THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 1, 1996 TAG: 9602010303
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: By MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
Rumors and then sad facts flashed around Elizabeth City Wednesday faster than a fire in a hayloft:
``The Oxena's closing!''
``So's the Vicki-Villa!''
In a cruel coincidence of timing, two of Elizabeth City's best-known landmarks soon will become memories.
In small but intimate ways, the downtown Oxena newsstand and the Vicki-Villa restaurant on U.S. 17 just north of town touched the daily lives of hundreds of Albemarle residents.
Vicki-Villa Restaurant, where a loyal coterie of locals swapped gossip over breakfast, lunch or dinner, served up a last supper and locked the door Sunday, leaving 17 employees out of work.
The legendary Oxena News Stand & Sandwich Shop at 108 McMorrine St., in the heart of the downtown business district, will close at 1 p.m. Feb. 23, officials confirmed Wednesday.
Managers of both institutions said the prospect of increased operating costs was more than they wanted to handle.
Since 1953, the Oxena has been a window on the world where Elizabeth City business people could find the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal; where ladies could scan a dozen different fashion magazines or the latest paperback romance; and where monstrous beef sandwiches called Oxaburgers sizzled all day on the stand's busy grills.
Police officers, judges and the district attorney planned their daily legal conflicts over morning coffee in the Oxena. Lawyers and clientsswapped pleasantries with their opponents before heading up the street to the courthouse. Schoolchildren swarmed around the Oxena soda fountain after classes. And many a young love was pledged to last forever in the storefront - before fading in a single afternoon.
``How do I feel? How do you think I feel?'' asked Deborah Bulliner, who has run the Oxena with her family since her parents first leased the property and opened the store in 1953. ``A lot of my life has gone into this place.''
Bulliner has ruled the Oxena with a strong hand since the death of her mother and the long illness of her father, Robert Bulliner.
The store was named for Deborah Bulliner's late mother, Evelyn Oxena Wilson Bulliner. Robert Bulliner started the Oxena and also founded the Elizabeth City News Co., which distributed magazines and newspapers throughout the Albemarle.
The decision to close the Oxena this month came from John H. McPherson Jr., general manager of K&S News in Winston-Salem. K&S is a subsididary of Piedmont News Co., Inc. Piedmont and K&S bought out the Bulliners. But Deborah stayed on to run the Oxena that she knew so well.
``The owners of the building notified us they would have to raise the rent,'' said McPherson. The Oxena occupies about 4,200 square feet of space that is leased for slightly less than $1,000 a month, he said. William Ashburn Jr., and the Hintonsville Group Inc. of Elizabeth City are the current owners of the stucco-faced structure that has been the Oxena's home.
``The way the figures work out, we'll be losing money if we have to absorb a rent increase,'' McPherson said. ``We've made an offer to Deborah Bulliner and to Robin Stallings, who is the manager of the Oxena's food operation. And we hope they'll stay with us.''
A half-dozen other Oxena employees are destined to lose their jobs.
``The worst five hours I ever spent in my life was driving down from Winston-Salem this week and knowing I had to tell them at the Oxena that we were closing the place,'' said McPherson.
Ashburn, the Hintonsville Group executive and Oxena building owner, said it would be improper for him to discuss the so-far failed negotiations.
The closing of the Vicki Villa Restaurant also involved a disagreement over rents, said an attorney representing Benny and Martha Bray, who operated the elegant eating establishment.
Vicki Villa was built in 1948 by Walton Jennette and soon became one of the first and most successful upscale motels on the East Coast.
The restaurant evolved over the years to include an equally prosperous dining room and meeting place for movers and shakers in the Albemarle. ILLUSTRATION: NEWSSTAND, RESTAURANT CLOSING
[Color Photo]
DREW C. WILSON
The Virginian-Pilot
Deborah Bulliner, who has run the Oxena with her family since her
parents first leased the property and opened the store in 1953,
says, ``A lot of my life has gone into this place.'' The store was
named for Deborah Bulliner's late mother, Evelyn Oxena Wilson
Bulliner.
by CNB