Dearman’s Soda Shop’s customers are loyal. Whether they’ve had an appetite for burgers and shakes or an appetite for nostalgia, something has kept them coming back to the no-frills, ’50s-style restaurant in Bocage Village.
Indeed, as Dearman’s prepared to open after its almost-two-year hiatus, each day brought people peeking through the windows to check on its progress, manager Casey Evans says.
The restaurant opened on Sunday, Dec. 17, for the first time since 2016, when a fire scathed the kitchen and dining area. Though the fire covered the restaurant in soot and smoke damage, the Dearman’s team salvaged much of the space, cleaning furniture and reupholstering damaged pieces.
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Following the fire, Dearman’s underwent more of a restoration than a renovation. “Dearman’s Drugs” remains painted above the diner’s entrance, a nod to its former life as a pharmacy. Cherry-red vinyl still decks diner-style chairs, booths and barstools. Tables and countertops are still covered in a retro boomerang laminate. Large framed black-and-white photographs of icons like Marilyn Monroe and the Rat Pack still dot the walls.
Dearman’s upgraded its old black-and-white checkerboard floors to larger ceramic tiles in the same pattern. Other slight changes are also notable: The restaurant moved its open kitchen to the adjacent wall and extended the bar counter to run parallel to it. And the white cinderblock wall that was once painted with the restaurant’s name is solid white—at least for now.
Dearman’s looks almost unchanged. It feels unchanged, too. Behind the counter, hamburger patties sizzle on the griddle. Hot french fries are piled in red-check paperboard trays. The songs of Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Connie Francis and the like set the soundtrack.
The restaurant has, however, changed over the decades. Dearman’s Drug Store opened in the late 1950s, complete with a lunch counter and soda fountain—a setup common in neighborhood pharmacies. The drug store became known for its burgers and nectar cream sodas. The Dearman family sold the store after about four decades, and the space became a full-service restaurant. Renovations created the signature retro diner aesthetic.
Through the decades, the burgers, fries, milkshakes and nectar sodas have remained staples. The current menu reads almost the same as it had before the fire, save for a new veggie burger and a fried chicken sandwich.
Four servers and all but one cook returned. And on a wet Sunday morning, customers began to return, too.
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And with that, Dearman’s is back in business.
Hours are 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.
