COUNTERTOPS
Roadside-Approved
You’ll see the term “Roadside-Approved” sprinkled throughout the pages of our magazine and website and, as gatekeeper of the term, I’ve never really had to explain what this meant. I simply called it as I saw it. With Roadside’s expanding staff, scope and audience, the time has come for me to take a stab at defining the term.
A Roadside-Approved place is genuine: A real guy named Joe actually owns the place called Joe’s. Roadside-Approved implies that Joe had a dream to make a good living by providing friends and customers with a good value or an experience probably not found anywhere else. If Joe’s went beyond the pale and incorporated the use of large fiberglass statues or outlandish, over-the-top neon, why, we think Joe is cool.
Owners of Roadside-Approved places understand the difference between cost and value. They use glass instead of plastic. They build or restore with wood instead of vinyl. They cook with butter instead of margarine. They replace a missing or broken part with an exact replica. And they clad their place in stainless steel instead of aluminum.
The Roadside-Approved place values names over numbers. It is a spot that pays homage to the patrons that support it by doing its part to ensure the community’s continued health. It supports the local team. It commemorates important local events. It promotes an atmosphere for people to meet and socialize with their neighbors.
The Roadside-Approved place exists only in America. America still has no shortage of people willing, in good fun, to throw caution – and good taste – to the wind just to see their names in the paper or on a billboard by the highway. By The Way celebrates the benignly outlandish.
The Roadside-Approved place preserves heritage, which includes anything that puts a particular community on the map. If a town is known for its giant doughnut, then we expect to see doughnuts on municipal stationery and doughnut celebrations for the biggest, the most, and/or the best doughnuts in the world.
People behind Roadside-Approved places take risks and attempt what others said could never work. They bring back a tradition others assumed had died or had no contemporary relevance–and turn it into a local institution.
A Roadside-Approved place adds value to its community. It builds for the ages and it enhances quality of living by remaining ever-mindful of the concept of sustainability. It does not waste, it does not sprawl, and it does not promote expediency at the expense of our environment or common humanity.
The Roadside-Approved owner takes pride in his product. He guards his reputation and never knowingly misrepresents himself or his intentions to the surrounding community.
The Roadside-Approved attraction gives me the sense of what it’s like to live in the host community. I don’t go to Omaha for chowder, nor do I want gumbo in Maine. It deepens the lore of an area by enriching and illuminating local color. The Roadside-Approved shuns pretense and keeps its sense of humor.
It’s also a fun local establishment that always makes us smile before we leave, no matter what our mood when we walked in. It understands that to franchise the concept means to diminish its personality, and though it may make perfect sense from a business perspective to do so, the cloning acknowledges the lessened priority the owner places on supporting the local community. We have nothing against success, but we cheer on the local guy and the underdog.
So, dear readers, start sending in your nominees, invites, pictures, and letters describing what you believe merits mention in the magazine and on our Website. Tell us all about the Joe in your own town or neighborhood. We want to shake his (or her) hand. We want to try the pie!
What do you think? Send us your opinions to roadsideonline.com or post them on our Forum.
