Renaissance Clifton Forge

After I received word about a train layout that would be visiting the Clifton Forge Armory this weekend, we decided to head over to Alleghany County on Saturday. For those who don't know, Granny Helen was a C and O employee in Clifton Forge during the rail system's heyday, and her father worked at the Depot that has been redeveloped in to the C and O Railway Heritage Center. There is something about the train events that connects us to our past. So, we picked up Granny Helen and headed off to the train show.

The train show was good fun with a very local feel--saw lots of familiar faces, including some family that had yet to meet Elijah. There was an interactive S gauge display, manned by enthusiastic members of a regional club, that featured about 10 running trains and many features powered by natural gas, including a watchtower you could set "on fire" and then "put out." The club members were proud of their handiwork and took delight in watching adults morph into kids, pushing display buttons to see what they controlled. There were also vendors: vendors who sold Justin a book about the Powhatan Arrow, sold me 4 new postcards, and taught Granny Helen that she has a relic--a C and O plate valued at $300+. And for those who had gender-segregated 8th grade PE in the CF Armory, please know it still smells like a gym class happened there yesterday.

While Elijah played with the Grannies, Justin and I snuck into Clifton Forge proper on a mini surprise date Justin planned, seeing a town that seems to be (finally) experiencing a legitimate rebirth. We spent some time at the Allegheny Highlands Arts and Crafts Center--a mainstay that's still a unique place to shop--and window-shopped Fire and Light, a gallery run by a blacksmith and a photographer.

We also shopped the big antique store, having fun listening to the proprietor tell a ghost story. The store, once Rooklin's Department Store (the one that closed in the 1960s), was run by a gentleman who wished to be buried in Alleghany but wound up buried in Pennsylvania. He reportedly haunts the place, walking around at night and engaging in minor mischief. We bought an old Rooklin's shirt box (it will make a good paper memories box) for just $2. It had been found in the basement of the store. It turns out my great grandmother won a big prize one Christmas--a $25 gift certificate to the store--which bought a lot of people presents.

We'd heard a lot of good about Jack Mason's Tavern (JMT's) from Facebook friends in the area and decided to have lunch there. It's a beautiful place--a Clifton Forge take on a pub with a train mural, a stained glass griffon, and a relic or two of the hardware store it used to be. The decor is classy but casual/cozy. It was not hurting for business, as Justin and I got the only remaining table in the place. And the food was good--Justin had sweet potato fries with a raspberry dip that was quite yummy, and our turkey sandwiches had real, non-processed, tender turkey on them. But the service was bad. Not rude bad, but uncoordinated bad. We waited 20 minutes to be acknowledged, and then, we had to make specific, separate requests to have our table cleaned, receive menus, and get silverware. I got jealous of the table next door, as they heard about the special of the day that I would have ordered had I known it existed. My salad wasn't served, and when this was discovered, the waitress kindly pointed out it was sitting in the back. Wow. They lost a T-shirt and dessert sale in the melee, especially since they didn't offer us an apology of any detail or discounted anything. But, we will try it again sometime, as a bunch of our friends can't be wrong. And the staff was genuinely sweet, if a bit timid about admitting their errors. We wish the business luck, but in the evening, we were off to a known oldie but goodie, the original Cucci's in Covington. Elijah enjoyed some Cucci's sauce, clearly proving that he is his mother's child.