Ormond Beach Journal
Published Wednesday, February 11, 1976
Image: Waitress Linda Grainger amid unique trappings at Gill's
SANDING AND REPAINTING vintage license plates isn't Briggs Gilliam's idea of a hobby. But he and his wife have spent the past seven months restoring more than 1,000 auto tags damaged when a fire temporarily burned the couple out of business.
The old licenses - many of them rare - were just one of the attractions at Gill's Bar B-Q, a local landmark since Gilliam's parents first opened the restaurant doors in 1952.
Folks came to Gill's as much to see the auto tags and newspapers headlining historic events as they did to fill up on pork, beef, ribs and Brunswick stew.
Then, last May 25, all that came to an abrupt stop when fire totally destroyed the popular S. Yonge St. dining spot.
It was a stroke of bad luck, but Gilliam, who'd taken over the operation from his parents only months before, was determined to make the best of it. With his mind made up to rebuild, he look advantage of the situation and began drafting plans for a new barbecue house twice the size of the old one.
Those plans became a finished product-complete with restored auto plates and salvaged newspapers - a few weeks ago when the new Gill's welcomed its first customers.
If former patrons didn't recognize the barbecue house from it's remodeled exterior, they couldn't mistake the inside. Bold, front page headlines of "STALIN DIES" and "PACIFIC WAR ENDS" still greet 'visitors at the front door.
A glance toward the ceiling, and there are the row after row of colorful license plates lining the beams like before.
"My wife and I have been sanding and cleaning those old plates since about two weeks after the fire," explained Gilliam. "We finished up shortly before the reopen-ing."
While the two scrubbed the scorched tags clean, Gilliam's mother repainted their raised characters, using a fingerprinting ink roller. Then, with the aid of a license plate color chart supplied by a fellow collector, the Gllliams carefully restored the more than 1,000 tags to their original colors.
The new operation retains other familiar items from the old Gill's, too. The wagon wheel lamps still hang from the ceiling and a threatening Turkish musket with a sign advising "this gun loaned only for weddings" remains over the fireplace.
But with no existing building to restrict design and expansion, little else in the new restaurant resembles the former operation.
Where a dirt parking lot was before, diners now can sit in rockers on a wood plank front porch. The porch complements the building's overall appearance primarily "country" with a touch of frontier West thrown in for good measure.
The old main dining area's cramped quarters have given way to a larger floor plan, with seating for about 110, said Gilliam. And the barbecue house now features a separate room for parties and other private functions a nicety there just wasn't room for in the old quarters, he pointed out.
With ample space, Gilliam came up with both playful and practical additions to the new structure. A salad bar is tucked Into an alcove along one wall, while in a nearby recess sits a functional washstand and towel dispenser. Over the sink hangs a sign: “finger bowl."