Is Jack Arnold having a midlife crisis? The outspoken owner of Arnold’s Country Kitchen scoffs at the notion. “Midlife crisis?” he snorts. “Nah. I don’t have the time. And who needs it? I live on the edge every single day.”
But customers who line up Monday through Friday at lunchtime for fried green tomatoes, roast beef, and blackberry cobbler have been somewhat taken aback, alarmed even, by the startling cosmetic overhaul recently performed on the tremendously popular meat ‘n three spot on Eighth Avenue South. What’s going on with Jack, they are wondering.
The nondescript, white-washed cinderblock building now sports a brilliant coat of fresh paint in an eye-catching hue somewhere between terracotta and red. Just in case there is any doubt as to its ownership, “Arnold’s” has been painted on the south wall in big, bold, yellow block letters.
Jack, a Vanderbilt University fine arts alum, and his wife Rose, a native of Columbia, opened Arnold’s 20 years ago. After two decades, Jack felt it was time for a little sprucing up. He will be making some more improvements on the exterior property, including for the first time lining the blacktop with defined parking spaces. “People have no idea how to park,” he says. “They just pull in and turn their car off. It’s a mess and very annoying.”
Inside, he will be doing some more painting, as well as replacing the tablecloths. No menu changes are planned, which will be a relief to all. He will also be opening soon for breakfast, as well as for Sunday lunch. “I just can’t make a living on lunch,” he says. “If things don’t get better, I’ll have to get out of this business.” That’s a threat he’s been making for at least 19 years. Some things never change.
Arnold’s is currently open 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mon.-Fri. The phone number is 256-4455.
Sowing Oats
Another exterior revamp has alarmed corporate-skittish free-thinkers in the Belmont neighborhood. With no forewarning to customers—or store employees, for that matter—a large truck pulled into the parking lot of Sunshine Grocery a few weeks ago, and in short order huge letters spelling “Wild Oats” had been slapped onto the front of the purple building, a Boulevard fixture since 1989.
Sunshine Grocery, a local pioneer in the health food industry, was opened on the Music Row section of Broadway in 1972 by Lin and Cam Cameron, Don Safer, and Tom and Phyllis Salter. In January 1998, the store was purchased by Wild Oats, the second-largest natural foods supermarket chain in North America. Founded in the mid-’80s as a single market in Boulder, Colo., Wild Oats has grown through a combination of acquiring existing stores and building new ones. Its purchase of Sunshine more than three years ago was of momentous import to the store’s devoted customers, who feared that the grocery would lose the cozy familiarity and friendly personal service that, in addition to healthy, organic foods, was the trade-off for higher prices.
Wild Oats officials admitted that a remodel and expansion of the Sunshine space were in the works, but they assured customers that the market would be the same, just better. In fact, none of Sunshine’s employees were let go in the ownership transfer; the modernization of services and general brightening of the interior went smoothly; and the inventory in several departments was vastly expanded, as was the selection of prepared foods in the takeout deli. Through all the changes, the name Sunshine Grocery remained.
A little more than a year after the acquisition of Sunshine, Wild Oats announced that it had purchased the recently vacated Service Merchandise store in the heart of Green Hills. The new 18,000-square-foot store devoted to natural foods and a healthy lifestyle opened Nov. 11, 1999, and proved to be a welcome addition to the community. Nonetheless, diehard devotees of Sunshine refused to forgo their loyalty to the smaller neighborhood market, even if was owned by a corporation.
Now they will at least have to change the name they write on their checks. In addition to the new sign, employees are now sporting uniforms—a company-wide directive. Previously, staff wore a Sunshine Grocery apron over their own clothes; now managers wear a denim shirt with the Wild Oats logo, and staff wear black knit polo shirts with the Wild Oats logo.
Still, assistant service manager Rick Taylor, who has been at the store for 10 years, hired by the original owners when he was just 19, assures customers they have nothing to fear. “We have gotten a lot of feedback about the sign,” he says. “Some of them are a little concerned about losing the name. And I understand that. But I know 90 percent of our customers on a first-name basis. Our employees know them. That won’t change. We have been a community market, and we will stay that way.”
Not everyone is convinced. Customer, neighborhood resident and activist, and Realtor Barbara Moutenot was surprised to see the new sign, and she was even more taken aback by the uniforms. “I hate the uniforms; that was a shock to walk in the store and see everyone dressed alike,” she says. “The sign is pretty alarming too. One day it was Sunshine Grocery, and then it was Wild Oats. I feel like we have lost a unique component of our neighborhood. We have lost a community market and are now just a part of a chain. But it will always be Sunshine to me.”
Wild Oats, formerly known as Sunshine Grocery, is at 3201 Belmont Blvd. Phone: 297-5100. Open 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Sat.; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sun.
Fork it over
My friend Sumi is not a material girl, to say the least. She and her husband, a computer whiz who works for the public school system, live modestly in a small bungalow in Boulder, Colo. A former lawyer and high school teacher, she now stays at home with her two young sons. She has no Manolo Blahniks in her closet, no luxury car or behemoth SUV in her driveway, and her glassware is a mismatched collection of sippee cups and recycled jelly jars.
But for some reason, she has recently become, well, I wouldn’t say obsessed—but passionately interested in flatware. She has been looking at patterns, investigating prices, and browsing specialty stores and the Web. When I went to visit her recently in Colorado, the subject came up several times.
After returning from vacation, I started sorting through the pile of mail that had accumulated during my absence. Within that pile was a large and heavy package containing a box of flatware, and I immediately thought of Sumi.
Gourmet Settings Inc. is a Canadian flatware company that specializes in making quality, high-design, affordable flatware. It has just introduced its Get Set Collection. Within that are two sets, Urban and Classic, and within each set are four patterns: Urban has Loft, Metro, Soho, and Taxi; Classic offers Mayfair, Oxford, Savoy, and Strand.
Made out of high-definition steel, the utensils are heavy, sturdy, dishwasher-safe, anti-corrosive, rust-resistant, and cleverly packaged. Not only that, they are really attractive, combining form and function in a simple and elegant style. The most fabulous thing about the Get Set Collection is the price: four five-piece place settings for $30!
And where does one Get Set? Wal-Mart! Customers can buy the flatware at stores nationwide, or on the Web at www.walmart.com. Check out the patterns at www.gourmetsettings.com.
Cooks’ books
Devotees of honest, all-American food might be interested in a new cookbook that recently came my way. Recipes From Home is a 400-page ode to home cooking; authors David Page and Barbara Shinn grew up in the Midwest eating made-from-scratch dishes lovingly and skillfully prepared by their mothers and grandmothers. The couple opened Home restaurant in New York’s Greenwich Village nearly a decade ago, and the eatery has since become a haven for urban sophisticates craving the comfort food they nostalgically recall—perhaps not quite accurately—from their youth. Regular customer and author Calvin Trillin wrote the intro and notes that “my immediate response to eating at Home was relief that none of these recipes were my mother’s.”
Recipes From Home is a family recipe book chock full of stories and old black-and-white photos, divided into chapters like The Pantry; Soups, Chowders and Stocks; Salads, Fresh Relishes, and Slaws; Birds; Cheese; and The Canning Shelf. The recipes are easy to prepare, though with an uncompromising insistence on fresh ingredients—I kept thinking of local cookbook author/chef Martha Stamps as I read through this book.
Recipes From Home is published by Artisan and is $30.
