We bid farewell to a good friend today. A favorite restaurant is closing this week, so we ate one last lunch there. There are other restaurants in town where boiled peanuts are served as an appetizer, where waitresses are friendly, and where the food is good. But we will miss Satterfield’s.
This is a place where we’ve taken several out-of-town visitors to experience good southern food and atmosphere. It’s a spot where we’ve happily bumped into friends and enjoyed an impromptu reunion. We treasure the memories of conversations on the porch, meals in the sunken dining area, and the delight on the waitress’s face when our grandson ate everything he had ordered – and it was a lot! We even had our favorite parking spot.
Many final experiences are enjoyed without knowing it’s the last time you’ll be there doing that. In this case, the owner announced a few weeks ago that the restaurant will be closing. Happily, he’s just slowing down, not stopping. So some recipes and menu items will live on at another restaurant in town, but we will miss Satterfield’s.
One of my first thoughts when I read about the plans was, “where will that guy eat?” ‘That guy’ being a regular customer. He’s been there every time we’ve been for lunch, sitting at the same table. I wrote about him here. So, today I asked our waitress about him. She said he was wondering the same thing.
We are certainly not the only ones feeling the melancholy today. One waitress said, “it’s hitting me now. I’ve been in denial for three weeks, but today it seems real.” Other customers were ordering everything on the menu, to taste it all one last time. Some were taking selfies with their favorite waitress. One woman was there alone, her husband’s poor health having kept her away in recent months. But she had made special arrangements today to come have lunch. The staff pampered her with extra attention.
That’s the biggest thing we will miss. The love that was served with the food.
