According to the InsideNova, as of late April, O’Meara’s Old Town Manassas Restaurant closed their doors after 5 years in business. Equally as shocking to learn was the radio duo of Don & Mike has ceased to exist. From what I’ve read Mike Source aka Don Geronimo has taken an early retirement. Some of you might be aware that Don’s wife was killed in an automobile accident a few years back and apparently has decided it too painful to continue with the show. Mike O’Meara apparently has decided to continue his radio show which can still be heard at 106.7 from 3-7pm.
Honestly, with 4 children – one being a teenager, I rarely get a chance to control the radio dial. We mostly end up listening to the ipod and the sirius satellite radio anyways and only occassionally end up using the regular radio. It’s sad to see an established radio show fold-up and also disappointing that a city restaurant has shutdown.
My podiatrist used to go there a lot. Evidently it was a gathering place for the over 40 singles crowd on weekends. I’d never been there though. I’d been to Jake’s though.
Don and Mike announced their show would be ending last year. How is this surprising?
I Dont have a clue about this, never ate at the restaurant and never listen to terrestrial radio anymore, only satellite. I’m sure the food was good however. 4 kids? wow, I have enough work with 2 🙂
Em
Guy, Guess it caught me off guard. I remember when WAVA, 105.1 had Don & Mike in the morning. Just the end of an era I presume; I read they had been doing their show for 23 years.
We did attend a Christmas party at O’Meara’s this past year. Everything seemed fine.
elvis,
To give you an idea, I’m helping with algebra homework and changing diapers at the same time.
The restaurant closed early on St. Patricks Day and was only open on weekends after that.
yeah, I got one in diapers and another who is just starting kindergarden soon, no algebra yet and I’m not looking forward to it. I’m hoping to find a nanny soon during the week, much better than daycare for sure and it’s cheaper than before/after care. kids are tough work, stay at home mom’s cannot be paid enough in my view.
From what I hear, O’Meara was his own biggest customer and he pretty much drank himself out of business.
The restaurant business is tough – thanks to O’Meara for sticking it out for five years.
The site of O’Meara’s was originally Brady’s, a restaurant that had started on
Battle St. where the WaPo is now, burned down and moved to where Jake’s
was (of course Jake’s came after Hero’s). And remember
St. James Place on Center St? And the great place that was in the old
Presbyterian Church at Main and Church? It was forced out by a big rent jump,
then followed by a string of failed restaurants and now an empty building.
And the great brunch at Maria’s? Etc. TOUGH biz.
I went there once for dinner with my family. Didn’t care much for the menu listing, sort of a ‘yuppy pub’ kind of fare. But that’s okay. The place was new to us.
The waitress was really snotty with us and our food arrived 45 minutes after we ordered. Not that bad of a wait time, I guess, *if* the food is worth waiting for. But the food was inedible. I pushed it aside. When asked if I wanted a ‘doggy bag’ to take it home, I told the waitress that my dog wouldn’t eat this ‘stuff’. Kibble is better. 🙂
I’m surprised the demise took this long.
es_la_ley,
Off topic, but I thought of you today, well at least your moniker. I had to take my daughter to the ER this morning, she has poison ivy all over her face and neck. I saw the sign: ES LA LEY, bla, blah….anyhow she is fine. I was in Woodstock and was in and OUT of the ER in LESS than an hour!
Happy Mother’s Day to all 🙂
Red,
sorry about the ER visit, I hate the ER and spent far too much time in it last few years (it’s horrible at Potomac hospital).
Many moons ago my wife right before our wedding went hiking and got into some poison oak, got it all over her legs and arms. She went to some natural grocery store or something like that and they recommended jojoba oil to rub all over it. Well, poison oak and poison ivy are oils and that basically spread it over a good portion of her body. luckily a good dermatologist fixed her up good, just in time for the wedding, it actually subsided enough to be covered up right before the wedding. she was in shear agony for sure.
Elvis,
OUCH! Talk about adding EXTRA stress to planning a wedding to boot! I am glad to hear it turned out okay. My daughter was in agony for sure. She had it for a couple of days and woke up this morning close to looking like that guy in the movie “Mask” with Cher….They gave her steroids ( already this evening she LOOKS and is starting to feel a lot better) and some anti itch pills. By the way, AFTER spending money on the bendaryl spray and caladryl lotion, the doctor said that benadyl does NOT work topically!!!! Don’t waste money. 🙁
Thanks for the well wishes 🙂
red,
sounds like the same thing here. I heard that about benadryl, it does not seem to work for anything on either of my children. I hate calamine lotion, it makes people look like pink monsters. I think the oatmeal stuff is awesome though, worked wonders whenever I got into poison ivy or had the chickenpox 🙂
Elivs,
LOL, she had the pink calamine and we decided to buy the caladyl at twice the price because it went on CLEAR…..
Have a good day all 🙂 Off to work. Husband called and said it’s Tricky out there. Compton Road is shut down due to flooding and rt 28 backed up ( Manassas area)
MJM website has story today on major ABC unpaid fines — this may have had
a big part in O’Meara’s closing.
To stop the poison ivy/oak itch, take a hot shower – as hot as you can – just let the water run over the area with the rash – it will feel itchy like never before, and after you get out of the shower, you will have itch relief for hours. And yes, poison ivy/oak is an oil, you should wash it with an oil removing soap.
I had to get a steroid shot once for poison ivy. I had my 4 year-old daughter with me and was thinking it was a good opportunity to build up her self-confidence since she was soon to get a couple vaccines. So, I started saying things like – watch Mommy be a big girl and get her shot. Let me tell you, that shot burned SO MUCH, I was completely caught off guard and just about cried! My husband opted for surgery before taking another steroid shot in his knee.
Anyways, I hope your daughter is feeling better soon.
Steroid shots are not fun, and I know for cortisone with regard to poison ivy they usually give them in the buttocks..which hurts like holy hell as you described. usually oil-based medications in those large muscles are the worst and the needle gauge is larger too 🙁
Thanks again for the well wishes and useful info…she is doing much better 🙂
I know people that worked there, I heard it was the gm that made it go down the tubes. It was manassas, unfortunately- the crowd- ummmm…..
@es_la_ley
O’Meara’s didn’t work because it 1) was so bad…food, servce, etc. Just another place that got by slopping beer in the “underage” bar section, blaring loud, bad, bad, bad music and filled with bar games of no interest and 2) they were busted in a few drug stings, the latest having so many counts…and apparently tied to some of the staff…that it would cost more in legal fees to fight than to just close up.
Ever go there on a Friday night? TONS of wasted underage people jostling for shooters, doing blow in the bathroom and generally making for a really, really annoying time. Nothing wrong with a lively crowd, but wasted 17 year old wanna be’s from Georgetown South (a local scum-town) or from every redneck rock in the county would show up and seemed to vie for the prize of who can puke in the toilet and/or parking lot first. But hey, the late night, disco-drug scene buys beer and he needed the flow to keep the place open, so…
…the place is right around the corner from the cops. Wonder what took them so long to bust this place.
Local talk…I live in Old Town Manassas, not far away at all…was that, well, it wasn’t a surprise that the owner turned a bit of an eye to cocaine being in the place, if you get me…
In the dining room, to be fair, I once had A decent chop, nicely presented with A red potato and A FEW green beans…which was tasty but overpriced. And tiny. His bar was too full of underage morons scoring drugs and his restaurant tried to be fancier than it was, so it would have gone down even without the massive drug bust.