ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 13, 1996 TAG: 9607150053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: VIRGINIA EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER FINCASTLE
JUDGES, JANITORS AND average Joes were among Dee Minnix's loyal customers. And they were the ones who strolled in Friday for one last visit before her Village Shoppe Deli closes its doors for good.
Tom Roe was sitting at his usual table in Dee's Village Shoppe Deli, spooning beans up from a plastic foam plate.
"That mug says it all," the Fincastle lawyer said.
"Where the politically (in)correct solved the problems of the world over meals and coffee for 16 years," the coffee mug said on one side. The mugs were made up to commemorate the closing of Dee's, set for after the end of business Monday.
"It's a shame," Roe said. "It's a piece of America you'll never re-create."
Roe and what seemed to be the whole town of Fincastle found their way to Dee's one more time Friday to honor Dee Minnix, Janie Baker and Tai Ruff for providing a place to chat and a cup of coffee to do it over. In all, about 250 came to the tribute, organized by Botetourt Chamber of Commerce Executive Director and Fincastle Herald reporter Judy Harper and County Treasurer Benton Bolton. Proceeds from the event will be split among Minnix, Baker and Ruff.
Fincastle may be the county seat of Botetourt, but everyone in town knows the real county seats are around the dozen or so tables at Dee's.
"This is where government employees hang out," said Edwin Taylor, news editor and reporter for the Herald. "This is where you come to get stories. You hear about something, and it's always easy to follow up over here."
On any given day at lunch time, everybody from the sheriff and the county administrator to the people who keep the floors clean can be found dining, debating, gossiping and laughing at Dee's. You might find State Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, and retired Roanoke Times political writer Melville "Buster" Carico a few seats apart. Carico was at Dee's Friday as an alternate honoree. It was his 80th birthday.
It's a bipartisan dining room, according to Roe.
"Everybody gives their opinion, right, wrong or otherwise," he said.
The most recent debate topic?
"I think it was a comparative analysis of styles of restaurateurship," said Paul Fitzgerald, the one-time owner of the Herald who now describes himself as a "recovering journalist."
"In other words, 'Where we gonna eat next week?''' added Ben Williams, an electrician.
When there was a trial going on across the way at the courthouse, the judge, lawyers and the entire jury might all have ended up in Dee's together.
The jury sat in the back, the lawyers at the big table at the front of the dining room, and Judge George Honts at a seat at the round table by the window.
Honts shrugged off the notion that any court business was handled over Mountain Dew and ham and cheese sandwiches at Dee's, but he did offer this axiom:
"A hungry judge is not conducive to the administration of justice."
The judge may go hungry for a while yet, though, or get sick of shellfish.
After Dee serves up her last hot dog Monday, Fincastle will be left with one restaurant - Bill's Seafood.
George Moore, a Fincastle landowner, is renovating a building across the street from Dee's, but recent delays have put off his opening of the Hunter's Pub and the Fincastle Room.
The closing of Dee's was delayed twice in the past six months, according to Jay Etzler, Botetourt's commissioner of revenue and manager of the building. The idea was to keep Dee's open until Moore could get his place going.
"It was a tough decision," Etzler said. He found himself in a pinch between preserving a Fincastle institution and keeping a promise to another tenant in the building.
About two years ago, Dee Minnix turned her business over to Connie Sink. The name was changed to Connie's, and the atmosphere and the menu were pretty much the same, but the restaurant soon got in financial trouble.
With the lease on the restaurant space expired, Engineering Concepts Inc. inquired about expanding from its office upstairs into the restaurant. Etzler agreed, but then Dee asked if she could keep the restaurant open for a while on a month-to-month lease.
Etzler couldn't say no. Hal Bailey, president of Engineering Concepts, said he had no desire to run Dee's out of town anyway, since he eats there nearly every day. Minnix says she's grateful for the chance to get back some of the money she lost while she wasn't running the restaurant.
But even when Dee's is gone, Minnix's menu will live on at the Fincastle Room across the street. She has given Moore permission to offer his customers "Dee's Menu" along with his own more upscale fare.
No one was mourning Friday, though. People were just glad to be back in Dee's again, though the food - barbecue, chicken, cole slaw and beans - was not the deli vittles they were used to.
Ruff, a native of Japan, even whipped up a little sushi - definitely not a regular menu item at Dee's.
Come Tuesday, though, the place will be empty - except for Dee.
"I'll be in here cleaning up," she said. "And serving coffee to whoever wanders in."
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. 1. Dee Minnix has had the town ofby CNBFincastle behind her, in more ways than one. But the community nerve
center went into debt a few years ago, leading to the closing. 2.
(Left) Pearl Brown (center) and her son Ernest Brown say goodbye to
Minnix at her farewell party Friday. color.