BS: It's like losing an old friend...

Subject: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Mrrzy
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 02:41 PM

... the restaurant/bar I've been frequenting for nigh unto three decades has suddenly, with no warning to staff or regulars, closed for good. It's an amazing feeling of loss - while I understand how someone can go out of business, I simply cannot believe that we weren't given the chance to say goodbye. I would have been there last Saturday if I'd known they would never open again...

I've been calling people (what I do when there is news, besides posting here), and grown men have had to sit down when given this news. People are in tears. I have actually had to join facebook (I know, not a decision to be taken in grief) to get into the group commiserating about its demise...

I am kind of planning a vigil of sorts, outside its doors tomorrow night when we would have been eating wings there... I think I'll take a teddy bear and some flowers and make a sign. A long-standing local tradition done in by, I think, the rent issue.

*Sigh.*

I'm also rewriting Wasn't That A Pity And A Shame to sing the vigil. Other good goodbye songs or laments for the passing of time?

It's not the closing of St. Maarten's that griiiiiiiieves me
But my darling when I think of wings...

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 02:47 PM

No more Funky Chicken

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: gnu
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 03:14 PM

My condolences. I know how ya feel. I hope your last get together may spawn a movement toward a new gathering spot.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: ranger1
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 06:00 PM

Several years later, I still mourn the closing of my favorite independent bookstore. The staff knew me well enough that I could go in and say "I need a book" and they'd immediately recommend something (after they got done laughing at me for asking for the obvious). They never steered me wrong, either. So I know how you feel.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 06:18 PM

34 years ago, the restaurant/bar where we held a Monday night open mic. suddenly closed without notice, after many years of being a haven for folkies and Bluegrass. I suspect someone simply offered them $$$$ for their lease. (It's now a VERY upscale neighborhood with trendy places.)

It hurts... it changes lives... and sadly, it is all to common.

I hope you find other decent places.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 07:13 PM

I know. One local diner's owner had the gall to RETIRE! NO one quite makes pies or macaroni the same way she did, damn her eyes! :~)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 08:29 PM

Several local shops have quit because the owner retired or died and the kids just didn't want to do that much work.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Mrrzy
Date: 31 Jan 12 - 12:03 PM

People here were trying very hard to keep it open, but they just couldn't afford to, it's a crying shame.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 31 Jan 12 - 02:22 PM

It's almost like losing a dear pet, isn't it?

There was a restaurant/club near me, that was open a while back for only a few years. It was the greatest place I've ever been in to play music, hear music, meet musicians and friends, and just hang out at. It had a warm atmosphere, the owner was a big bear of a man who was a sweetheart and made you feel welcome; good food, nicely appointed, and it mercifully was not 'run down' in appearance, as some folk music venues seem to be. (what I mean is that the sagging chairs, beaded curtains, lack of discernible heat in the winter and the occasional mouse at the open mic have really lost its charm to me since I've passed the voting age, lo, so many years ago)

Alas the place is gone, and is still a legend in these parts, and though there are other places to go to eat and share music; alas, nothing has come near to taking its place.

I hate to sound cynical, but sometimes you have a treasure and it lives and shines in your life, and then it is gone- and you just have to move on.

My condolences.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: foggers
Date: 01 Feb 12 - 11:39 AM

Mrrzy I feel your pain. About 20+ years ago in my home town, the last authentic untouched proper pub, home to a legendary monday night folk and acoustic session, was wrested back from the tenant landlord by the brewery in order to be gutted out and made into a "fun pub".

This meant ripping out the wee rooms to make an open plan bar, fitting mirrors, neon lighting and exotic palm trees. And of course the old regulars (an eclectic mix of folkies, bikers n bohemians) were forced to move on. In some ways it was worse than if the place had just closed! Even now when I walk past the place, I experience an involuntary shudder at the fate of the dear old "Barley Mow".....*sniff*

I hope you and other bereft regulars find a new location to hang out.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 01 Feb 12 - 12:21 PM

Amen my friend
I lost my favorite friday fish fry place to new owners that now I can't even stand to look at their fish ... all good things turn to shit lately

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Feb 12 - 12:45 PM

Man, we were going around town and there are NO bars that are not either college kid bars or sports bars... what to do?

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: foggers
Date: 01 Feb 12 - 07:09 PM

Only one thing for it then....

Set up your own private club at home; nice homely vibe, welcoming smiles, good beer, reserved seating for musicians, open fire, rustic furniture, more good beer.

If You Build It They Will Come!

