Loose Leaf Notes

-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on July 23, 2020.

There will be pie, but “Guillermo’s specialty is cheese cake,” said Bill Taylor, co-owner of American Pie, the new restaurant soon to open at 1041 Floyd Highway where Ray’s Restaurant was located for decades.

Guillermo Mateo, the restaurant’s chef and co-owner, came from Guatemala with his two children in 2005. He learned to cook and speak English working in restaurants in Florida, he said. He and Taylor had a restaurant in North Palm Beach, Florida before moving to Floyd in 2019. “I like Floyd. I lived here before I went to Florida,” Taylor said.

Why American Pie?  “Are you old enough to know the song? This is it,” Taylor said, explaining that the restaurant was named after the song Bye Bye Miss American Pie by Don McLean, a nostalgic touch for people who remember the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

Although the menu will focus primarily on American cuisine, Mateo also plans to cook some Greek and Italian dishes and is thinking about doing a Chinese food buffet Friday and Saturday for dinner. “I do a little bit of Chinese but I’m going to find someone who knows how to cook Chinese,” he said.

With a new coat of white paint on the building and an American Pie sign out front, interest in the restaurant’s changes have been mounting. “We’ve been getting a lot of phone calls asking what kind of food we’ll have and when will we be open,” said Mateo, whose two teenaged children attended Floyd High School last year.

“I keep telling people in 2-3 weeks, but there’s always more to do. We’re getting closer,” Taylor said. Taylor, Maeto and his children are currently residing in Meadows of Dan but plan to live over the restaurant where the former owner, Ray Hatcher, was born.

“I’ll tell you one good thing the pandemic has done, it’s is given us time to do more, structurally and cosmetically. This is a 110-year-old building. There’s a lot of history here,” Taylor said.

Yoame Verity, a bartender/server who worked for the previous owner and will continue under the new ownership, remarked at how much fresher the renovations have made the place feel.  She noted the addition of new of windows in the back of the dining room, which will bring in more natural light.

The pool tables and weekly tournaments will remain, along with weekly Bingo at the bar. Taylor and Maeto said they want to get more involved in the community over time. “Eating out is a social event in Floyd. I want this to be a place that’s welcoming, where people can come and both enjoy the food and see their friends,” Taylor said.

_______________Colleen Redman