Such was the case with our favorite local sports bar, the Jocks & Jills location in suburban Alpharetta, which closed its doors shortly after St. Patrick's Day last year. At that time, I posted a blog entry detailing the immense pain and suffering that this shutdown caused our after-work P-Council and lunch groups.
Today, while on the way to another favorite replacement haunt during the lunch hour, we noticed that not only is our old place still closed, but now it is being demolished. There is a pervading air of finality about the entire J&J experience.
You might wonder how one place could hold so much sway over us? It's simple -- J&J served as a repository of memories which could never be replaced. Memories such as:
- The day that Mike told me we simply had to visit J&J because they had these two cute Lithuanian waitresses working there.
- The six dollar (including drink and tip) Thursday Men's (plus Tanya) Lunch Special. It had started at four dollars, climbed to seven, then came back down to six when business fell off a few years ago.
- Anthony's incredible repeating lunch order: a turkey sandwich with fresh (never cooked) jalapeno slices and french fries.
- The night that we used J&J as a launching pad prior to our first P-Council field trip to see "Borat".
- Lunch pizza, the crust of which never seemed to be quite done.
- Our regular lunch waitress, Rachael, who always took good care of us. Rachael wrote our entire order down on a napkin most days.
- The time Allison tipped Vaida a dollar, even though she only had a glass of water. Allison did it for our sake, she said.
- Our annual Christmas Stocking Dump, where we traded silly gifts with each other before the holidays.
- Rich changing the channel on the TV in the men's room from ESPN to Lifetime.