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Mrrzy
Date: 03 Feb 12 - 06:34 PM

No way am I hosting - imagine the cleanup!

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 03 Feb 12 - 07:16 PM

Kinda sums up what's happening in many places over here in the UK at present, definitely in Torquay....

'Anytown' - George Papavgeris

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Feb 12 - 10:01 AM

AARGGHH! And now my CAR died! I had that beauty 11 years and she was NEW when I got her and how in the world did I manage to destroy a Toyota??!? It's all my fault, too, I didn't have the little money to get the oil leak fixed and now she's DEAD!

I feel for the froggies in the other thread!

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: EBarnacle
Date: 11 Feb 12 - 10:37 AM

Lady Hillary and I recently lost our favorite book store to bankruptcy. Although we rarely bought books there, it was a great place to meet. The staff would come to us to help patrons with questions or in need of suggestions. Ave et vale Borders.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 11 Feb 12 - 01:23 PM

Mrrzy, I know how you feel. Our car is suffering from wheel-arch rust. They quoted me £650 to fix it, which is more than the car's worth. I've loved it for 9 years, but I suppose it's dying now. I feel sad about it.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: gnu
Date: 11 Feb 12 - 01:33 PM

Yes, there comes a time when ya gotta bite the bullet and walk away. The price of small cars here is unreal. Some, brand new, 50mpg, $10k. Not many creature comforts, but still rock bottom bargains.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 11 Feb 12 - 01:54 PM

I call our car Kewan, he's a Ford Fiesta. He's got 70,000 miles on the clock and goes like a little sewing machine. But this rust...

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Feb 12 - 02:11 PM

Her name was Martina. She was named after my tennis hero.

And they may be resurrecting my fave restaurant...

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: GUEST,Manuel
Date: 11 Feb 12 - 04:04 PM

Mrrzy, I feel the pain with you, but here's my consoling message: unless you go find some other place at which to consume wings, you may soon start hearing of a delightfully steady drop in your blood cholesterol.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Feb 12 - 06:44 PM

Oh, no, my cholesterol is great, i only have wings every 6 months or so, between the giving blood and the results.

There ARE other wings - but they aren't the RIGHT wings.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Sep 19 - 10:07 AM

An old friend of 30+ years, first met at the aforementioned bar, has died of complications from myesthenia gravis. I looked for "old friend" threads rather than start a new one... Sigh. The wake was at Wild Wings which were pretty good. Man, I'd known him almost as long as I've lived in Charlottesville. The world is not the same.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 09 Sep 19 - 01:23 PM

Nope, the world is not the same. And we humans do not like changes - unless we are in control and believe they are for the better. Most animals feel the same way. The Leopard frogs in the back yard appreciate the longer grass and just hop out of my way. The cross-the-road neighbour came over and mowed our front lawn while we had lunch on Sunday! Went back outside - Surprise! Guess he likes it shorter! I was glad I had put a tomato cage around the wee oak I want to move to the back yard! And very glad he stuck to the front!

I basically moved back to Bancroft, ON because of a certain restaurant; now it is closed and there is no place like it!

But, a nearby town/village has a "new" bakery that is incredible! There is no bakery like it anywhere that I have been. Change!

When I first drove back from Montreal to Bancroft, I delighted in that which had not changed. And assessed my feelings about that which has. Sometimes it makes an opening for something different/better?

Losing a fav human or other animal can be shattering; so can losing a fav hangout. Actually, the animals continue to live within us but losing a hangout can shatter our social network, our sense of being part of a community. We have to rebuild... That may not be easy.

Sheesh! would it be terrible to say that losing one individual is not generally as hard as losing a whole sense of community, of belonging to a viable group. Then I think of all those persons who have had to leave homelands, lost most of their family, friends,...

Wildlife rehabbers are supposed to return rescued animals to the vicinity where they were found - because that's where their friends and family are. We know it is important to wild animals, what about human animals?

Sorry, I quit. This is too heavy.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Sep 19 - 02:05 PM

Rat own, Dorothy.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Feb 20 - 01:04 PM

refresh ... seem to be a bunch of us
getting blast-from-the-past melancholies right now.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Helen
Date: 24 Feb 20 - 02:13 PM

I didn't see this thread when it first started.

There was an historic hotel/pub in Newcastle which for many years was a music venue. It was a strange eclectic mix of a place. The front bar was mostly hard drinking sailors and wild women. (Cigarettes Whiskey And Wild Wild Women .) I never went into that bar.

