The Death of the Greasy Spoon

I love greasy spoons. My hometown of Frederick, MD had several. From SpliceToday:

My favorite meal is breakfast. I’d happily skip the other two meals of the day if it meant a huge brunch around 11 with cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, shredded hash browns with onion, Scrapple if they have it and an English muffin with orange marmalade. There are only a few places I can get this meal in my local area, and one of them is about to close.

Holly’s Restaurant, located on Route 50 (on the way “down the Ocean” for Marylanders) has been open since 1955. It’s still in the same family. The sign says it’s the “Meeting Place of the Eastern Shore,” and it’s true that on any given day you’ll see politicians, watermen, and local families dining on the fried chicken, meatloaf, ice cream, and other homemade goodies. It’s always been my favorite place to meet a friend for coffee; I usually choose the “Shore Scrambler,” which is a unique chopped-up blend of eggs, sausage, hash browns, onion, mushrooms, tomato, cheese and (for me) skip-the-green-peppers.

I’ll miss it. I cannot blame the family at all for selling to Royal Farms, but it’s very sad. They’ve held down the fort for nearly 60 years, much longer than most businesses could even imagine staying open. My kids loved the placemats that required knowledge of the 50 states; only the first letters were given and no matter how many times we went, we could never think of all the “M” states right away. Sometimes the placemat was a 50 states word scramble, which is exactly what you’d have to do to find all the states during your visit. (Read more.)

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