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Cypress Grill Makes the Big
Time |
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 Millions
of people have read about this quaint little riverside grill over the
past decade. Along with local and regional magazines and newspapers,
it's been featured in Smithsonian, Southern Living and other
magazines.
The restaurant, which sits at the bottom of "the hill" on the bank of the Roanoke in
Jamesville is used to attention, though.
Thousands of people from all over the country get off the main drags and
trek over to Jamesville just for a taste of the local
delicacies...and of authenticity, a vanishing trait in a world of slick,
theme franchise eateries.
Traditionally open only during “herring season”,
the restaurant serves thousands of plates of fried herring and row,
fried rock and rock stew, perch and other fish from January to just
after Easter. In recent years the menu has been expanded to include
oysters and shrimp, too.
“Got any herring?”
When Cypress Grill operators Leslie and Sally Gardner started
running the restaurant close to 30 years ago, their children would get
up early and make the catch for the day before school started. Recent
restrictions on herring and rock catches have meant Leslie now has to
make long trips every day to buy fish. Often, supplies are limited and
the customer who gets the last plate of steaming, fried herring cooked
to order (hard enough to eat the bones, but not so hard the meat’s not
white, thank you) considers himself lucky, indeed. But even those
unlucky enough to miss the spring delicacy soon settle on a substitute
—like perch or rock (striped bass) topped off with a delicious piece of homemade chocolate or lemon pie.
Celebrities and ordinary Joes are all treated the same. If there's
a line, take your place and wait like everybody else. You may strike up
a conversation with a local...or you may be talking to a traveler from
far away. It's all part of the experience.
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Leslie Gardner (left) and wife Sally
(seated) who operate the Grill, writer Eddie Nickens,
Cypress Grill owner "Red" Roberson, and local fisherman Guy Cox,
talk about the Grill for Nickens article in Smithsonian
Magazine.
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“I’ve made an annual pilgrimage to the Cypress
Grill for years—ever since I started fishing the Roanoke for shad and
striped bass,” says Eddie Nickens, the author of the Smithsonian
article. “I’m not sure what I like the most—the taste of herring,
the smell of the river, or the Gardners’ friendliness to everyone who
walks through the door.”
Nickens also writes for National Wildlife, Audubon,
Backpacker and National Geographic Adventure.
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