|
 When
Jan and Michael Stern, writers for Gourmet Magazine, went to the
town hall in Jamesville and asked how to find the Cypress Grill,
the directions were pretty simple: take a left as you go out the
door; go to the end of the street and look to your left, down the sharp
hill headin' straight into the Roanoke. Unless you're backing a boat
trailer, however, you'll stop just before you hit the water, right in
the tiny parking lot of the now famous Cypress Grill.
The Stern's visit was
covered in National Public Radio's "The Splendid Table" We missed
the broadcast but here's the link to the short printed version:
http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/whereweeat/stern_cypressgrill.shtml
The Feb. 20th edition
of the Raleigh News and Observer featured a article by Scott Sharpe in
it's Lifestyle section at
http://www.newsobserver.com/lifestyles/story/2143935p-8525611c.html
and on its post card section at
http://www.newsobserver.com/lifestyles/postcards/index.html
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 others.
Dining on herring at the Cypress Grill was the title of a
short article in the June 2004 issue of Metro Magazine. It quoted an
article in April 7th, 2004 edition of The New York Times under
the column "At the Nation's Table."
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 and packaged tourism.
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 over 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. Currently, local fishermen are
required to use nets with a 4-inch mesh which means their
chances of catching even a few of the sleek swimmers are slim to none.
The Cypress Grill 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) with a side of fried oysters, 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. (We recently stood
in a short line during a rain pushed by winds that made the
evening news and turned our umbrellas inside out!) You may strike up
a conversation with a local...or you may be talking to a traveler from
far away. Patience and congeniality prevail...even in a storm. It's all part of the
famous Cypress Grill experience.
|
