Ruralite Cafe: Published 02/08/01

By Lynn Hotaling - Associate Editor

MJ's restaurant was pretty good, but no Cafe

There's a lot of choices down there. It was especially daunting when you consider that we're not used to having any choice at all. When that dinner bell rings here at The Herald, we get to choose between the Cafe and the Cafe.

We settled on "23," the Franklin Street eatery started by some former Carolina basketball standout - Jordan, I think his name is. Seems like I had heard he went on to play a few seasons in the NBA.

Coaches aren't a common sight in our Cafe, but as we walked in the door at 23, we nearly collided with a couple of big names: Carolina basketball coach Matt Doherty and Tar Heel football coach John Bunting.

Something else we don't have hanging around the Cafe are television screens. They're all over the walls at Michael's place. And for some reason all eight of them were showing a basketball game, despite the fact it was Thursday night when we could have been watching "Friends." Despite the monotony, it was kind of cool the way they turned random wall panels into video screens. Back at the Cafe, we don't even have a radio; luckily, we do have Frosty and Grandpa.

Turns out Michael was a better than average basketball player. One photo depicted some game-winning shot he made in 1982 on the way to an NCAA championship for Carolina. And it was hard to study the food choices on a menu that was mostly the image of His Airness dunking from the foul line.

The menu's food list contained a few more items than we're used to seeing. After all, down here at the Cafe, you get what you get. Michael's menu, on the other hand, was considerably more uptown - sort of home cooking with an edge - and had more than one entree. For example, at 23 you can get grits - but they come with mushrooms. The mashed potatoes have horseradish, not gravy. Instead of green beans, they have Asian vegetables.

We were sure Michael himself would make an appearance. The presence of award-winning Sylva Herald columnists would provide a lure he couldn't resist, we thought. However, for some unfathomable reason (at least to us) he did not appear. It must be that he wasn't made aware of our planned visit.

Though 23 was relatively calm when we made our appearance Jan. 25, it would have been a different story had we been there a week later during Carolina's thrilling upset of Duke. After Brendan Haywood sank his game-winning free throws, all of Franklin Street erupted in rowdy celebrations.

While it was fun to see how they do things in the city, we really prefer the simple life. In the daily journalism vortex that is our newsroom, we have to make snap decisions and operate at high speed.

It's a comfort to know that someone's in the Cafe kitchen, preparing the day's dinner.

Back to Archive: 02/08/01.