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After 73 years' service, Dinty Moore's closing
Dinty Moore closes its doors after 73 years
Date published: 7/4/2009
BY EMILY BATTLE The white specials board in the back of Dinty Moore's on Princess Anne Street was the bearer of bad news for Edwen Lopez yesterday. Scrawled across the board was the message that the small home-style restaurant was closing after 73 years in business. Its last meal was yesterday's lunch. "I'm sorry, 'Mama,'" Lopez told owner Cleo Moore Harding as he gave her a hug. Like Lopez, many of the regulars at the restaurant are like family to Harding and her daughters, Crystal Hildebrand and Angie Hooe, who run the restaurant. Harding grew up at Dinty Moore's. Her parents, John "Dinty" Moore and Anne "Big Mama" Moore, first opened the restaurant on July 1, 1936, back when Princess Anne Street was U.S. 1, the nation's main thoroughfare from Maine to Florida. Anne Moore started her own restaurant, Anne's Grill, in 1960, just next door. Anne's Grill will stay open, owned by Harding's sister, Beverly Peyton. It's likely you'll find many of the Dinty Moore's family of regulars congregating there in the weeks to come. Harding said she lived above the restaurant as a child, and her family grew to know so many people in town that Hildebrand said she and her siblings couldn't get away with any misbehavior as kids. Ironically, that same setup, where business owners live above their shops and residents can visit restaurants and other stores in their own neighborhoods, is something that cities all over the country are spending a lot of money trying to re-create right now. Fredericksburg has its own plan for the Princess Anne corridor that Dinty Moore's sits on, which calls for more restaurants, small grocers and other shops to serve the people who live nearby. Hildebrand, Hooe and Harding said they'd seen business drop off gradually as more people started going to chain restaurants out in Central Park, and downtown traffic in general became slower. But the current economic crisis is what did in the longstanding business, they say. Harding said closing isn't easy, especially with all the memories the place holds. On the shelf behind the bar, where breakfast regulars have sat for years, is a black-and-white portrait of Harding's father, and a sketch of her husband, Norman Harding, made on a napkin by a traveler passing through town. Norman Harding, who passed away in 2005, cooked at the restaurant for years, and he's shown in the drawing in his chef's hat. Cleo Harding said she's not sure yet what she'll do with the building that housed the restaurant. For now, she's a lot more focused on how much she'll miss all the people who came to the restaurant, sometimes twice a day, for as long as she can remember. "I've known a lot of them for all my life," she said. "This is home for us." Emily Battle: 540/374-5413
Read more stories about Fredericksburg Date published: 7/4/2009
It saddens me to hear
(posted by
jameyboat
, July 4, 2009 10:00 am)
of any long time business going by the wayside. I feel the economy may play a part, but more so, I believe that folks just get tired of working, wish to retire and enjoy the rest of their lives. Demographics play an important part too; the regulars die off, or move away or just slow down, the new arrivals, the younger crowd finds eateries more to their life styles. Enjoy your retirement, Cleo you've earned it
Justiceforall...
(posted by
USA2007
, July 4, 2009 8:34 am)
what do you do for a living?
Eating habits changed over time
(posted by
dmine45
, July 4, 2009 8:16 am)
I think it's more that people are used to eating at fast food places which are bright and shiny. I've driven by Dinty Moore's restaurant and wondered if it was even still in business! So hearing that it is closing is surprising since I thought it was already gone! Same with Anne's Grill. They just don't appeal to the younger crowd - and hence they lose business when their clientele pass away.
Let's have the truth
(posted by
Justiceforall
, July 4, 2009 6:35 am)
I do not believe the economy had a thing to do with this. The family owns the property, the major expenses would be their salary, utilities and cost of goods sold. It has a loyal customer based who would continue to come. I believe they are tired and want to retire. Let's tell the truth and tell the whole story and not blame it on the economy. If you think it is the economy just stop by Anne’s Grill on a Sunday morning. I am going to miss them.
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