Street life in downtown Culpeper is reflected in the windows of the Frost Cafe, the new restaurant opening next week in the 100-year-old Booton Building, once home to Gayheart's Drug Store. smc View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

Eatery eagerly awaited

1950s-style diner set to open at site of old Gayheart's Drug Store, crossroads of the community in downtown Culpeper.

By DONNIE JOHNSTON

Date published: 1/19/2004

The red and white booths are in place, the padded-back stools are at the counter and the jukeboxes are ready to install.

The Frost Cafe is almost set for business. Its opening may be the most eagerly anticipated event in Culpeper since the removal of federal troops during the Civil War.

"I'm ready!" declares Nancy Beach, who was a faithful customer of Gayheart's Drug Store, which occupied the 100-year-old Booton Building before Frost.

"I'm sure it won't have the same atmosphere as Gayheart's, but I hope it comes close to it," the rental-properties manager adds.

Unless unforeseen problems arise, the Frost Cafe, at the corner of Main and Davis streets, will open Monday, Feb. 2.

"I think we'll have something to suit everybody," says Curtis Stuart, who along with his wife, Lisa, will operate the cafe.

Stuart, who also operates the Frost Diner in Warrenton, says lunch specials will include everything from spaghetti and lasagna to white beans and cornbread, all priced at around $5.

"We'll have kind of Southern, down-home cooking," he adds.

While good food at a reasonable price is important, location is almost of equal concern to townspeople.

"It will be nice to have a restaurant in the middle of downtown again," says attorney Elliott Dejarnette, whose office is half a block down Main Street.

Beach is also looking forward to having a centrally located and moderately priced restaurant in Culpeper again.

"There are not many places you can go and eat on a 45-minute lunch hour," she says. "My daughter Donna [Olinger] often gets back to work late now."

Then there is the social significance of a cafe in the exact center of Culpeper.

"Gayheart's was the pulse of the community, and since it closed [in June of 2002], it is no longer easy to say what the pulse really is anymore," Dejarnette says. "Hopefully, this will be a place where folks can just drop in."

Stuart says Frost Cafe will have a 1950s-'60s-'70s-type atmosphere.

"We'll have jukeboxes at every booth and four on the counter. They will contain 1960s and '70s CDs."

Following complaints that the new cafe would have folks at the lunch counter facing away from Main Street (the old Gayheart's counter looked out onto the downtown thoroughfare), Stuart put up a smaller counter that will give customers an outside view.

"They can sit here and watch traffic go by, if they like," he says.

Frost will have all the old diner amenities, such as hamburgers, milkshakes, banana splits and ice-cream sundaes. Like similar establishments 40 years ago, it will offer only three sundae flavors: chocolate, strawberry and pineapple.

"And all our ice cream will be hand-dipped," he says.

Initially, Frost Cafe, which can accommodate up to 98 customers, will be open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. But Stuart says that if the need is there, the restaurant may seek permission from the town to stay open until 2 a.m.

He stresses, however, that this will be a family-oriented restaurant and will serve no alcohol.

"We'll have tables, booth and counter stools--and good food," Stuart says. "We'll have something for everybody."

To reach DONNIE JOHNSTON: DJohn40330@aol.com

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Date published: 1/19/2004