Eminent Domain

Eminent Domain

Finch's Fine Foods... The joint opened in 1945 as a Drive In. Curb Service is still stenciled on the window, and the canopy still leads into the building.

Finch's will be closing at the end of October, to make room for an updated and expanded expressway intersection.

A "meat and three" place, where the waitresses all called you "hon". Raleigh without Finch's will be like breakfast without grits and biscuits, or tea without sugar.

Peggy Jin bought the place in the 90's. It worried some folks, that she might change things too much. But the veteran staff (and customers) helped her to see the light. Especially when she figured out that Southern cooking was easier than Chinese food. "It's not that fancy. It's a big piece of meat."

Jin remembered that the restaurant's barbeque chicken looked good. But the barbecue pork? “I said, ‘What the hell is that?’ I’d never seen that in New York City.”

I'm hoping to duck in the door one more time and scribble on the wall before they tear down one more reminder of the little town that Raleigh used to be.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/article84390762.html




Comments

  1. Cee ThornSeptember 16, 2016 at 8:55 AM

    Well I hope she gets fairly compensated. Sorry to see the old haunts go by the wayside. :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. Drew McCarthySeptember 16, 2016 at 9:13 AM

    They used to feed the gummint hogs there, back in the day, before they built the fancy new legislature building with its own cafeteria in the basement (which has quite good food, to this day). They also couldn't compete with the ambiance (and food) of Big Ed's, opened over in City Market, in 1989.

    ReplyDelete
  3. John BumpSeptember 16, 2016 at 9:13 AM

    "We'll build a bigger road" and three years later traffic congestion is just as bad as it was when they started plus you've lost all the things where the road now sits. Progress!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Drew McCarthySeptember 16, 2016 at 9:29 AM

    Well, they're in an awkward place, next to a badly aging retaining wall that a busy expressway sits on top of, and very close to another busy cross street that gets pinched by the narrow bridge width, and short, steep, tight radius ramps. Lots of accidents and congestion, over the years. I have no love for the sub-geniuses at NCDOT, but they're not making the wrong call here. I imagine it went to eminent domain because of the difficulties of putting a dollar value on nostalgia, and the high costs of starting somewhere else from scratch.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Geo. TirebiterSeptember 16, 2016 at 11:20 AM

    the older one gets, the more beloved food establishments disappear. It's merely science: things change.

    ReplyDelete

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