Subway restaurant coming to Town Center in Watkinsville
Watkinsville diners will soon have another choice for breakfast, lunch and dinner in Town Center.
Normally this would not make me bat an eye, but biking past local restauranteur and former UGA football coach Ray Goff coming out of Mirko's Pasta, I saw a "coming soon Subway" banner adorning the middle section where the clothing store used to be. Once upon a time there was a Quizno's where Mirko's is, so things have changed in this downtown space before. I would well imagine Mike Thornton is behind this one as well, but I do not know that.
There are some Oconee County diners who will surely be happy to have a choice out of the David Weeks continuum of Mirko's and Barberitos and not wanting to take their family to Chops and Hops. There are others who dread the continued encroachment of a national chain and would rather keep Watkinsville weird (to paraphrase a slogan swiped from Austin and fitting for Athens).
I worry about the negative effect on the sales to Krimson Kafe and the Big Easy. One Subway cannot kill the character of our lovely county seat, but it can make us increasingly bland and generic. I will probably try their new egg white breakfast thing sometime, and am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. My son loves the turkey sandwiches at Subway after sports practices, and I guess this one is a little closer to my house.
Watkinsville is a wonderful place with soul and funky places of commerce that can co-exist with the mega-chains, but only if we choose to vote with our wallets and pocketbooks. Go to Girasoles, eat at Aunt Gail's, support our unique businesses or we do risk running our town down to a level of Snellville or any other faceless suburban sprawl.
Normally this would not make me bat an eye, but biking past local restauranteur and former UGA football coach Ray Goff coming out of Mirko's Pasta, I saw a "coming soon Subway" banner adorning the middle section where the clothing store used to be. Once upon a time there was a Quizno's where Mirko's is, so things have changed in this downtown space before. I would well imagine Mike Thornton is behind this one as well, but I do not know that.
There are some Oconee County diners who will surely be happy to have a choice out of the David Weeks continuum of Mirko's and Barberitos and not wanting to take their family to Chops and Hops. There are others who dread the continued encroachment of a national chain and would rather keep Watkinsville weird (to paraphrase a slogan swiped from Austin and fitting for Athens).
I worry about the negative effect on the sales to Krimson Kafe and the Big Easy. One Subway cannot kill the character of our lovely county seat, but it can make us increasingly bland and generic. I will probably try their new egg white breakfast thing sometime, and am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. My son loves the turkey sandwiches at Subway after sports practices, and I guess this one is a little closer to my house.
Watkinsville is a wonderful place with soul and funky places of commerce that can co-exist with the mega-chains, but only if we choose to vote with our wallets and pocketbooks. Go to Girasoles, eat at Aunt Gail's, support our unique businesses or we do risk running our town down to a level of Snellville or any other faceless suburban sprawl.
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