Summer sales lagged and a difficult fall loomed, leading Bill’s Seafood House owner Michael Dawson to decide the business’ last day would be Sept. 15.
But burglars had other plans.
After throwing a rock through a glass pane on the front door of the Grafton restaurant, someone walked inside, went to the back office, and stole more than $1,000. The loss of that money led Dawson to close the restaurant a day early. Bill’s Seafood House had operated out of the York Square shopping center at the corner of George Washington Memorial Highway (Route 17) and Denbigh Boulevard since 1980.
“It was one of the worst summers we’ve ever been through,” Dawson said of the 2013 summer season. Though the restaurant began to run into problems in 2006, Dawson managed to keep it going until the middle of September.
He said the restaurant boomed in the 1980s and 1990s when it was one of a handful of dining choices in that part of York County. A long, narrow entryway was built during the glory years so guests could line up to be seated. Dawson said one of his neighbors at York Square used to be a drug store, and he would have to move guests who were waiting in line for the seafood house in front of the drug store.
Those days, however, have passed. While York Square is the home of a new Dunkin Donuts, the rest of the development shows its many years. Crumbling asphalt in the parking lot gives way to a strip mall where businesses have come and gone, and new tenants have moved in and re-appropriated the space. Riverside occupies the largest space in the building, where what was once a large retail store is now a collection of primary care physicians.
More recently, the rampant development at Kiln Creek and along the Jefferson Avenue corridor has eroded his customer base, which combined with surging food costs and economic malaise to force him to shutter the restaurant.
“There’s a million places to eat out nowadays,” Dawson said. “I said 10 years ago chains will take over the restaurant market. They have the buying and advertising power. It’s hard for mom-and-pop type places.”
Dawson began working at the restaurant as a busser in 1983 when he was 15 years old. He climbed the ranks, going from busboy to cook to manager before he bought the business in 1997. In those days, the restaurant attracted 500 to 600 customers on weekend nights, including families with kids. He said those numbers have sharply declined, as he was lucky to get 20 kids in the restaurant on a weekend night.
He said the lack of a bar and televisions in the restaurant also hurt business. His restaurant harkens back to a different time — instead of sleek metals, microbrews and flat-panel televisions, Bill’s offered walls adorned with paintings of seascapes and shelves and half walls festooned with nautical knick-knacks.
“This concept worked great in the 1980s and 1990s,” Dawson said. “Now we’re kind of behind the times.”
The York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate the burglary. Lt. Dennis Ivey said no arrests have been made. Anyone with information on the burglary is encouraged to call Crime Line at 888-LOCK-U-UP (888-562-5887).
