Don‘t expect a fancy, glittering dining room with music and an assortment of fast foods. Do expect home-cooked food, quick service, in a cleanly atmosphere reminiscent of how things were in 1974 when the statewide trailer with a kitchen opened and a dining room was added at the rear for seating 85 guests.
No frozen stuff. Everything is prepared daily in the kitchen a few feet from your table - like chicken or turkey with dressings, spaghetti or macaroni and cheese and on Fridays - fresh shrimp and oysters. Try some homemade banana or coconut pudding for dessert, or lemon, pineapple or chocolate cake - or strawberry shortcake while the fresh berries are in season.
But while the setting‘s the same, the audience has changed considerably, the owners admit. “Everything has changed in town during the past few years,” says Mary Ann Thomas who started in the business in 1971 when the diner was on Highway 42. She‘s the daughter of Junius and Dora Campbell, the couple that moved the diner trailer from outside town to its present location at a time when homemade food and location had an audience of its own. Mary Ann operates it today.
‘The town is really getting to be crowded now,“ she said, adding there were only three restaurants in town when they started. “Today there are more than 80! A lot of people don’t come in here anymore ... like the new people in town. Many of the old people have passed away. Business is off considerably what it was in the early ‘90’s.”
Both Mary Ann and her mother, Dora, feel location ranks as a problem today. They cited heavy traffic and noted many people have only an hour for lunch, but don‘t realize when they get in the door they can have their food in 10 minutes, sometimes five. “But it‘s still a matter of traffic,” said Mary Ann. “There‘s nothing we can do about that.“
She explained regulations have not allowed them to pave a small parking area in front of the building. They own the building, but have not been able to buy the land. “The parking lot size gives the impression the building is filled with customers because the small area may be filled. “It looks crowded, but inside dozens of chairs are empty,“ she said.
“We have nine employees who are very dependable, friendly people, dependable with customers. On Birthdays they sing ‘Happy Birthday‘ to people and bring them a banana pudding with a candle in it. If somebody is sick we send flowers or bring food. We care about our customers,” Mary Ann went on. She said if somebody comes in once a week they try to find out their name. “It’s just nice to have somebody walk in the door and have someone call them by their name,” she smiled.
The diner is open Monday to Friday 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and closed Saturday and Sunday and her mother and father are still involved. “To the point,” her mother said of her husband, “he’s 87 and shows up every day to keep the place in shape and make repairs - do everything, working on top of the roof cleaning out gutters, painting, etc.”
As for customers, they shrug, saying they’ve lost so many customers, especially over the past four or so years - citing when increased traffic and fast food places entered the picture. “One of our customers used to come three times a day for breakfast, coffee and lunch,” Mary Ann said, describing the way business had been and how customers were over the years. “There were so many widowers. Before they‘d sit down we know what they‘d want on a certain day and we‘d fix a plate and give it to them. Some older people still come in, though, and some of the workers.“
As for the tobacco years and those changes, she said “when sales were held in town, farmers, farm workers, tobacco warehouse and sales workers would steadily bring their buyers and graders and come in groups and eat with us,“ she added.
Today, she explained, some people come in and want French fries and a barbeque sandwich. Or they order hamburger or hot dogs. “Sorry,“ she’ll say, adding: “Young people don’t know what our kind of food is.”
It means everything is homemade. “Fifteen vegetables are fresh every day. We make our own potato salad, colds, pickle our own beets - we mean like getting fresh squash and cabbage from the Farmer’s Market, and from local farmers when we can.”
As for the parking lot, she said “people see it full and say ‘Oh, you’re just making a killing.’ Everybody thinks you’ve got to eat at 12 o’clock. But they don’t notice from 11 to 12 or from 1 to 2.“
She said sit down breakfast is okay, but it’s not many people today that have the time to sit down and eat breakfast. “You’ll watch a car pass and they have three kids in the back seat eatin’ and they’ve got something stuffin’ in their mouth driving down the road trying to get to work and the kids to school.” “We’re doing one-third the business we used to do, yet the meals are the same and the salaries are the same,” Mary Ann said.
Is there a wish she would have today? “Welcome to Campbell’s Diner at 530 N. Main Street in Fuquay-Varina!” she smiled.
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