The problem every restaurateur wants
Folks in Phoenixville are rallying round The Fisherman. The owners are unsure how to handle it.
Some proud folks from Phoenixville have taken to Facebook to keep a restaurant afloat.
Back over the summer, blogger Beth Lennon - who writes about retro topics on Retro Roadmap with Mod Betty - noticed that her hometown favorite, The Fisherman off Route 23, had closed.
It's not a cheap pun to call The Fisherman a throw-back. It's hard to get more retro than this family owned spot that opened in 1960 and served breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tasty food, fair prices, spotlessly clean.
Soon after, Lennon was relieved to learn that the Zaremba brothers, who had inherited the Fisherman from their father, had decided to reopen.
On Nov. 7, a Facebook user who goes by Johnny Marie posted a lament on the "You Know You're From Phoenixville When" page.
Johnny had chatted up one of the owners, who recalled the olden days when the little restaurant was busy. "I almost started crying listening to him tell the story of his pride and joy crumble before him," Johnny Marie wrote. "I guess what I'm trying to say is.. If you're ever driving past the Fisherman ... Stop in and grab a bite to eat. The food is good and cheap.. And I just know it'll put a smile across the owners face to see his booths filling up one by one. Do a good thing and stop in."
That's exactly what Phoenixvillians did.
Johnny created a Facebook page for the restaurant and the locals started posting.
As Lennon recounted in a follow-up on Retro Roadmap over the weekend, the place has been jammed - so crowded at times that customers have bused their own tables.
At least the townsfolk are happy.
When I called Sunday afternoon between lunch and dinner, one of the brothers said the little restaurant was overwhelmed.
"I don't know anything about Facebook or Twitter or any of that," he said, declining to identify himself. "All I know is that some woman came in a posted a photo of a turkey dinner, and it's been hell ever since."
"Good hell or bad hell?" I asked.
"Both. Thanks, but I'm not interested in talking about it. Gotta go. Thanks."