During my early years in the 1930’s and 1940’s, “Dining out” meant going to a friend’s house for supper or grandmother’s house for dinner after church on Sunday. While I’m certain there were one or two restaurants in Front Royal, meals in such were unknown to me although I do remember a place on Route 11 mid-way to Roanoke where we occasionally stopped to get “a foot-long hotdog” to be eaten in the car on the long drive to visit our grandparents and family.
But my first dinner at a real restaurant took place after we had moved to Roanoke during World War II when my dad, a U.S. Navy doctor, had a brief furlough home before heading overseas to the war in the Pacific. Two other family members were also on leave, so all our kin gathered to celebrate in style at Hotel Roanoke. Prior to that time, a root-beer float at the local pharmacy while waiting for a prescription was a treat. And equally exciting had been a sandwich and milkshake at the five-and-dime store counter if shopping at lunch time.
It was later when that single meal at the Hotel Roanoke introduced me to true elegance. We had linen tablecloths and napkins—folded grandly—with china plates and heavy silverware. An elegant waiter in formal attire—not a waitress—served us in grand style, smoothly lifting the cover off each dinner plate to present our main entrée. Though disappointed that root beer was not on the menu, chocolate milk satisfied me and the truly delicious meals were happily consumed by all. Thus the benchmark for fine dining was indelibly set in my mind for restaurants.
However, another type eatery was beginning to line the streets in towns across the nation—the Drive-In Restaurant. And while elegance was not their goal, excellent fast-food was. Only paper napkins graced the trays carried to the car by smartly glad carhops—but who noticed the loss of linen since most attention was on the carhop. The first carhops had begun at the turn into the 1900s when young boys employed at pharmacy soda fountains also carried drinks to customers waiting in carriages, not cars, outside.
So after the car defined travel near and far, hiring guys for drive-in carhops—later replaced by girls—was the natural spin. While drive-in car service reached its peak in the 1950s, carhops were soon replaced by drive-ins with orders given on an intercom and food paid for and picked up at the drive-through window. Think McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pieta Serra and so many more. For my children, one of those chains for “dinner out” proved their early choice. They would gladly forgo linen napkins and tablecloths present at home—where dishes had to be washed by hand prior to dishwashers. The drive-in demanded no post-meal effort beyond hitting the wastebasket.
Thankfully childhood tastes changed as they matured. And how lucky they feel to be in Harrisonburg today where dozens of local restaurants offer good food and such a wide variety of choices. At the local Joshua Wilton one finds outstanding cuisine served indoors or on the patio plus the luxury of savoring your fare at your own rate—three-hour meals not unusual with
soft music providing counterpoint to easy conversation and art works by local artists to draw interest. National journals have ranked the restaurant outstanding. Thus Downtown 51 [was] eager to follow suit but both food and bar tabs lack the grand treatment of the Joshua Wilton— although offered at many of the same prices.
Many of the more popular local restaurants not only offer delicious fare with a foreign flavor but also art. For example, at Saigon Café Vietnamese costumes, musical instruments, and handmade artifacts of a distant past line the walls. Taste of Thai provides good food and paintings by local artists for sale. L’talia tempts with fine Italian cooking and larger reminders of life before World War II, their walls showcasing photographic images of the Italy of earlier times. Taste of India lines its walls with grand paintings. In the not so distant past less swanky but popular restaurants like the Little Grill hung celebrity customer photos or local postcards for a lighter show.
Today the local phone book fills pages 483 to 494 with lists of restaurants plus menus. Dining out has taken on a rich new flavor!
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