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Business & Tech

Customers Mourn Loss Of Del Ray Eatery

Del Merei Grille will close Friday, a casualty of the Calvert redevelopment

The makeshift signs outside Del Merei Grille tell a story no loyal customer or fan of fried pickles wants to hear: the restaurant will serve its last meal Friday.

"I'm very disappointed," said Jack Taylor, the owner of Alexandria Toyota and a regular of the restaurant on Mount Vernon Avenue. "I like everybody there: from the owners to all the staff. Those are the people I see two, three times a week and I'm not going to see them anymore. 

"It's kind of like Alexandria's Cheer's," Taylor said. "A place that everyone knows your name."

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Del Merei Grille is the first casualty of the massive and much-anticipated overhaul of The Calvert Apartments, the aging 16-story high-rise that sits just north of the intersection of Commonwealth and Mount Vernon Avenues. The developer plans to demolish the existing retail strip that houses Del Merei Grille, Bombay Curry Company and other restaurants and stores and replace it with a five-story apartment building and street-level retail shops. 

Plans approved by the Alexandria Planning Commission also call for a dramatic face-lift of the high-rise that was built in 1962. 

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Del Ray resident Ashley Klick has been a regular customer of Del Merei Grille since it opened five years ago, and her memories of the restaurant are intertwined with major life milestones. She ate frickles—the restaurant's signature fried pickles—when she was pregnant with her first child. She attended meetings for new mothers at the restaurant and ate there on the eve of both of her children's inductions. She and her husband now celebrate date night every Friday with Del Merei takeout.

"My husband loves their hamburgers; I love the shrimp and grits, and we love the frickles," she said. "It's just kind of a place we think of as our Del Ray experience."

Mary Abraham Reid, co-owner of the restaurant, declined to comment for the story. Co-owner Eric Reid, her brother-in-law, did not immediately return phone calls. Mary Reid told the Alexandria Times that she plans to keep the catering business open and she is looking for a new space for the restaurant in Alexandria.

That's good news for the restaurant's devoted following who reacted with shock and sadness on the Del Merei Facebook fan page when news of the closure was first announced four weeks ago. 

"I have no words," wrote Carey Wintz Miller.

"It's hard to imagine Del Ray without you," said Anne Carlson Schirmer.

Molly Gimmel put it this way: "This completely sucks. You better let us know if you decide to reopen somewhere else."

A group of faithful customers plans to meet at Del Merei Friday for one last meal and round of drinks to celebrate the restaurant and what it has meant to the community and to them personally. 

"It's so good," said Kate Moran, who will join a group of friends who call themselves the Del Ray Divas.

Like Klick, Moran loves the restaurant's frickles. She also talks dreamily about its salad dressings and appreciates the staff's unusual willingness to substitute items on the menu.

"It'll be missed," she said.

Many who mourn Del Merei's imminent closing nonetheless welcome the changes planned at the Calvert. Updating the exterior of the building, constructing underground parking, moving shops and restaurants to street level and adding green space will make the area more appealing for pedestrians and retailers, they said. 

"It is bittersweet because I think that area needs a facelift but I hope that it doesn't push out people who've been here for years," Moran said. "You don't want to lose community."

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