Blessings
Julia and Dakota at table for Thanksgiving supperThree years ago, I’d never have dreamed Saxapahaw would require over forty people to provide its food and drink. Yet, surely as I write this, Saxapahaw General Store and The Eddy Pub, the village’s sister food spots, employ about forty-five cooks, servers, runners, bartenders, cashiers, stocking dishers, merchandisers, wine tasters, garden mavens, kitchen wizards, table makers, and a bean counter (me). We also keep several local farmers...
November 28th, 2011 by Cameron
A baby, a ballroom, and a front porch freezer
Along with the just fading azaleas and the fully resplendent irises, the village of Saxapahaw struts her colors in the high spring season of the North Carolina piedmont. My partner Jeff and I are entering our fourth Saturdays at Saxapahaw season as proprietors of Saxapahaw General Store, but it’s this among all years that I am most struck by the bloom in this place. I have to admit that though I grew up on a farm and spent much time outside as a child, I became a rather unseeing traveler...
May 6th, 2011 by Saxapahaw General Store
On Hallow’s Eve
On Halloween Sunday, I sit outside the cashier’s window at the General Store in Saxapahaw, close enough to hear the chirping of the register and the crackling of sauces on the stove top and the clinking of forks on plates. A breeze tickles the remaining tree leaves and threatens to scatter the sheet music as Lisa and Gordon play Satie and Brahms and Debussy for fiddle and piano on the patio that overlooks the fuel pumps. Their music is punctuated and occasionally overshadowed by motorists rumbling...
November 6th, 2010 by Cameron
Saxapahaw General Store on UNC-TV
April 10, 2010 — The Saxapahaw General Store, Saxapahaw, NC Its a gas station. A general store. its also a gourmet restaurant that Bob Garner can’t stop raving about. Originally broadcast on UNC TV, April 4, 2010. If you can see this, then you might need a Flash Player upgrade or you need to install Flash Player if it's missing....
April 13th, 2010 by Cameron
Penny Jar Economics
The penny jar as an economic phenomenon has gained a presence (at least since I began taking notice) in a great number of shops and markets, usually where the employees have some control over their check-out counters. The vessel itself varies depending on the character of the space. The old Saxapahaw General Store used the cut off bottom of a Coke cup; now we have graduated to a small porcelain plate, though we shan’t get above ourselves too much. Some clever folks, to explain the procedure,...
January 9th, 2010 by Cameron
Prosperity
Jeff will object to my regionalist comment here, but he is from Michigan, a land that is bereft of the Southern culinary ritual of eating black-eyed peas and collard greens on New Year’s Day in our attempt to draw dollars-and-coins-style increase for the coming year. Because of this cultural gap, he forgets to order peas in time for the holiday and has tried to pass off something similar as the real thing. Last year, he actually made hoppin’ john with Great Northern beans to the dismay...
January 8th, 2010 by Cameron
An Interview
Last week, Jeff and I were asked to participate in an interview, of sorts, for a convenience store (c-store, in the biz) trade magazine–CSP (Convenience Store/Petroleum) Independent. We were intrigued. I’ve no idea what will come of it, but I’ve just finished answering the questions for the fellow who wrote us, and I wanted to post them here in full. Interesting is that the person who inquired is from the Chicago area, and said he read of the store in the Chapel Hill/Durham Herald...
November 10th, 2009 by Cameron
and the village was quiet
Saxapahaw has developed a certain kind of double life since the summer farmers’ market began here five years ago. In the summer, it becomes the quirky destination for folks from the hinterlands, who descend upon the village once per week from the distant burgs of Chapel Hill and Burlington to enjoy local music and local food before returning home and spelling the name of the town to their friends who’ve never heard of it before. Somehow the Saturday bustle carries forth all week energetically,...
October 17th, 2009 by Cameron
The Case of the Leaky Cooler
Coke vs. PepsiIn the United States, it seems our democracy, in tandem with our free market capitalism, has come to mean that we are endowed by our Creator with the inalienable right to choose sides. And there are usually two. And most (if not all) are actually corporations. There’s Tar Heel or Blue Devil. GM or Ford. PC or Mac. Visa or Mastercard. Pepsi or Coke. Army or Navy. Democrat or Republican. This tendency to choose one of a limited number of sides has become deeply ingrained in the American...
June 14th, 2009 by Cameron
Re-organization
Because we have already asked much of the space in our little store, the products on the shelves have gotten pretty comfortable having unlikely neighbors. They protested for a while, but then I think they realized they had more in common than they originally thought, given the proper context. Take, for instance, our fishing worms, which are now nestled cozily next to the wine tools and the picnic baskets. Worms and wine seem like an odd juxtaposition at first. But add to that mix a pole and a spot...
May 31st, 2009 by Cameron
Turn down your thermostat
Every degree lower in the winter or higher in the summer you put it is a 10 percent decrease on your energy bill.
Every degree lower in the winter or higher in the summer you put it is a 10 percent decrease on your energy bill.
