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Street Talk

By Mickey Howley

The building you know as Hometown Pizza is where the creek crosses Main Street heading west and the structure known today as Trusty Diner is where the creek crosses east before heading south and crossing Main Street once again. That’s right, Town Creek, or residual parts of it, cross Main Street three times in less than half a mile. I don’t know who thought it would be a good idea to put a downtown in active creek zone, but they did and we’ve been dealing with it ever since. Hence our name. 

 You can still see creative uses of that space over the creek clearly in the Trusty Building at 205 North Main Street. Built in the 1950s the structure was added on to the side of 207 North Main. The 207 building was constructed right after the turn of the century and was originally The Peoples Bank. 

At the time of 205’s construction in the 1950s, 207 was City Hall and had been so for 20-plus years. It is currently the Main Street office. I’m not sure why, but the diner has, in one building, essentially a split foundation. The building half that adjoins the 207 building, the north half of the structure, has a concrete foundation. And the southern half, more or less over the old creek bed, has a wooden foundation. Check out the floor, the dining half is wooden, the behind the counter area and the kitchen is concrete.

 All that is a kind of construction curiosity tidbit and building history that perhaps is bit boring for non-building nerds. 

What goes on inside the Trusty Diner is anything but boring. Working with builder James Ledford, owners Erika Walden and Lawton Gafford have created a space that is clean and crisp. The menu is clean and crisp as well. Lawton re-invents local standards with a zing and zest that you’d not imagine. And he’s cooking up daily variations of themes from cuisines across the Americas and beyond. Ask him about his keto options if you’re doing that diet.    

Water Valley Farmers Market manager Kevin Guyer is having a lot of screen time looking at weather programs and future forecasts. Two weeks in a row the storms have come and rained out the farmers market. That’s a record as the farmers market has been rained out before, but never twice back to back. The current forecast looks for a drying out week, so I’m going to bet no rain and Farmers Market happening Saturday morning.

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