SECRET: Sandwiches Eaten Collectively, Raptuously, Eagerly Together
It is in Fayetteville, West Virginia. My friend Harold loves this place, takes his mom there, and I hope he will take me there someday too. I want to bust into anyplace that has a secret. There is a second outpost in Richmond, that’s a closer destination. If I have my way we will travel on blue highways, they whisper secrets at every curve.
From Harold, who is in the know about exceptional West Virginia:
David Bailey and his wife started TSSS in Fayetteville. They also started a pizza place called Pies and Pints. I believe P&P came first. Both are favorites.
Eventually the Baileys sold the P&P concept to some investment group. Now, there are P&P’s in several states in the South and Midwest. The Baileys kept the locations in Fayetteville, Charleston, and Morgantown.
It seems this process is now occurring at TSSS. The current owner is Lewis Rhineharr but the Baileys still own the name and concept.
Fayetteville is a former mining community that sits on the rim of The New River Gorge. It’s also the gateway to the nation’s newest national park. Many smart, creative, and young people began moving there fifty years ago. It’s a center for whitewater rafting and rock climbing.
Three intriguing words. Secret. Sandwich. Society.
Intriguing words from Harold, talking about Fayetteville:
Also my first memory in life happened near there.
I do not know of what he speaks, nor do I know if it is a secret. Someday, over a sandwich, I hope to know.
Lives are secret-filled, from inconsequential stuff such as the hated peas I dropped through the porch floorboards, to the turtle I might have killed by playing with it too hard to more important stuff. You know the important stuff, whether you can face it or not. Let’s not talk about it.
And then there are sandwich preferences. Let’s talk about it. Do you have a secret sandwich preference? Beef tongue could be a bridge too far for some, but not for me. I keep that a secret – no need to be maligned for my sandwich preferences. Mayonnaise is polarizing, I am told. I love mayonnnaise and also keep that to myself. Canned tuna, aka “tuna fish”, might be something someone might shame you for liking. I like it. A lot. Not telling anyone.
We have our differences, our preferences, our secrets, our guilty secrets, our proud secrets. Between two slices of bread all is confidential.
The Lunch Encounter 