A diner is a diner is a diner … a locally owned neighborhood eatery where folks gather for much more than bacon, eggs and plain coffee.
Diners don’t have to resemble an aluminum railroad car or field cheeky waitresses like “kiss-my-grits” Flo from Mel’s Diner in the TV show “Alice.” A Formica counter isn’t obligatory. Conversation — political, newsy, gossip — is.
By this definition, the new HomeGrown in Vass straddles the line — gracefully. Classic diners don’t put pimento cheese on their burgers or goat cheese in their salads either. Yet it occupies the corner where for 25 years, Miller’s Family Restaurant was a community gathering place.
HomeGrown, at the intersection of Business U.S.1 and N.C. 690 in Vass, is open Monday throug…
Tom Allen, Baptist minister and Pilot columnist, remembers eating there, as did his parents.
“Comfort food, decent prices,” Allen says. “They always asked if you’d like a dinner roll. Reminded me of the hole-in-the-wall diners of my childhood and college years. And we usually saw someone we knew.”
Lifelong Vass resident and mayor (for 20 years) Eddie Callahan agrees.
“It was more of a social activity than a meal, but the turkey dinner special on Saturday was really good,” he says. “Miller’s was a cornerstone in Vass.”
Changing Times
But times, they are a changin’. The current population ranges from old-timers (OT) to military and Woodlake suburbanites and SUVs headed to and from Union Pines. Representing the OTs, George Wayne Caddell beams from a booth while awaiting his sausage and eggs. Everybody knows George, another Vass lifer and son of the late Bertha Newcomer of Bob’s Pizza down the road.
“I’ve been eating here for 25 years – they had good food,” he says. “I’m a pork chop man.”
Across from Caddell, three well-tanned golfers from elsewhere finish up their omelets and homemade biscuits before an early tee-time.
Darell Yates, owner of HomeGrown in Vass with staff members Jill Vanderbleek (left), Becca Cameron, Chandler O'Mahoney, Jessica West, Cam West, Ben Beck and Dana Fulton
Darell Yates kept this mix in mind when imaging HomeGrown. Yates, from Virginia, discovered Vass while stationed at Fort Bragg. He learned the food business waiting tables at Valenti’s, later managing Coach’s Neighborhood Grill in Sanford. After leaving the Army in 2014 and completing a degree at Sandhills Community College, he surmised that, given the demographics, comfort food with a twist would satisfy Baby Boomers to those from generations X,Y and Z.
Locals watched with curiosity as renovation of the existing dining room, addition of an open-air side room and patio took place. Yates’ parents are contractors; they helped with the design and build, including details like a shelf supported by the rusty sawed-off front of a 1957 Ford farm truck.
An American flag and a painting of the old Miller's Restaurant are part of the decor at HomeGrown.
HomeGrown opened at the busy crossroads of Business U.S. 1 and N.C. 690 on June 29 – stylish but not overdone, appearing more bistro/cafe than diner, which fazed the OTs not at all. The entire Miller family attended the pre-opening reception.
“Angie shed a few tears,” Yates says.
Four days later, by 7 a.m., the dining room arranged for social distancing was almost full, including a table for eight, where three generations celebrated a birthday with French toast, grits and breakfast sandwiches.
Several vehicles from the Moore County Sheriff’s Office were in the parking lot — always a good sign.
Did these strapping young men eat at Miller’s when they were boys? Three crew-cuts and starched shirts belonging to deputies Brandon Phillips, Brenton Cameron and Luke Ring nodded.
“I grew up at Miller’s with my grandparents,” Cameron says, before tucking into a 12-inch plate piled with almost everything on the breakfast menu.
The deputies eat together most mornings. Between the closing of Santo Dios (which replaced Miller’s for a short time) and HomeGrown’s debut they traveled to Pete’s Family Restaurant, in Carthage. Good chance that memories reinforced by oversized pancakes and a flattering portrait of Miller’s hanging on the wall will make them regulars.
Chavez Foxx is the head chef at HomeGrown in Vass.
A Pandemic Opening
Opening during a pandemic, with restrictions, can’t be easy for first-time restaurateur Yates, formerly a wellness coach/personal trainer, presently (in addition to being main man at HomeGrown) operations service manager at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital. Yates brought on chef Chavez Foxx from Coach’s and family friend Jill Vanderbleek as hostess/manager. He developed an image supported by a game plan:
“Although I inherited a majority of Miller (customers) I didn’t plan for one specific age group,” says Yates. “We have free Wi-Fi, so you can sit quietly in a corner booth with your laptop and a cup of coffee” as opposed to bemoaning layoffs or the weather across tables, with co-sufferers.”
As the season progresses, Yates will feature produce from nearby five-generation C.V. Pilson Farm — perhaps a daily special featuring sweet potatoes. However, well-priced breakfast remains HomeGrown’s core because, he believes, “Breakfast is the first meal of the day. You can’t cut back on portions.”
Beyond breakfast (served until 10:30 a.m.), the menu dances away from meat-and-three-sides emblematic of Southern eateries in part because Yates planned to close at 2:30 p.m. For the time being, as a service to townsfolk, HomeGrown will remain open with the lunch menu until 8 p.m.
No meat loaf. No fish ’n’ chips. No cobbler, as of yet. Banana pudding, meatballs and fried green tomatoes made the cut. Instead of pork chops and mashed, George Caddell may learn to love rosemary in his fries, bacon in his Caesar salad, sriracha aioli on his chicken and glorious burgers hand-formed from fresh 100 percent Angus beef served six ways: best in show, the Lett-us Pray: a burger with condiments atop a big green lettuce leaf.
Or plain, on an onion bun, if the OT crowd prefers.
Creative sandwiches come on Texas toast or as wraps. Eventually, beer.
Food. People. Talk. Out there, post-coronavirus, a brave new world-beyond-diners awaits. Looks like with HomeGrown joining Railroad Deli and Valenti’s, Vass is already onboard. Mayor Callahan gets the last word: “We’re real happy to have HomeGrown here. Now we’ve got a new gathering spot.”
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