Last Friday (August 15th), Diane & I wanted to grab some burgers, wine and Yuengling at our local pub/restaurant, Rocky Run. We’ve been going there for about 10 years, maybe more. I can’t remember when they opened, perhaps because we’ve be going there for so long it just seemed like it was always there and it would always be there.

For a Friday night around 8:00 pm, we were taken aback at how empty the parking lot was. But we parked and headed in, figuring maybe we’d missed the happy hour crowd and the regulars weren’t in yet. We were shocked to see the sign pictured below in the window. No notice, in fact we’d just been eating there about two weeks before on August 2nd.

We are so going to miss Rocky Run. As B. Santos over at Columbia Compass wrote, Rocky Run was a place to go hang with your friends, have some good food and enjoy the staff. Diane & I loved trivia, munching on snacks and drinking while we played. It was the place to take out-of-towners or out-of-county folks. My mom loved their crab cakes and way back when my dad loved their chocolate mousse shooter! I loved their dunkel seasonal which they still had just about two months ago. I loved the Cuban panini, fried pickles, hot sauces (esp. their tame but fun Vampire sauce which was basically tabasco mixed with garlic), and the new Philly Steak and Cheese flatbread. Having grown up eating Philly steaks, I was impressed with the quality of their meat. Yum.

Things got bad about two years ago, and we stopped going for about a year. What I mean by that is that the food started tasting more Sysco-y instead of good old Rocky Run fare. The serving staff too seemed a bit less happy and even less engaged with the customers. But on a hunch, we headed back about six months or so ago and were amazed. A revamped menu and good staff. Things sounded good. The crowds it had for years hadn’t ventured back yet, but we had high hopes.

The thing I’ll miss the most is the crayons. Butcher paper on all the tables and a coffee cup full of crayons. The first thing we did when we sat down was to fight over the crayon cup to get the best ones. Below is the very last drawing I did at Rocky Run. It’s an idea for a tattoo for me. I took a picture of it on August 2nd, not knowing that it’d be the last one. Very sad.

We’ll miss you Rocky Run. Thanks for helping us create memories!