when i was a kid growing up in south jersey there were a couple places that just seemed
to be the mark of utmost sophistication and class. they were places that perhaps i would go
to when i was older. to my young mind, a symbol of having "made it". one of these places was the pub, the taj mahal of camden county.
sitting on the circle where the admiral wilson meets route 130 south, my mom and i would pass it and i'm sure she must have made some remarks about this being a good restaurant because i built a mythology around it at a young age.
i vaguely remember the first time i went there. i know i was with a boyfriend at the time. it's a steakhouse, he ate a lot of steak. it was a decent meal but i had been living in philadelphia for so long that i had already developed a sophisticated palette and wasn't so easily impressed. but, i liked it and more than that, i think i just liked being in there. maybe i felt like i had really gone places.
and it's so funny to me because it doesn't seem like the place has had much change or even tried to keep up with the times. it's interior and exterior hail from their glory days in what i would guess was the late 60's. and it's good but, i find myself saying of it, "well, it's not exactly what it used to be." really, how would i know? i just have a feeling that it's not.
but, now i have been there many times over the years and i always enjoy it. not for all it's actual pomp and grandeur but for all of that which i carry with me when i walk in those doors knowing how far that little girl has come up in this world. i made it cause i ate at the pub.