Diamonds In The Hood… Life, Family & Home in College Village

Diamondback has made the decision to ‘Hit Pause’, take a deep breath, say our prayers, hug our families, thank our thousands of customers, dozens of local vendors, batten down the hatches and ride out another storm in College Village Commons. I remember many other storms, but mainly incredible happiness in the 27104 as I’ll share below. It appears this is the Grandaddy of them all.

Diamondback Grill will suspend operations for the first time in approximately 11, 305 days at 8:00 PM tonight, Saturday March 28, 2020. Those of you who have known our team and known Kimberly for some time will understand why we have remained open serving our neighborhood, the less fortunate, community first responders but also why we have now decided to hunker down, stay safe, stay healthy, recover physically and emotionally a bit and live to cook, eat & serve our community another day.

Regarding fairly recent memories, I want to make sure you all and my main man, Jimmy Fallon know we were a week ahead of the restaurant guy in Minnesota who got Jimmy’s TV Shout Out for giving away a ROLL OF TP with all Take Out Orders…so we are extremely proud of that. LMAO!! We’re also the 1990’s trendsetters who invented $14 Lobster, $2.00 Tuesday for Kids, Dirt Cheap Cold Beer and Our World Famous Head Scratcher $1 Crown Night (yes, Todd & other mathematicians, it proved to be profitable). We brought to College Village …Big Daddy & The Bellheads, Easily Suede, Dillon Fence, The Sex Police, Mary on the Dash, George Wesley and The Irietations ( the official band of Jamaica and Red Stripe Beer, need I say more) long before much of Buena Vista was convinced that was a good idea. Calls went out that we would crush the value of the $45,000 condos all around us… LOL.

Were you there when DBG chilled the restaurant to the 30 degrees with open doors/AC/dry ice fog for the NFC 1997 Panthers vs. Green Bay Frozen Tundra Bowl? The Greensboro News & Record captured Jeff Chavez taking the last 2 cheeseburgers in the chafer while Hamp was waiting in line just behind him. I doubt 3 news trucks had ever before or have ever sense descended on our ‘Neck of the Woods’ to capture such a story. I remember our 1986 Romanee Conti Wine Dinner? Sorry, Brant Godfrey I accidentally thought it was ’85….but still a once in a lifetime event! Remember the Y2K New Years Eve Party? Everybody stopped partying at 12:01 and at 12:05 looked at each other like “S@##, we’re still here?” and then kept on rockin. Who could forget slippery walks through ‘Gulag Pass’, the snowball fights inside Diamondback, neighborhood dogs & blizzards, sledding, Sally’s taco truck, kegs from Foothills, or Jimmy Toompas’ 4 wheel drive golf cart on steroids that could handle any weather and always featured impeccably selected red wines to keep out the chill. Thank you, Ed Battle for loving us and saving Lobzilla until he succumbed to a massive heat wave/power outage and was secretly buried by the creek in Hanes Park.

I grew up here around College Village…as in IN this very building and around the whole neighborhood since 1961. What do I remember….It was LIFE FAMILY & HOME and to me it still is just that simple now for many of us.

I have wonderful memories of my youth in College Village to last forever………….

I remember $1.00 crewcuts at the barber shop in the basement. Charging penny candy and grilled cheese to Mom’s account at Cox’s Pharmacy. Upon reflection, I wonder when did it finally become illegal for… your local neighborhood store to sell all the ingredients for gun powder to 12 year olds, or for parents to drink Schlitz while we all rode our bikes through the Bug Man’s Carcinogenic DDT truck fog all summer, or getting paid 5 cents to ride with wet bare feet in an open door box truck helping Bill the Milkman deliver just plain ole milk in glass bottles – no 1% ,2%, lactose free, almond, soy, hemp milk. He would tip toe into our never locked house, wake up my brother and me and bring us back after we finished the route with a shiny nickel each. Remember Pete & Eileen cheeseburgers, Claudette Weston & the Mom Posse in the Cox’s booths. How did Mrs. Cordell always know exactly when we skipped school? Tiny Demons, Swim Team, Miiiiit, RJ Reynolds High, CBs, Graylyn without homes, neighborhood parties at our Christmas tree farm every year the Saturday after Thanksgiving and selling trees all December at the Sides Nursery tree lot at Five Points. Mom asked Mike why he always wore old ripped clothes to work….”Better Tips, Mom”, he’d say. He was born with a head for business. I remember older men used to say there’s a lot a boy can get away with in a Blue Blazer…let me tell you the same was true about a Troop 910 Boy Scout uniform…we terrorized West End, Ardmore and our “Home 20” in the 27104. Sorry, Hal Brown, Bill Davis and Dudley Calhoun (RIP).

I remember the other storms that will always be part of who I am today………………

To quote Patty Smyth of Scandal….”I remember the good times now and the bad times too.”

I remember Whitaker Elementary during the Cold War hiding under my school desk during atom bomb drills; 11/22/63 with hundreds of moms smoking and crying when Kennedy was assassinated; the nuclear air raid siren that went off for years every Saturday at noon from the top of what is now Buies Market; teenagers protesting Vietnam. I can show you where ‘Nixon Sux’ is carved into the brick mortar of College Village. I’ll always remember one month after we originally opened 32 years ago working as host on 5/5/89 when a huge tornado miraculously jumped our entire building packed with a full house and devastated a long path straight through Buena Vista on the way to God’s Acre in Old Salem. I remember 8/5/95 when Morgan Wells called to tell me Jerry Garcia had just died while I was making French bread in the Diamondback kitchen. I remember watching the plane hit the second tower on 9/11 on the 100” Sharp Projection Screen TV we bought from Ed Kelly’s.

We’ll most likely celebrate Diamondback Grill’s 31st anniversary in 2 weeks on April 6th without much hoopla at the acceptable distance of 6 feet away from all but those with whom we live. God willin, I assure you when our 32nd Anniversary hits, as the kids say now we’ll throw a Darty and a Rager.

Collectively, Kimberly and I, my brother Mike and wife Brenda and our parents have lived in 7 College Village Condos. Both of our babies came home from Forsyth Hospital to Vernon Avenue and grew up to hang out and work (with some degree of enthusiasm) at DBG. At age six, our son Jay summed up our success with the very proud assertion that we had ‘The Best Hot Dog’ in town. What more is there to say! We’re all 27104s. For 30 years, The Gregg’s have sat at the Out Back/

Diamondback tables and stood at the ovens… always with Family…Dean & Jessica, Bernard, Buddy & John, Myra, John Brais, Amy & Duncan, April & Charlie, Mary A, Laura M and The Brazilian Bombshell, Tammy & Travis, Alan & Megan, Ashley & Amanda, JV, Darren, Sara, Mack & Oren, Suzanne & Mickie, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church as well as my early mentors, Earl Slick & Berk Ingram who made this crazy adventure possible and finally with Phillip, John Cain, Mom and Dad who are no longer here, but will always remain with us in spirit. I remember friendships, successes, failures, births, funerals and weddings.

Sincere thanks, prayers and kisses to my brave, visionary and generous, Kimberly. God Bless the whole Diamondback Family including our dear neighbors & friends, Buie’s Market and the countless local farmers & vendors who themselves have dreams at risk and mountains to climb. To you all …’God Bless Us Each And Every One’… See ya soon!!

Murph

Our menu changes daily and it's inspired by the bounty of fresh produce and meats available through our local farmers. Our farm-to-table philosophy means one night we'll offer fresh corn and tomatoes and the next, beautiful asparagus or farm raised chicken that's just come in. Using our local resources we can prepare dishes that are fresh, healthy and so good they speak for themselves.