From family home to fine dining
WALKING THROUGH AN OLD or historic home leads one to imagine the conversations, plans and plots that may have been made there through the years.
Author and storyteller Bob Rouse has given voice to one of Midway’s historic sites now known as the Holly Hill Inn, the flagship restaurant in Chef Ouita Michel’s successful portfolio. In Up Home: A Family, a Tragedy, & the Holly Hill Inn, Rouse chronicles the life and times of all those who called Hermosa, the house’s formal name, home. Rouse can speak with authority on his subject—the house belonged to his family for almost 100 years, and he and his sisters, the eighth generation of his family to reside in Midway, grew up right next door.
Dating back to the 1840s, the original structure went through several owners and additions until the Parrish family, Rouse’s great-grandparents, purchased it in 1903. Rouse walks readers through the simpler times of those years, documented by his great-aunt’s journals, when the Parrish children spent warm summer nights on the sleeping porch, extra faces around the table were always welcome, and nighttime entertainment involved gathering around to listen to a radio show.
No family history is devoid of tragedy, however, regardless of how idyllic things appear. Rouse discusses the accidental drowning of his great-uncle, the last male in the Parrish line, and the ripple effect of grief felt throughout the town. Though Rouse never met him, he mourns the loss nonetheless and ponders the influence knowing him might have had.
Today, Rouse lives just down the road from his family’s homeplace and goes “up home” often. Much has changed, of course, in converting a former home to a fine dining establishment, but as Rouse recently walked through each room observing the satisfied customers, the knowledgeable and capable waitstaff and the precision of the kitchen crew, his sense of pride is evident as he describes the transition from a boy wandering into the kitchen looking for a snack to a paying customer of that same kitchen.
Rouse also pays tribute to his beloved tiny town. With a little over 1,700 residents, Midway is the place he and his wife chose to raise their own family: “These people and this place are part of me, and I gladly introduce them to you.”
Up Home: A Family, a Tragedy, & the Holly Hill Inn, (Rabbit House Press, $24), can be purchased online at www.rabbithousepress.com or at A Likely Story Bookstore in Midway.
Along with her husband, Chris, Ouita Michel, a Lexington native, is the owner of eight dining establishments in Midway, Versailles and Lexington, including Holly Hill Inn. She is a six-time James Beard Foundation Award nominee, including nominations for Outstanding Restaurateur and Best Chef Southeast. Find a list of her restaurants, as well as stories and recipes, at www.hollyhillandco.com.
