Say farewell to The Jewish Mother as you know it

VIRGINIA BEACH

Scotty Miller nursed a glass of wine at the bar inside The Jewish Mother. He reminisced about the old days when the "hippies" used to play the blues and make crayon doodles on the walls.

Those markings, notes, crude drawings and signatures still cover the walls. In 37 years, little about the cavernous club and restaurant has changed. But on a blustery Saturday night, the joint buzzed with people born in the 1990s - folks young enough to be the children or perhaps the grandchildren of those hippies who frequented The Jewish Mother years ago.

Carbon Jam, a five-piece cover band made up of teens from Norfolk Academy, breezed through songs by Van Halen and Janis Joplin.

"Tonight is for the young crowd," said Miller, the owner. "They can have their night before the old-timers come in and we close for good."

The business, now The Jewish Mother Backstage, has relocated to Granby Street in downtown Norfolk. It opened Wednesday in the space that used to be Kelly's Tavern Backstage at the rear of The NorVa. Another Jewish Mother will open in the Hilltop section of Virginia Beach in March.

The location at the corner of 31st Street and Pacific Avenue at the Oceanfront will shut its doors forever after brunch Sunday. A developer will demolish the block to make way for new retail space.

The final Jewish Mother farewell bash, featuring local singer-songwriter Lewis McGehee, is tonight.

"It's time to go," Miller said. "The roof is gone. I had 27 buckets of water from the rain last week. The ceiling has wet spots all over it. Every day was a new challenge to make sure something wasn't falling apart."

The lived-in feel of the place - the patio filled with rocks and pebbles, the rainbow graffiti dazzling the interior and exterior - has long been part of The Jewish Mother's charm.

"The way it is - it kept an edge," said Miller, a Virginia Beach native. "That's part of the ambience, not being a white-tablecloth kind of place. You can come in blue jeans or an evening gown."

The food kept people coming too, he said.

"Our sandwiches have been voted the best at the beach for 20 years or something like that," Miller said. "We got 35 different cakes and pies. People come in all the time just for dessert. The food, I tell you, is very good."

The unpretentious atmosphere and food attracted many musicians over the years, including the Dave Matthews Band and Hootie and the Blowfish years before they became superstar rock acts.

"All the writing on the wall, you just don't get that feel anywhere. It puts you more at ease when you go in," said Norfolk drummer Mike Williams, who has played in several bands at The Jewish Mother since 1978. "You can just kind of tell that it's going to be a comfortable place just to play, regardless of how many people show up."

Recipes and the thousands of framed photographs that adorned the walls will go to the other Jewish Mother locations, but not much else.

"You can't take the feel of this place to a new location," Miller said, tapping the bar. "The history here - people grew up here."

Bustling Granby Street will be a welcome change, Miller said. But this isn't the first time The Jewish Mother has tried a Norfolk location. In 1993, the venue opened at the foot of the Colley Avenue bridge but closed within a year after problems with its liquor license.

"We're gonna shake it up on Granby Street," Miller said, smiling.

He hired a new chef and is planning a new dinner menu. "We feel like we owe it to our customers to come back new, fresh and clean."

At the end of the Saturday night show, Carbon Jam's drummer called Miller to the stage. Microphone in hand, the gregarious manager seemed nervous before the crowd, which greeted him with thunderous applause. "There are a lot of good memories here," he said.

He paused and looked down. Miller's voice was low as he said, "I thank you for the support."

Rashod Ollison, (757) 446-2732, rashod.ollison@pilotonline.com