Greetings from Carrboro,

I’ve been known to rant. Thankfully, this is mostly when I’m alone in my car. If it shows up at work there’s usually someone to remind me that I should tuck the crazy part back in. And my daughters have a specific glare that wordlessly does the same thing. Drivers can be a featured annoyance of mine. As can the misuse of punctuation, especially the dreaded email exclamation mark. And helicopter parenting, definitely helicopter parenting. The title of the movie about The Who always came to mind in those moments: The Kids Are Alright.

But aging takes the fun out of a lot of things. In my 20s, ice cream at midnight was pure pleasure. Now it merely promises a jolting 4am reminder of my mistake. And things that invoke my ire are now met by a great deal more reflection than mirth. It used to be so much more fun to revel in the ridiculousness of helicopter parents. My daughters are mostly grown women now, so that always provided me a bit of cover. And then, well, it hit me.

On Sunday, Acme will turn 26. And for every one of those 26 years I’ve straightened bar stools, organized pot racks, and slept in the dining room when it snowed. I mean, that’s what you do when it’s your baby. And you’re a hopeless helicopter parent. There’s this breathless fear that your baby will fail without you. How apt that I would deride parents as “nervous nellies” who obsessed that the world was an oh-too scary place for their kids and never noticed my own wildly protective narcissism – the classic hubris of the hero.

In truth, it is each one of you and all the many great people who have worked at the restaurant who have made Acme thrive these 26 years. Day after day and night after night. Good days and bad. Through 9/11 and the Great Recession and Covid, this community has been both the restaurant’s north star and backbone and my singular reason to believe that the world isn’t all that scary, after all. Though I had to hold on tight and pray more than a few times, it’s been my great pleasure to be along for the ride. And for that, I can’t thank you enough.

But I can hand out birthday cake on Sunday night. That I can do.

Well, that’s all the news from Carrboro. The staff at Acme look forward to serving you soon.

Cheers,
The Staff at Acme