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DEPARTMENTS JANUARY 2010

Hidden History —We Are What We Eat

Memories of Hampton Roads often involve regional foods and restaurants.

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Bookmark and Share By Ben Swenson


It’s tough to separate the history of Hampton Roads from the foods enjoyed here by locals since the earliest times: fresh seafood from the Chesapeake Bay, for instance, or peanuts plucked out of the ground and processed in Suffolk. This strong culinary tradition is one reason that Hampton Roads is a foodie’s paradise. Even as national chains—certainly valuable in their own right—make it hard to distinguish one part of the country from another, Hampton Roads is still graced with an eclectic blend of restaurants, groceries and farmers’ markets. Indeed, some locals’ fondest memories involve food and drink and the people and places that made these encounters possible.

Many of the eateries that served Hampton Roads residents for decades are, regrettably, no longer part of the landscape. After all, food service is an especially tough business; it’s often difficult for restaurants and other establishments to survive the winds of change. But these bygone cantinas live on in the fond recollections of the patrons they served for so many years. There was Hurds in Virginia Beach and The Circle in Portsmouth. The Peninsula had its share too, like Nick’s Seafood Pavilion along the Yorktown waterfront. Several dairies, among them Bergey’s and Yoder, offered milk delivery to loyal customers’ front doors. The list of longtime residents’ favorite—if faded—dives is virtually endless. And while these places have scaled down, changed hands or shuttered their windows, they remain part of the region’s historic character.

Fortunately, Hampton Roads residents can still patronize local favorites, found only in Southeast Virginia, that are still very much in business. Doumar’s Cones and Barbecue, for instance, enjoys legendary status—it’s hard to imagine Monticello Avenue without the bright sign and curbside service. Even though the secret is out (it has been featured on television’s Food Network and in the pages of the Washington Post), Doumar’s remains quintessentially local. Other lesser-known neighborhood spots dot the landscape, too. Warwick Restaurant in Newport News, for example, has served family-style meals for decades in the same tidy hideaway off Warwick Boulevard despite years of ongoing road and building construction all around it.

A particularly admired eatery graces our region because one woman refused to let go of her fond memories. High’s Ice Cream once boasted hundreds of stores in Virginia and Maryland. The chain served their renowned banana split and hand-dipped ice cream with kid-friendly monikers, such as the ever-popular Charlie Brown. By 1990, however, High’s stores faced stiff competition and an economy in recession, and franchise owners were forced to close up shop. By the late 1990s, it seemed as though High’s would be all but relegated to the annals of history.

Enter Valerie Royall, an experienced ice cream shop manager and fan of High’s Ice Cream’s signature fare and classic parlor furnishings. She took over the last remaining High’s in Portsmouth’s Hodges Manor neighborhood with the intention of resurrecting the languishing icon. Royall changed very little; the atmosphere, service and selection are just as they have been for decades. Today, High’s Ice Cream, the only one left in Virginia, is as popular as ever, in no small part because Royall, like so many other Hampton Roads residents, recognizes that the foods we eat and the places we enjoy them are part of who we are.

Know a story that needs to be retold? Email your suggestions for Hidden History to benswenson@cox.net.



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