable (but not TOO comfortable) environment. I remember thinking now and again that one definition of wealth would be having enough money to eat at Peter's every day...and tip the veteran waitresses appropriately, of course. Probably spent way too much money there over the years and ate way too many carbs (aside from the outstanding apple pie) but it was all worth it at the time, and I will miss it badly. Makes me wish I'd been able to get down there for a meal or two on my last few passes through town for Detour, though I know it wouldn't have made any difference in the end.
I'd like to think the Atsidakos family will find someone interested in reopening the place, but I am here now and not there so it really shouldn't matter that much to me. Except it does, because I have a lot of pleasant memories of the place.