TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — A new local restaurant in the Terre Haute Casino Resort is celebrating the history of the property by naming the establishment after a local family farm dating back to 1870.
Rockwood Bar and Grill. It’s a name straight from its roots.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and in the case of Rockwood, a photograph of a threshing machine on a Vigo County family farm served as inspiration for the restaurant.
“Churchill Downs, to their credit, they ran with the whole idea,” Tim Rockwood said. “It turned from that one picture, to ‘do you have more pictures of the farm?’ To ‘yeah, we do,’ to, ‘do you mind if we name the restaurant after you?”
For generations the Rockwood family owned and farmed the property that’s now home to the Terre Haute Casino Resort.
In those years, memories were made; memories Tim Rockwood said were the norm for Vigo County at the time.
“There were dozens of farms, the same size, doing the same thing, within a few miles of here,” Rockwood said.
Large photographs reminiscent of times gone by now hang on the walls of the restaurant, creating a warm and nostalgic atmosphere.
The menu is said to do the same, connecting guests to the tastes of the good old-fashioned family meal that families like the Rockwoods would’ve enjoyed around the dinner table together.
And that’s where Chef Danny, head chef at the Terre Haute Casino Resort, said some of the inspiration for the Rockwood menu came from.
“It’s just like Mama made it,” Chef Danny said. “They’ll keep coming back. That’s the family style restaurant. Actually, this restaurant is based off that whole concept.”
Rockwood said the entire family was involved in the inner workings of the farm, which created a lot of memories that can be seen in the black and white prints adorning Rockwood’s walls; a close-knit family even to this day.
“One of my all-time favorites (photographs) is on that wall over there,” Rockwood said. “The threshing machine, like I said, there were five farm families that owned that machine back in the day and they would travel from farm to farm. Everybody had a specific duty on that and that picture there was probably taken where we’re sitting right now. It’s just cool to think about, back in that period of time and it was right here in this spot.”
The Rockwood family didn’t expect it, but is grateful the casino gives credit to times gone by.
“From that one picture, all of this has evolved,” Rockwood said. ” I thought it would be nice to have that picture just in an office somewhere, if nothing else. Just so someone would know what was here before.”
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