Skip to main content

Knot a Rumour

And so it has come to pass. The rumored closure of the Tomato Palace is now a fact. When I wrote about this in March of 2016 the post elicited mixed feelings from readers. Most were excited about the prospect of a music venue at the Lakefront. Still, they lamented the possibility of losing affordable, family-friendly food in that location.


                                      (These faithful patrons were unavailable for comment.)

Most of the responses I saw yesterday as the news broke were about the same. Excitement at what a live music venue would bring to Downtown Columbia, sadness at losing a sentimental hometown favorite. As is the case in so many Columbia iconic institutions, I wonder if we just thought it would always be there, rather than actually ensuring its future by regular patronage. If The Tomato Palace had been, and continued to be, wildly successful I'm not sure that the Clyde's restaurant folks would have been brainstorming other uses for that space.

My experience taking my teen daughter to Iota Club and Café in Arlington gave me a more vivid view of what a live music venue could look like.  I do hope that the new venture at the Lakefront will consider hosting regular underage nights and book talent that will draw high school and college kids. It takes work to do that right but I think that we need to factor in the needs and desires of young people as we revitalize our Downtown. There's got to be more than movies and the Mall for them during the Merriweather off-season.

When I received the press release yesterday outlining the restaurant's closure and future plans, I thought to myself, laughingly, "It's all because of the garlic knots."

If you don't know the story of the garlic knots, let me know, and I'll tell you. Or ask someone who has lived here a long time. Suffice it to say that the garlic knots were right up there with the Poinsettia Tree in the third rail of Columbia essentials. How important were they?

Well, before I went to bed last night I spotted this response of social media:

"That's too bad. I used to go there all the time but I stopped when they got rid of the garlic knots."

I hope the new place is wildly successful. I have another suggestion for them: bring back the knots. Such a small thing, but it just might yield big dividends.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...
2 comments
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more