Tuesday, June 29, 2004
When I left Monticello, it was raining really hard and it was about lunch time, so I figured that my next stop on my "Presidential Geek" tour would be Michie Tavern. Michie (pron. "Mickey") Tavern has apparently been open for business since the 1790's. The entire building was picked up and moved to its present location in the 1920's, which is when a whole "Presidential Renaissance" started to flourish in Virginia, and places like Monticello, and their preservation, started to become important.
When you go to the Michie, you are given the royal tour of the joint, complete with Regency Dance lessons in the meeting hall! It's great! They have also amassed one of the better collections of actual period stuff I've ever seen; it certainly rivals the collections at Monticello and Ash Lawn (James Monroe's place) for authenticity.
After your tour, you are rather predictably deposited in the Michie Tavern Gift Shop. Now, before we went to Virginia, I told Jan (my wife) that I was going to be searching for the ULTIMATE KITSCHY PRESIDENTIAL SOUVENIRS. I was not disappointed by the Michie Tavern Gift Shop. This place has some of the best goofy shit I've seen anywhere: A comforter with the faces of all the Virginia-born presidents on it, for example. I passed on that one, but picked up a coffee mug of same.
But what really took the cake for me (and it's here at the house now) was the ball point pen in a faux Roman column base with THOMAS JEFFERSON'S HEAD on the end of the pen! I knew it was a hit when I pulled it out of the sack at the end of the day and my wife cracked up. Seven bucks well spent, for sure...
How much crap does the Michie Tavern Souvenir Shop have? So much that I never made it to the SECOND gift shop on the premises.
After shopping, it was off to lunch. It's a rather pricy buffet, but served in the ancient dining areas and courtyard of the tavern, where live colonial music is played and the food is well-prepared and delicious: hand-breaded fried chicken and pulled pork for entrees (the pork was sublime; if all buffets were like this no one would ever cook at home again), green bean or potato salad and cole slaw for sides, and if you're still hungry, peach cobbler the size of Monticello (I passed; the thing was HUGE). Even the drinks are served in period-style metal cups. Lots of fun and great food.
Full of food and souvenirs, I got back in the car, drove back towards and past Monticello to about a mile down the road the other way, to visit TJ's pal and neighbor, James Monroe's Ash Lawn/Highland. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.
TT
When you go to the Michie, you are given the royal tour of the joint, complete with Regency Dance lessons in the meeting hall! It's great! They have also amassed one of the better collections of actual period stuff I've ever seen; it certainly rivals the collections at Monticello and Ash Lawn (James Monroe's place) for authenticity.
After your tour, you are rather predictably deposited in the Michie Tavern Gift Shop. Now, before we went to Virginia, I told Jan (my wife) that I was going to be searching for the ULTIMATE KITSCHY PRESIDENTIAL SOUVENIRS. I was not disappointed by the Michie Tavern Gift Shop. This place has some of the best goofy shit I've seen anywhere: A comforter with the faces of all the Virginia-born presidents on it, for example. I passed on that one, but picked up a coffee mug of same.
But what really took the cake for me (and it's here at the house now) was the ball point pen in a faux Roman column base with THOMAS JEFFERSON'S HEAD on the end of the pen! I knew it was a hit when I pulled it out of the sack at the end of the day and my wife cracked up. Seven bucks well spent, for sure...
How much crap does the Michie Tavern Souvenir Shop have? So much that I never made it to the SECOND gift shop on the premises.
After shopping, it was off to lunch. It's a rather pricy buffet, but served in the ancient dining areas and courtyard of the tavern, where live colonial music is played and the food is well-prepared and delicious: hand-breaded fried chicken and pulled pork for entrees (the pork was sublime; if all buffets were like this no one would ever cook at home again), green bean or potato salad and cole slaw for sides, and if you're still hungry, peach cobbler the size of Monticello (I passed; the thing was HUGE). Even the drinks are served in period-style metal cups. Lots of fun and great food.
Full of food and souvenirs, I got back in the car, drove back towards and past Monticello to about a mile down the road the other way, to visit TJ's pal and neighbor, James Monroe's Ash Lawn/Highland. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.
TT
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