Wally Womble has observed downtown Plymouth from her Garden Spot Café restaurant at Water and Monroe streets for 25 years, noting that much has changed and much has remained over that quarter century.
Womble launched the venture with her sisters in August 2001, leaning on several factors, including a nudge from Port O’ Plymouth Museum curator Harry Thompson, who declared Plymouth a food desert.
“This building was vacant at the time, and we knew there was grant money coming to put the (Roanoke River) Lighthouse in,” she recalls. “We expected tourism would grow, and there was no restaurant downtown then. Harry used to always say, ‘You could not buy a Coca-Cola in downtown Plymouth.’ ”
With those factors in mind, Womble and her siblings, Vicky Sawyer and Jenny Jackson, plunged into the restaurant business Aug. 8, 2001.
“So, we bought it, and we never received one cent of grant money over all the years,” Womble recounts. “Vicky concentrated on a gift shop that was next to the dining room. And Jenny worked on the food.”
The Garden Spot served lunch and dinner on week days and closed on week ends in the beginning, and the new business did well. It got even better when the sisters learned about church traffic demands and opted to open on Sundays and close on Mondays.
Diners from the nearby Weyerhaeuser plant played a major role in the success, Womble points out, particularly at lunchtime, when many of the plant’s 2,000 plus employees frequented the Garden Spot.
Of course, change is often the only constant in life.
After two years, Vicky left the partnership, and the gift shop closed.
Of much greater impact were changes at Weyerhaeuser that began in 2005 with the elimination of the plant’s containerboard production, which cut about 200 jobs and started an inexorable reduction in the workforce.
“We were very busy,” Womble reminisces. “Weyerhaeuser had two or three thousand employees at one time before they sold out to Domtar. Now, we still get loyal Domtar employees, but nothing like in the past. We were very well known. We had employees from seven dif ferent counties.”
In 2010, Jenny was diagnosed with cancer, forcing her from the business. She died a year later, leaving Womble as the sole owner.
Another change, in 2012, added a new partner when Womble’s son, Joey Womble, left teaching to join his mother’s venture. He brought with him the launch of the popular Oyster Bar on the second level of the café, where oysters are the centerpiece in months that contain the letter “R.”
A gradual evolution in Plymouth has increased the competition for the dining dollar, Womble says. While the Garden Spot was the lone option in 2001, Womble says there are now 17 dining options (fast food and otherwise) within a mile of the restaurant, several of them in the downtown corridor.
"New business would be great downtown,” Womble chuckles. “A hardware store or fabric shop would be great.”
Still, she remains com mitted to the restaurant.
“We’ve had offers to sell, but never seriously considered it,” she says. “It’s ironic I was the one who didn’t want to do it (the restaurant) in the be ginning, and I’m the one that’s left. But, as you get older, sometimes you need a reason to get up in the morning, and this is my reason.”
With the Weyerhaeuser downsizing in her rear view mirror, Womble cautions the town about the future, urging Plymouth to protect what it has while pursuing other growth.
She cites the Bear Festival as a major benefit. “Generally, summer is a slow time for us. The Bear Festival is the best three days of the year. People who think otherwise need an economics course. They need their noses rubbed in it.”