Our little town of Brevard is in mourning over the announcement that one of our favorite places in our cute downtown is closing its doors after 28 years of serving its customers. Rocky’s Grill and Soda Shop announced last week that it will be closing its doors on August 5th.

Inside the restaurant each visitor feels like they are stepping back in time just a little bit.

Rocky’s is the place that locals take their guests to for lunch and a shake or ice cream. It is the place where tourists gather for an old fashioned soda shop experience. It is the place where all of our local campers gather at various times during their weeks at camp to pig out on ice cream. It is the place where hundreds of high schoolers learn valuable work experience in their first job.

Before it was Rocky’s and owned by the Perkins family it was Varner’s Pharmacy and smart Mr. Varner added a soda shop and luncheonette to the shop in 1946. It became a stop that everyone needed to make when they were in Brevard.

The Perkins family also owns D.D. Bullwinkle’s Outdoors where anything outdoor related can be found from gear to shoes to clothing to camping items. Owner DeeDee Perkins has said in interviews that running Rocky’s is basically grueling. There are always shortages, even after they survived COVID, of supplies and employees and it was definitely not an easy decision to decide to close the doors. I imagine there were a lot of sleepless nights but when it is all settled out — the family wants to focus on their other enterprises and keeping the restaurant open will not allow them that opportunity. Who can blame them?

Tables and booths are small by standards today but who can resist the allure of the placement of containers of Trivial Pursuit cards? A great way to spend time while you await your order.

Despite the charm of the place, it has to be an incredible amount of work to keep a restaurant going. Chris and I visited this week for one last hot dog and are hopeful that someone somewhere will want to step in to keep this sweet spot in Brevard open.

But until that happens, we will just have to say thank you to the owners and employees for giving us such a great run with Rocky’s. It really is a step back in time to visit the soda shop and one that we will definitely miss. I am grateful we were able to take our grandson once.

So good luck to all who were a part of such a wonderful bit of Brevard — we wish you well as you leave behind memories and customers who will always hold their memories of Rocky’s in a special place.