Weekly Edition

Downtown diners and courthouse cafes

Preparing for an out-of-town hearing or trial should involve more than just legal research and argument outlines, according to traveling lawyers from around Virginia. Several attorneys we contacted said knowing the local perspective on dining could be crucial to your legal endeavors.

A few weeks back, this column discussed Southwest Virginia and its dining opportunities. This installment moves east, covering mostly Southside Virginia.

Appomattox lawyer Bob Carter is a frequent litigator in the courts around Lynchburg and no stranger to dining on the road. For fellow travelers with an adventurous taste, he recommends Moore’s Country Store on U.S. Route 460 just east of Lynchburg. “They have a chili dog that is both outstanding and challenging,” he said.

The challenge, Carter explains, comes from the spice in the homemade hot dog chili. Carter recommends keeping a cold drink close at hand. “The chili and the fixings they put on the hot dog are its own preservatives,” he notes.

Carter also has sampled the fare at the Texas Inn, a throwback 24-hour diner perched over a steep hillside at the edge of downtown Lynchburg. Carter points out that the bill of fare at the “T-Room” includes “westerns” – an egg-and-hamburger combination. “And they claim they sell more hot dogs per day than Liberty University.”

Attorney Richard Railey Jr. brags about the wealth of fine fare available where he practices in Courtland, the county seat of Southampton County. He mentions Pino’s, an Italian restaurant, as well as Bill’s Grill and For Pete’s Sake. Bill’s Grill is apparently at a convenience store where there is good fried chicken and such. “It’s first class for those things,” Railey said.

For those who crave information as much as sustenance, Railey recommends the country store at Flower’s Exxon, where all the deputies go for the hot dog deals. “Sometimes, some of us lawyers who want to know what’s going on go up there to eat,” Railey said.
Railey says the best source of a quick lunch at many county seats is a country store, such as T.E. Thornton’s in Sussex. “Country stores are a dying thing,” Railey said. “Someone who keeps one open, and clean and nice, that’s a real attraction out here.”

When trying cases in Petersburg and Prince George County, Railey recommends King’s Barbecue in Petersburg. “It’s nothing fancy. The waitresses all look like your grandmother. But it’s some of the best barbecue that you can buy,” he said.

In talking with lawyers about fine – and sometimes not-so-fine – dining while on the road, we learned that there are a few lonely courthouses with no restaurants of any kind nearby. According to lawyers, these include the courthouse in Charlotte County and the old Charles City County courthouse.

Norfolk lawyer Jeff Breit recalled that pickings were slim when he tried a major case in Charles City. The courthouse stood by itself, with no commercial business in sight. The sheriff brought in bag lunches for the jurors; opposing counsel dined on supermarket lunches delivered by his staff. For his lunch, Breit drove a mile down the road and dined on crackers and cola at a gas station.

While Breit will tell you that he got a good result in Charles City despite his meager lunch fare, Lynchburg lawyer Bevin Alexander warned that finding yourself without lunch opportunities is a bad omen for an out-of-town lawyer.

“If you are in a place like this, and your opponent is going home to eat, and you have to eat an RC Cola and a Moon Pie, you have no business trying a case there. You will have so little knowledge about what everybody else knows, you will be handed a resolution that you will never understand,” Alexander said.

Alexander has a formula for dining while trying a case away from home. “I will find the steak restaurant that serves draft beer (preferably Guinness) and serves reasonable steaks and also, hopefully, peanuts I can crack and throw on the floor. Regardless of how the day has gone, good or bad, it is necessary to have all three to face trial the next day,” Alexander proclaimed, only somewhat tongue in cheek. “If there is no such restaurant, you should not be trying a case there.”

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