Biking on the Dog Days of Summer

Okay, so it's not blazing hot yet. But when the dog is spontaneously drooling, no chicken burrito in front of her face, you know it's just plain hot. So what do sane people do? Stay indoors. What does the Bike Friday Club of DC do? Go for a ride. In the hottest parts of the day. Well, okay, we took a lunch respite in the dark, cool confines of Roy's Place Sandwich shop in Gaithersburg, MD. "A tavern", Roy described his place, not far missing the mark. It has all the wall-crammed chotchquis of a TGI Been There's, except Roy and his wife hand-picked their stuff over the course of many years, at yard sales, from original owners. Roy's is the blues to Chili's Muzak.

Roy passed away May 15, 2009. From what I've read, learned from talking to people, and seen for myself while at Roy's, he was cantankerous. Contentious. Or, maybe just straight-up honest, never going to suffer fools gladly. I'll borrow the best anecdote from the restaurant menu. Once upon a time (Roy after all opened his restaurant in 1955) a customer got angry at the too vast array of strange sandwich concoctions on the menu, and grumbled to Roy: "Can't I just have a cold sandwich?". Big mistake. "Here you go," responded Roy, handing the customer two slices of bread with ice cubes in between. And, as the menu proudly states, it's still an option (though the price has increased over the years).

I bring all this up as Roy was the inspiration for our fearless group leader to plan our trip through southern Montgomery County and end up at his restaurant. She read a newspaper article about him after his passing, and, like I had been over a year ago, she was instantly fascinated by the man and the place, Roy's, and knew it was a destination worthy of half a dozen sweaty bikers with rear-view mirrors wired to their sunglasses. And while the 15+/- mile ride back to our meeting point may have worked off some of our sandwiches (well maybe just a fraction of my "Marsupial", the fried oyster and roast beef sandwich pictured above, and number 21 on the menu) the memory of Roy and our ride to his tavern will stick with us a lot longer.