I grew up in this little town (population 741) in the northwestern corner of Minnesota called Argyle. My parents owned and operated a restaurant and lounge there called the Farmer Dell. They opened it the year that I was born (1977) and sold it 21 years later.
I grew up in that restaurant, looking for fallen change on the bar floor when I went there with my dad in the morning hours. Eating maraschino cherries. Discovering the joys of Shirley Temple's and Roy Roger's. Telling my mom to bring home a bacon cheeseburger with alphabet fries when she came home. Working there as a waitress when I was a teenager. All of that.
The couple that owned it after my parents ran it for the next 14 years. Then they sold it to someone else, last year, I think, and these people spent a lot of money remodeling the place and renamed it the Harvest Bar & Grill (but I'm pretty sure everyone continued to call it the Farmer Dell, or just the "Dell" for short).
But now it's closed.
And that's kind of sad.
It was the last restaurant remaining in Argyle (the other restaurant, The Cafe, has closed as well). And it was a good restaurant. I will miss the relish trays, and garlic toast, and blue cheese dressing, and beer cheese soup, and mud pie, and deep fried shrimp, and all the rest of it.
I haven't eaten there in a long time, but I still like to know that it's there, you know?
Kind of like Argyle in general. A little town that is on its way to dying. I don't want to live there, but I still want it to exist, you know?
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1 comment:
I like knowing this interesting tidbit about your life. I would feel sad about it closing, too. It's like having it still be open keeps that part of your childhood alive in a way, knowing you can always go back and there are still people coming and going.
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