So long, pardner: Arby's that featured North Carolina's last 10-gallon hat has closed

The Winston-Salem store opened in 1968 and was an especially well-preserved example of the chain's early days.

The Arby's at 400 Knollwood St. opened in 1968, and the building appears to have been modified only once in its almost 53 years in business. (Rolando Pujol)

When Arby’s opened at 400 Knollwood St. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1968, it was a big deal. The chain of fast-food restaurants, specializing in roast beef rather than burgers or fried chicken, was only 4 years old but had already spread far from its birthplace of Boardman, Ohio.

The “10-gallon hat,” festooned with neon, fanciful typography and dazzling incandescent lighting, was quickly becoming a symbol of the American roadside, a grand example of look-at-me-and-pull-over-and-spend-your-money-now American vernacular of the highest order.

In an article published on Dec. 8, 1968, the Winston-Salem Journal described the Arby’s as the “biggest traffic-generator” at the new Knollwood Shopping Center, and when I visited on Memorial Day in 2021, the Arby’s, pandemic and all, was still lassoing them in.

Well, my fellow nostalgic cowpokes, it’s time to grab our dusty hats and place them solemnly across our chests, because the Arby’s at 400 Knollwood is no more. Based on social media reports, the restaurant closed this weekend. I made a few calls and got nowhere, and the number for the restaurant has been disconnected.

The same paper that reported on its opening offered this as its obituary today:

Triglycerides notwithstanding, a lot of the local outpouring dealt with memories associated with leaving high-school campus for lunch, whiling away hours flipping through vinyl in the aforementioned Record Exchange, first jobs and first dates.

A fun little side trip down Memory Lane marred by the pervasive, omnipresent nastiness of some members of the online commentariat.

Side spats, fueled by curmudgeons and sticklers, over whether that particular franchise opened in 1968 or ‘69 and whether the tall brown sign was “historic” or merely “vintage” stole a little of the joy of reminiscence - but only just.

Not that I like to wade into social-media comment-section jousting, but I can settle that this location indeed opened in 1968, if the paper’s own archives are to be believed.

At any rate, this was the last 10-gallon hat sign left at an original Arby’s in North Carolina, following the destruction (desecration really) of the one that was taken down on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh last year.

No word on what will happen to the sign, so if you are in the sign-saving business, and many of my followers are, consider this post the official lighting of the Roadside Americana Bat Signal. Let’s make sure this sign is not destroyed.

It’s especially sad that this location has closed because its operators had done such a great job of preserving its vintage charms. The building’s design appears to be only the second one here, a late 1970s-ish modification of the chuckwagon-style buildings that were originally paired with the 10-gallon hats.

On July 21, 1969, as readers of the Winston-Salem Journal read about men landing on the moon, they were informed they could have a drink on the house if they swung on over to the Arby’s at 400 Knollwood St. This same ad was on display at the restaurant as late as 2021. (Newspapers.com)

As I wrote in 2021:

Beauty like this doesn’t happen by accident. Maybe it did in 1971, but it does not in 2021. This takes hard work, money, respect for history, and lots of love. It takes an appetite for spending money, too, a prospect that’s a potent appetite suppressant for the less devoted. Indeed, the folks at this Arby’s on Knollwood Street in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, care about their restaurant and it shows. The biggest sign of that, of course, is the sign itself. Back in August 2018, Dexter Mills of the Yesco sign company— he’s got experience maintaining much bigger signs in Las Vegas — brought this hat back to life, replacing the gas and busted transformers in the neon, and swapping out 510 energy-inefficient incandescent bulbs with long-lasting LEDs, according to the Winston-Salem Journal. 

The sign sits on a well-manicured lawn that is graced with flowers. Inside, a wall displays Arby’s advertising ephemera. And the workers I met here were friendly, too. Hats off to this Arby’s! I hope it never rides into the sunset.

Two years later, I am once again reminded that my hopes have been misplaced, but at least I have no regrets. I paid a visit – or really – paid my respects, and sometimes, that’s the best we can do.  

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Hungry for more, pardner? DIG INTO A HEAPING HELPING OF ARBY’S COVERAGE IN THE RETROLOGIST

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