The place that inspired The Place + Memory Project was a restaurant I visited regularly when I was in College at Birmingham Southern. What I remembered (some true … some maybe not) was that The Rabbit Hutch restaurant was attached to the Venz Family Bait & Bunny Farm in Logan, AL. Logan was a farming town, and The Rabbit Hutch was basically in the middle of nowhere. It was only open three nights a week … and of course, Easter. It sat at an empty four-way stop and looked like a home from the outside. When you walked in through the latticework-laden entrance, it almost seemed like any other family restaurant in the country … until you noticed hundreds of stuffed Easter bunnies suspended from the dining room ceiling, photo albums full of pictures of rabbits from the farm occupying their own table in the middle of the room on, and a menu that featured two specialties—fried rabbit and barbecue rabbit, served with rice and rabbit gravy. Fred Venz and his wife, Ann, were the proprietors.

Logan is really quiet. There might be a car going by, but in the evening, once it gets dark out there, there’s not much going on … it’s kind of the middle of nowhere, which made it feel even more unreal, it was just unreal,

The first time I went, Fred was wearing black pants, red suspenders, and a white shirt. And he reminded me of my great-uncles, who were 1st generation off the farm, and still had that kind of gaunt, sinewy build…cheeks drawn in over the bones…not, not emaciated or anything like that, just like, strong but there wasn’t anything there that didn’t need to be there. Fred took care of the customers, and I remember Ann sitting in the corner at an old, electric organ, where she crooned 30s and 40s showtunes throughout the night.

At some point, every evening, Mrs. Venz would turn on one of those auto-rhythms on the organ, "ch … ch ch ch … ch ch ch …" and after a few chords, she'd begin singing a torchsong rendition of "Here comes Peter Cottontail … hopping down the bunny trail. Hippity Hop … Easter's on it's way." Then Fred would emerge from the kitchen wearing an enormous rabbit head. He'd hop around the dining room while she sang the song. Okay, so I thought this was the most amazing and crazy thing I'd ever seen. After my first night, I was in love. I went back as often as I could. I moved away, and a few years later I heard that The Rabbit Hutch had closed because Fred had some health problems and it was just too much work.

I always swore that if I won the lottery, I was going to re-open that place, because it just should still be there. Probably ten years later, I was was having lunch in Washington, DC with Ashley Martin, a friend from Alabama . And in the middle of our conversation about who-knows-what she said, "That reminds me of The Rabbit Hutch." I said … “Did you just say the Rabbit Hutch?!” And she sang, "Here Comes Peter Cottontail …" I just rember feeling so relieved. I'd been carrying those memories—of that place and that time in my life—like a handful of water, afraid that I'd forget them, because the place wasn’t there anymore to remind me. Thankfully, that’s not the case.

If you remember The Venz Family Rabbit Hutch Restaurant ... please add your memory here, too!
By: Sheashackelford

Blog entries from our trip to Alabama - http://bit.ly/RabbitHutchBlog
By: Sheashackelford

If you missed the July 18, 2009 NPR broadcast, or want to hear it again, you can listen to "The Rabbit Hutch" on Weekend Edition's website. Or you can listen to the slightly longer "Director's cut" in this player ...
Produced by Shea Shackelford and Jennifer Deer with production assistance from Selena Simmons-Duffin.

By: Sheashackelford