THE WEST WING'S DIXIE PIG

by Charlie Clark

Martin Sheen and The West Wing cast.
(NBC photo)

Last month's season premiere of the television hit The West Wing featured an Alexandria landmark called the Dixie Pig restaurant.

The half-century-old barbecue dive played the backdrop for the dramatic arrest of a Nazi skinhead suspected of shooting the president. Real-life Dixie Pig owner Cathy Kane says she was thrilled with the episode, though she might have preferred to have regular cast members like Martin Sheen and Rob Lowe dine at her tables.

But the Pig's staff has enjoyed the many congratulatory calls they've since received, as well as the friendly help from the show's location scouts in repairing the restaurant's historic, rusted and long controversial neon sign. To millions watching the show, the Dixie Pig was only a brief image flickering in the night. For us locals, it inspires a richer tale, one that I happen to be well-positioned to recount.

As a former resident of the Pig's neighborhood - the George Washington Parkway-hugging subdivisions of Fagelson's Addition and Nethergate - I have consumed dozens of the eatery's pancake breakfasts and grilled cheese sandwiches. And I am author of a history of the neighborhood published in 1993 in which I dwelled on the pet topic of ``the Pig," perhaps more than would a serious historian.

The boxy red-brick hangout, with its knotty-pine walls, red vinyl booths and counter stools that my kids like to spin, was built in 1949 at Powhatan Street and Bashford Lane on a site first occupied by a school for children of black railway workers. That gave way to a grocery store for the rail employees run by the Johnson family, according to a brief history written by a Dixie Pig regular named Bonnie Rideout. (Some readers may know her as one of the best Scottish fiddle players in these United States.)

In 1926, the Griffin family opened a barbecue emporium at the gateway to Old Town at Powhatan and North Washington streets. The parents then outfitted each of their children with his own Dixie Pig barbecue: one on Richmond Highway across from Beacon Mall (which closed in the 1990s), one in Fredericksburg, and the other run by Arthur Griffin on Powhatan Street. This proprietorship was carried on by Griffin's daughter, Adelaide Arthur, who ran the Alexandria Pig until 1983, when her retirement was featured on Channel 9 local news. Before Kane entered the picture, the Pig was owned for a few years by Ed and Aura Arcilla, who soft-pedaled the barbecue theme and offered a spicy beef stew from the Philippines.

For all the years I've frequented it, the Pig was decorated in ``'50s camp," right down to the jukebox oldies and cardboard cutouts of convertibles and jitterbugging bobbie-soxers. More recently, the decor has moved upscale to include prints of historic Old Town, though the overall effect remains funky: wagon-wheel light fixtures, paste-on numbers labeling each table, and half-empty coolers behind the counter. Kane has restored barbecue as the main draw on the menu ($5-$6 sandwich platters), but has added $15 dinners of tenderloin and salmon.

Despite such charm, the Pig has not warmed all cockles in the vicinity. In 1989, some neighbors launched a lobbying effort to deny renewal of its 40-year-old zoning variance, proposing that the site be reclassified residential. But others rose up in defense, and the City Council has since granted special-use permits.

Jean Caldwell, a longtime neighborhood activist, has never liked the Pig. ``It has not been a good neighbor," she says. ``That rusted sign was a disgrace." She has objected to weeds behind the building, litter (she herself has swept up the lot), and the large flower pots the owner has positioned to prevent parking outside the front door, but which block drivers' access to Bashford Lane.

Recently the City Council questioned Kane about fulfilling her promises to offer discounts to senior citizens (they now get 10 percent off) and to meet with police on security strategies. ``The controversy has died down," says Poul Hertel, president of the Northeast Citizens Association, which endorsed the Pig's permit application. ``About 80 percent of the neighborhood supports the restaurant" as well as the owner's catering operation.

``My husband loves the eggs Benedict," confirms neighbor Kyle Bell, who, having ignored the Pig for years, now eats there once a month. ``It's within walking distance, and they are more than generous with their portions." I'm a booster of the Dixie Pig because it lends a bit of edgy, non-yuppie flavor to one of our area's picturesque residential enclaves.

I expect to write about it again in decades to come.

Charlie Clark is a frequent contributor to The Idler and the author of the novelFinish High School At Home. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.