Goodbye Ole Friend

Old and New

            Some of my earliest memories are in the Sugar Grove Diner; memories of friends, family, food, and fun.  The Diner was located in the center of the community on a well traveled, scenic highway through the Jefferson National Forest.  The Diner was an oasis in the forest for day hikers, Appalachian Trail Thru-hikers, horse clubs, deer hunters, truckers, and offered a shuttle service for AT Hikers.  It was a smoothly-ran profitable business with seasoned long time employees  that worked without having a shift manager and scheduling issues were resolved between employees.  Sugar Grove is located 13 miles across a winding, steep mountain road and the 18 employees were residents from the small community of 850 people.

The atmosphere of the original Sugar Grove Diner was welcoming and eclectic.  The Diner was a place where everyone had their place. Every morning the door was unlocked by Peggy, the owner, who usually would swing by and pick up Theda the day-shift cook.  They were met at the door by local retirees who  would start the first pot of coffee and fill the creamers while Theda and Peggy made biscuits and gravy.  The problems of the world near and far have been solved around a table before 6 am many times at the old Sugar Grove Diner.  Families would bring children by for breakfast and would leave them sitting at a booth to catch the bus, meals sent to sick and elderly neighbors, it was a social hub that felt like home with award winning food and service.  The menu was country home cooking with all homemade desserts that had bragging rights to the Best Food and Best Service for 11 years by Smyth County citizens.  The  glass table tops protected newspaper articles about events, pictures of children, art from young and old, poetry, and endless thank you cards. The cash register was lined in business cards, for sale ads, announcements, and the shelves were filled with candy and homemade jams, jelly, and local honey.  Missing dogs were found and lawn mowers were traded and sold as well as the local game checking station for hunters who would stop in and check their game.  It was no unusual to see a Forestry truck with a bear in a cage going to be relocated waiting in the parking lot.  

The Old Diner, the heart of the community,  that came to a sudden end; closed by the tangled red tape of bureaucracy and was forced to relocate off the mountain to Marion.

            The new Sugar Grove Diner opened in the Town of Marion in a motel.  It is located in town across from a Bank and a shopping center.  The seating capacity was increased from 79 to 212, with a commercial kitchen dwarfing the old kitchen, but it came with the loss of the Sugar Grove employees, only one long time employee made the move.  Staffing a busy fast paced restaurant has been in some ways challenging for Ms. Peggy, she was spoiled by her employees who worked without supervision.  She was now faced with the growing pains of staffing employees, drug testing, and the loss of her familiar clientele and employees.   

Business is as good as the food, and the food is good.  A diverse customer base replaced hikers, hunters, and locals along with a menu that now offers “fancy” food too.  Large parties, corporate lunch meetings, and live musical entertainment are frequent events.  Tables are covered with linens instead of photographs and art, the homemade jams, jellies, and honey are gone.  Children are not waiting to catch the bus and the “morning round table” has not materialized.  

Time will eventually add history to the atmosphere at the new Sugar Grove Diner and history builds community.  I am not sure if the new Diner will ever be the old Diner, but it is a great restaurant.  A pleasant, busy, place filled laughter and people giving a new community jobs and revenue.  A year later the old diner still sits quiet and empty.

Update May, 2012

I am smile to myself as I realize the new became the old and familiar.  The Sugar Grove Diner in Marion has the same with the Old Sugar Grove Diner and many things are different, but the one that never changed was the heart of the Diner.  A place for friends and families to  gather  for showers, reunions, to say goodbye and remember a life once lived, a place to celebrate.   The Rotary Club Meetings, the Gideon's, the various bible groups, are just a few of the new regulars, familiar faces now welcomed with the usual cheerful “hello, how are you”.  New  faces become names and names become friends and soon there is history--a community.  It is the heart of the diner that made the move over the mountain and settled in at the new place.   The music on Tuesday nights with a band that have true fans and regulars who reserve tables to enjoy food, conversation,  and good bluegrass gospel music.  The babies who started out in the high chair now know the staff by name, reaching arms up to be carried around or to peek into the kitchen.  

 Peggy comments how much she loves her customers and that she never once woke up dreading coming to work.   I know this is not the average comment you hear from people who run their own business, but she truly loves her customers.   She believes her customers are the heart of the diner, I do agree with her but I believe that she is the heart of the diner.   She gives all of the credit to the Good Lord Above and  she does not make any decisions without prayer, she is thankful for her salvation and the peace she has in her heart.  She has found peace with her decision to close the diner, it was not a decision that she anticipated making at this time, but she is at peace.  So the new will become the old and the doors will close April 1, 2013.