Do you remember when the CUTTING BOARD was in Reidsville? Things change so quickly you might have trouble remembering it. It's was located across the street from the giant dildo. That's its doorway on the left. At the time, the dildo did not yet exist. You may or may not remember when the dildo was a Confederate soldier monument until somewhere rammed it with a van in the middle of the night. The monument had stood for more than 100 years which is a lot longer than the Reidsdville CUTTING BOARD lasted
Economic Developer Tammy Spencer brought the CUTTING BOARD to town. Of course the taxpayers were required to kick in on the financing for the project. The CUTTING BOARD soon failed. The taxpayers even built a really nice parking lot for the CUTTING BOARD, but it didn't help.
You can read the announcement about the CUTTING BOARD here Apparently, there were some delays, but Reidsville persevered, threw some money at the project, and hung in there.
I managed to go to the Reidsville CUTTING BOARD on what turned out to be its next to the last day. I tried to order the Friday fried chicken special. but I was told they were all out of chicken. As it turned out, they were probably out of a lot of ingredients because the next day the CUTTING BOARD shut down for good. No one knew the shutdown was coming, not even our waitress who couldn't supply the fried chicken special. Surprise! The next day she had no job.
The CUTTING BOARD was replaced by the VAULT. It was named after the old vault which was part of the Bank of Reidsville that once occupied the building. The vault in the Vault held up to three or four bottles of wine. The Vault failed too. It was replaced by HEFFINGER-HEIST which also soon failed. It was replaced by the HALFTIME HEADQUARTERS which also quickly failed.
The $1,000,000 restaurant has stood empty for several years now, waiting for the next sucker to come along. It did not turn out to be a very good investment for the Reidsville taxpayers. Tammy's judgment was somewhat flawed.
It's hard to understand how a restaurant can fail in Reidsville. But, Sonic has opened and closed three times. The Family Diner has gone down three times. Understanding how a Reidsville restaurant fails is kinda like understanding how Donald Trump could financially destroy a casino, but he did it.
Reidsville folk will eat almost any kind of crap, love it, and want more and more. When a Reidsville restaurant fails there has to be some serious problem that is not visible to the public eye.
The media and city hall hype over the promise of a Biscuitville coming to Reidsville is an example of how Reidsville restaurants can unexpectedly fail. You can be surprised if Biscuitville fails, but watch for some other place(s) to feel the pinch of too many biscuits.
This is the original Cutting Board. It's located in Burlington. The Reidsville Cutting Board was to be an offspring of this Cutting Board. The Burlington Cutting Board has been around for 50 years.
The Reidsville Cutting Board probably lasted less than two years, even with Tammy's help and all the City perks.
The last time we ate at the Burlington Cutting Board was probably 40 years ago when it was just a steakhouse. The restaurant was packed when we made a return visit. Reidsville didn't care for its Cutting Board, but Burlington definitely loves it.
We were at the Burlington Cutting Board on a Sunday when they were offering a Sunday buffet brunch. I decided to avoid the menu and ordered the buffet. As you see, I leaned to the breakfast side of the buffet. My plate had scrambled eggs, hash browns (really large hash browns), bacon, and an unexpected smoked sausage. To the left of my plate was another plate that contained a waffle that the omelette chef made for me. The waffle was great. I had been wanting a waffle for a long time. The egg plate was routine, not bad but nothing spectacular.
Debbie had an omelette. She said nothing about it, so I suppose it was adequate.
We should have ordered from the menu to get a real idea of how things are at the original Cutting Board, but we didn't. You'll have to go yourself if you want to know.
All I can tell you is their waffles are good.
Notice the three-pronged forks. This is standard at the Cutting Board.
Debbie made me a dessert plate with a variety of choices. Nothing stood out. I was able to eat some of everything on the dessert plate. I tried it all, but finished none of it.
When we returned home we made a detour through Haw River and Graham. It was amazing the number of small factories that are operating in these two tiny towns. These factories were not there when I grew up in Haw River. They have sprung up overnight. In just a two mile stretch, Haw River puts Reidsville to shame in economic development.
We didn't go through Mebane, but I know it's a metropolis compared to Reidsville. It's another tiny town that has boomed while Reidsville has withered.
This is the real reason we drove to Burlington, to see my nephew's new daughter, Sawyer. That's her mother, Brooke, holding her. Believe it or not, Sawyer likes strawberries, lemon, and lime. Note Sawyer has no teeth. She gnaws and sucks the fruits.
This Illustrated Man is my nephew, Jason. He has been all over the world serving as a fire fighter. He's just returned from Iraq. He's been in Afghanistan and the Marshall Islands and other places I don't even know. He's now a fire fighter in Carrboro. And, yes, the tattoos also cover his chest and he does not own a motorcycle.
