Lamentations... R.I.P. Bill's Barbecue

As if September 11th is not a sad enough day, I just heard the news today that Richmond icon Bill's Barbecue will be closing all of its stores this week. A Virginia landmark since 1930, the small hometown chain has a particular significance for me and my family. Upon moving to Richmond in 1979, one of the first meals my family ate together was what my father referred to as "Barbecue Bill's"; at the location on West Broad street, near Tucker High School. Richmond was a whole new experience for my family and me, and this new cuisine in our new home was a very significant event for all of us. My father had already started his job at Reynolds Metals (another defunct Richmond icon) six months prior, and the rest of the family had stayed behind to make sure the house sold.  We had finally followed up and moved to Virginia in our Griswold-esque Ford Country Squire on August 9, 1979. Perhaps the first meal we all shared together again was at this local barbecue fast food place (in and of itself, a novelty to us Upstate New Yorkers). We were recommended certain signature items: 1) Beef with cheese, 2) Pork with slaw (They put the cole slaw right on the sandwich!) and 3) The Grape Limeade. This triumvirate became my standard order for the rest of my tenure in Richmond, with no deviations. Perhaps 100+ times I ordered that same meal from 1979 to my departure in 1996. The two sandwiches were absolutely delicious, and the Grape-Limeade was incomparable! Not part of the Holy Trinity, but worthy of mention were their pies. They had amazing pies. Their "Peak-of-Flavor" pies rivaled those of Marie Callender's. Strawberry, chocolate cream, and banana cream. Simply dreamy! I didn't always get the pie on my visits to Bill's, but when I did, they never disappointed.
So the news of the closure comes as a shock to me. What I would give to have one more order of my three favorites. *sigh* More lamentations, and wailing and gnashing of teeth...

Staying in Richmond for another couple of days...

I missed my plane today, just by being scatter-brained. It's not that I'm not enjoying myself, but i really need to get back to my home and see my Italian Greyhound, Bocce. My day was really stressful and crazy though. I really can't go into details here, but I made a very momentous decision today. You'll read about it in following blogs, but it will be a year fo change, much like 2000 was. For now, that's all...
Watch this blog for upcoming craziness!

I made it to Richmond!

Yay! Richmond... the capitol of the Confederacy, the capitol of the Old Dominion, the capitol of sitting on a Robinson Street bar stool getting drunk! My folks picked me up from the airport last night--actually it was my father and my brother, actor Jay Fontaine--and drove me back to my parents retirement condo in the fashionable West End of Richmond. I was still on West Coast time last night so I stayed up almost all night tweeting! Yee-HA! Then I woke up and went to Trader Joes with my father. I knew that when Richmond got a TJ's, it would be some kind of milestone, like when "Two-buck Chuck" went up to $3.25... as I took a tour of West Broad Street from Gaskins Road to Short Pump, I noticed that the chains had all landed--Dave-N-Buster's, Home Depot, Michael's, big box stores, and small national chains like Omaha Steaks; Petco, and then your restaurant chains--P.F. Chang's, Appleby's, Chili's, etc... When I left, some 13 years ago, this was all woodlands and cow pastures. Short Pump was a crossroads from colonial times that had an actual short-handled water pump at a long-vanished inn. Now, the place is unrecognizable from any other suburban landscape in the United States. If I didn't know better, I could be on Shaw Avenue in Fresno, or in Paramus NJ, or northern Virginia (Alexandria, Fairfax--take your pick). It was a weird feeling of familiarity, but difference. Well, I got 2 weeks of this to digest. I think I'm gonna go down to see my old guitarist Scott, and work on some tracks for the long-awaited (15 years) Just Because album! And sit on a Robinson Street barstool and get drunk!