The middle bar was where the drag queens used to perform and it was a hang out for LBGTQI people and their friends. I used to go there sometimes with my friends when I was a poor student.

Then the back bar used to have jazz or rock bands playing. I used to go there too.

It was fairly run down but it was possibly the most popular music pub in Newcastle, until the brewery decided to shut it down and try to re-open it as a classier joint.

Star Hotel riot

The riot made history in our town. I was living about a mile away on a hill and I could hear the noise from there.

The pub remained closed for a long time. It was just an abandoned building but then I think it was opened as a cafe or something, and then a few years ago someone decided to re-open it as an upmarket place. Never been there. Don't know. I'll probably never go there.

It was a fantastic place to go because of the music and the people who went there. It was a sense of community, and the different bars catered to different clientele.

While I would not have taken part in the riot, I still thought the closure of the pub and it's intended reinvention as a classier venue was a travesty.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Helen
Date: 24 Feb 20 - 02:14 PM

Info on a documentary about the riot<

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Senoufou
Date: 24 Feb 20 - 02:28 PM

I hate changes too, can't accept them. I don't like it when so many of the lovely old-fashioned pubs here in Norfolk are turned into up-market foodie dining joints, with those silly menus.
Years ago, these pubs were used by farm labourers and men/women of the land, and they'd sing all the old traditional songs clutching their pints of locally-brewed bitter. I often used to attend when there was Morris dancing outside, and have a half of Adnam's ale.
My favourite about 30 years ago was the Earle Arms at Heydon. Now it's just a mass of dining tables and poncy wine lists. No atmosphere left. Makes you weep!

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Gurney
Date: 24 Feb 20 - 03:02 PM

The only constant in life is change, isn't it.
A lot of shops here in NZ are worried about surviving the reduction in tourism because of the Coronavirus problem, which has already been noticed. Not the disease, but the restrictions.

One of my best friends died on Monday.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Senoufou
Date: 24 Feb 20 - 03:29 PM

I'm very sorry about the loss of your best friend Gurney.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Feb 20 - 09:04 PM

Also sorry for your loss, Gurney.

And it so happens that Mrrzy has another car crisis going on now,
which echoes what happened in earlier posts on this thread.

I remember when one restaurant went out of my life.
The food was a certain international cuisine,
and in order to protect the guilty,
I shall not name the nation/country.
When they began, the food was quite wonderful, AND reasonably priced;
the place was run on a shoestring, part of a whole arcade of shops and retail things, not its own free-standing premises.

When the restaurant went out of my life, actually,
it was I who deserted the restaurant.
The place managed to stay on the same arcade/strip premises,
run by the same family,
attempting to provide the same cuisine and the same menu.

What happened?
The menu stayed the same but the recipes changed.
If I tell you the one dish, well, I can't, because
the name of the dish would reveal the nationality.
But they did a quite irresistable home-cooked version of said dish.
Until.
Until they decided that in order to make ends meet,
in a world of rising costs and prices,
this dish, along with other dishes on the menu,
had to have the ingredients altered --
it was stuffed with a non-identifiable starchy filler,
padding out the other ingredients.
Didn't look the same.
Didn't taste like its old self
(the filler had a sort of non-taste, if you know what I mean).
So obviously a cost-cutting measure,
stretching further the little one has.

It broke my pea-pickin' heart!

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Feb 20 - 03:43 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Helen
Date: 02 Mar 20 - 01:09 PM

Gurney, losing your best friend is devastating. You can pick your best friend, but not your family. You have my condolences.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Gurney
Date: 02 Mar 20 - 07:03 PM

Thanks, folks. He was buried on Saturday.
A brother from a different mother.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Helen
Date: 02 Mar 20 - 09:49 PM

I had one of those. A brother from a different mother. He has been gone for 10 years now.

I refer to him as the brother I never had.

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: keberoxu
Date: 05 Mar 20 - 04:44 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: BS: It's like losing an old friend...
From: Gurney
Date: 05 Mar 20 - 11:24 PM

Ok, keberoxu, here you go.
One of the things that I miss, in recent years, is proper chips. I see that these are called fries by those in the USA.

In the long ago, chip-shops cooked chips from specific potatoes and in larger batches. Then they kept and sold them from mesh-bottomed containers built over the seething hot cooking-fat. This meant that the chips were dripping surplus fat and drying a little to a slightly crisp coating.
Now they are spot-cooked to the order, and greasier, and often as a sideline to the shop's main line, a different ethnic food.
I miss those 'proper' chips.

I do like the ethnic stuff sometimes, but chips are special!