Up U.S. Route 50, north of Annapolis, Maryland, is this barbecue joint:

Now you might wonder why a barbecue restaurant is adorned with a windmill. It looks a little like the famous Dutch Haven pie and kitsch shop in Pennsylvania Amish Country:

Well, it wasn’t exactly that, but it was this! From the current restaurant’s own Facebook page:

That house on the same property was there then, and is still there. In the early days, this was probably a little business owned by the people who lived on site, a lot like the motels where the office doubled as the owners’ home.

Here’s what I’m guessing is an older image, from a postcard sold on eBay:

And here’s an image shared on Facebook by the Historic Baltimore page, which as far as I can tell from the comments is the same structure with an earlier sign and not yet having the mill on top. (Their description said it was in Glen Burnie, but as far as I can tell that’s an error, and there was only one of these, in Annapolis.)

This restaurant was also the subject of a dispute between the couple who owned it (over whether or not to transform it into an Italian restaurant) that ended in the wife shooting and killing her husband, in the 1980s.

What’s with the Old West-looking facade elements? It reminds me a lot of one these—a Texas Steakhouse & Saloon (this is a since-demolished location in Winchester, Virginia):

In 1989 it was purchased by a group led by Harvey LeRoy “Lee” Atwater (Republican National committee consultant) and renamed ‘Texas Steak and BBQ” and later changed it to “Red Hot and Blue” which it is known as today.

That’s from a very detailed history of the building and various businesses here.

So the building began life with a windmill in the sign, but not in the structure, added the windmill, lost the sign and added the “Texas” facade, then kept the Texas motif and the windmill as it became a barbecue restaurant. It’s a shame the sign didn’t survive.

If you look up the name, you’ll find a lot of reminiscing online. I remember “pancake houses” when I was a kid, and it seems like there are fewer of them nowadays. I remember the different syrups. They were a “concept,” kind of like the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. One of those concepts that’s faded over time and isn’t new or “hip” anymore. But there are still plenty of these sorts of places left, in older tourist destinations or along older commercial strips.

And then there are quirky places like this, little encapsulations of coming up on a century of American life and roadside commerce.

Related Reading:

Tinee, But Part Of The Story

Hard Times For Hardware

Highs and Lows

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