Hard times are not over yet in my town

[SoCalDem]

Last night, during a let-up in the rain, I decided that we needed to eat at a restaurant.. One of our favorites, P.H. Woods , is not far, so we headed there..

Wow.. lots of parking places..

and then we saw that it was "dark"..

and the big ole sign on the door said " AVAILABLE"

It was open as recently as our son;s birthday Dec 15...it looked busy that night, and the parking lot was always pretty full..

and now it's gone..

I was hoping it was a chain, so we could seek out a different location, but it was a stand-alone restaurant..and now it's just another empty building.. Right next to it is the still empty former Don Jose restaurant

no more onion straws, home made cole slaw & potato salad,,and no more of the best pulled pork I ever had.:(


It was also a micro-brewery..and the bar was always packed..

But hey.. we have a bazillion taco, pizza & hamburger drive-thru wonders :grr:

[lonestarnot]

1. Guess you just have to cook something now.

:(

[SoCalDem]

2. I cook most nights.. I had Cabin-Fever

We ended up at Applebee's and it was ok..but not great :)

I feel sad for the people who lost their jobs ten days before Xmas.. I know that the bartender and her two sisters worked there, as did a two-brothers combo..

It was such a nice place, we always thought it was a chain-type place.

[lonestarnot]

3. I'm sorry.

:( :hug:

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. We have lost, in the past 2 years,

The only video rental store ( Redbox has moved in, since)
2 small family owned drive ins, sorta like Dairy Queens used to be
2 family owned pharmacies ( elderly owner/town icon died, which is why one closed)

One good sized supermarket, right after Wal-mart announced it was building a Super Center in town.

4-5 medium sized paper mills..paper mills are a big thing in this area.

2 Vanity Fair plants, one was a dye house.
Vanity Fair was THE employer in this town all thru the 20's up until 1980's, then slowly, section by section, it
started closing some of the plants.
Today, when I read the increasing number of obituaries around the county, of people aged 70 and older,
mostly women, a former job at Vanity Fair is listed about 80% of the time.

Oil leasing company office is closed..dunno when that happened.

Boutique "this and that" store just closed. It catered to the younger "southern diva" type clientèle,
had "cute" things, like painted purses, beribboned this, polka dotted that, nothing remotely necessary
for living, only gifts. It had lasted about 2 years.

Around the square ( all southern towns have a square) about 1/3 of the buildings are empty.

Real estate sales WAY down, foreclosures very high.
Desperate people overpricing their "For sale by owner" houses.

Dog pound is full, and turnover is high. They are a kill shelter, sadly.
The animal control officer tells me there is huge increase in dumped pets around town..people just leave the animals on the street or side of road. Don't even bother to drive the 2 miles to the pound.

Food prices are climbing.

There is an air of tension, depression, around town, lots of people seem subdued and quiet, not the energy level I usually see at the PO or the stores. Overall, GRIM.

[Systematic Chaos]

4. Really sorry to hear that.

I feel bad for the (likely) family which worked their asses off to keep such a proud place open.

I hope you find a decent replacement somewhere close by which you can support.

:(

[tjwash]

6. The Fish Merchant in San Carlos had their building foreclosed on a few months ago...

...that place had been on Navajo forever. They moved to a little storefront on Jackson, but they don't have the business it looks like it will take to keep them open for very long, and they don't have the liquor license anymore, which is killing their business as well.

Meanwhile, Nicholosis moved in to the old Fish Merchant building from Adobe Falls off of the 8, to Navajo. Still trying to figure that one out...first they were going out of business last year at this time, then some relatives buy them out, now they are buying out whole buildings, moving, and doing OK.

Tough, cut-throat business to be in, those restaurateurs.