My hunger wasn’t the only reason I was looking forward to arriving at the big Grand Opening of Charades Nostalgic Grille in Vinton, VA. I had been a fan of Jeremy Meador’s Boogies Wrestling Camp website since I first heard about it, so I was really looking forward to finally meeting him in person. & how often do you get the chance to eat a hamburger that was created by & named after your all time favorite pro wrestler?! I had just had a fun day at Happy’s Flea Market w/Jimmy Valiant & Sweet Dreams Jody V. We spent most of the day selling wrestling souveniers & handing out hundreds of flyers advertising the new restaurant. I also found time to visit briefly w/my brother, Mike Adams, who stopped by to see us. You can see Mike in his brilliant portrayal of NoDQ in my Mistaken Liberty short film. Mike is also a long time DJ & you can currently hear his voice in commercials all over the radio. Speaking of music, at one point during the day at Happy’s, Boogie & I swapped stories about meeting The Monkees. You can read Boogie’s account of hanging out w/the legendary band in his Woo… Mercy Daddy! book. To hear about the time I met Monkees drummer/singer Micky Dolenz, uh, just ask me sometime. Our good friend & BWC family member ‘Bluegrass’ Gary met us at Happy’s & then we all made the quick trip from 5411 Williamson Rd. in Roanoke to 1094 Bypass Rd. in Vinton.
The flyers must have worked because the place was jam packed and rockin’! In one of those ‘surreal in a good way’ moments, I finally got to enjoy that first delicious Boogie Woogie Burger while I watched its namesake, WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy Valiant, signing autographs & hanging out w/the fans, friends and family who showed up for the big event. I collected some autographs of my own as I got a Charades menu signed by Boogie, Jody V, Bluegrass & Jeremy himself, who I really enjoyed meeting. He was obviously too busy to talk for long, but he was still nice enough to take time out to welcome me to the restaurant & talk about the Jimmy Valiant Dream Match story we had co-written. You can now read that story over on Jeremy’s BWC site of which I am now proud to be an official staff member. I was fortunate enough to spot pro wrestlers Drake Tungsten & ‘Steel Mill’ Steve Steele in the crowd & they were nice enough to add their signatures to my menu. It was a special day w/great food & friends. My only regret is that I didn’t have room to try the Junkyard Dog, which was just one more of the many wrestling & pop culture themed menu items. Boogie & Junkyard Dog made a great tag team back in the day & next time I’m in Vinton I will be sure to come extra hungry so I can stop by Charades to ‘reunite’ that great Junkyard/ Boogie Woogie tag team! The only other thing that didn’t go my way was the fact that the game of pinball that I played at the restaurant was over in record time. My character Magnet Man may have the power to control all things metal, but no matter how hard I tried I could not keep that little metal ball from zipping right past my flippers! The next time you stop by Charades, you can try your hand at pinball or one of their other arcade games. Maybe you can even beat my low score! Be sure to go to the Charades Nostalgic Grille website more information on this fine eating establishment.
Boogie, Brien & Jeremy at Charades. Moments after this picture was taken Boogie & Jeremy turned on tag team partner Brien & put the boots to him! Fortunately, all was resolved in time for Wrestlemania.
Jimmy, Jeremy & Mayor Brad Gross at Charades' Grand Opening
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