Clyde’s Club

Article and photography by Fitz

Lead photo illustration and supporting photos of Eacho and family making Brunswick stew

Lend your ear for a moment to Stew Master Clyde Eacho’s gravelly southern voice and it is quickly apparent that he is very proud of his version of Brunswick stew. “I’ll probably be making Brunswick stew till the day I die….what makes my Brunswick stew special is I’m not afraid to give it some bite, some heat, some spice…you can see all my awards on the wall,” he said, as he motioned his head and shoulders towards his business, The Clubhouse Grill, where those awards adorn the humble dining walls.

As Eacho starts to put together a fresh batch of his Brunswick stew under a makeshift blue canopy hung to keep the wind at bay, I could not have asked for a more folksy soundtrack than his words. Well, maybe he could have left out the memory of throwing a caterpillar in a batch of Brunswick stew as a kid, but even that seemed to fit just right with the sound of peeled potatoes, lima beans, corn and cut chicken plopping into the cauldron, followed by the shaking of several bottles of spices, and later the sloshing of his large wooden oar through the fresh batch of stew to mix it all up.

Joining Eacho and I next to the now simmering stew were his daughters and his young granddaughter. They, too, had stories of their father making stew, while joking with me every now and again that the wind, rather brisk that December day in Lawrenceville, Virginia, was nothing compared to some other days that he made stew. Running in and out of the restaurant, and with some fresh condiment smears on their sweaters, it was clear to me that in some capacity his kids helped out at the Clubhouse. In addition to Eacho, his family and me, locals walking by or stopping in to get a quick lunch came over to the cauldron for a chat, as the smell of the cooking stew seemed to beckon them to brave the gusts of wind longer than one might expect.

While Eacho took turns stirring and pulling the chicken up from the stew to cut it in order to speed the cooking process along, he told me about his first memory of Brunswick stew as a young kid at a family reunion. Though I couldn’t put together if this story was the same as the caterpillar memory from earlier, it was certain that in that moment, I couldn’t wait to try Clyde’s stew.

Since I was introduced to Brunswick stew as a kid, I’ve always been a fan. As the years passed and my hair thinned a bit, my affinity for it only grew, and in recent years I started to seek out books concerning its history. Most notably for me, through the words of author Joe Haynes, (Brunswick Stew: A Virginia Tradition), I learned that the dishes origins were due in large part to a squirrel problem in Virginia. The hunting of those pests who terrorized crops in the 1800s was encouraged by authorities and thus, squirrel was originally the protein of choice in Brunswick stew.

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I also learned about Jimmy Matthews, the first to thicken squirrel soup (the precursor to Brunswick stew) and ultimately as Haynes states, “the first Brunswick stew master in history.” Matthews’ creation of the dish is documented in two letters including an 1886 letter that speaks of Matthews, a camp cook, living in the Red Oak district of Brunswick County. It’s only fitting therefore that the best version of Brunswick Stew I’ve ever tasted, Eacho’s Brunswick stew, comes from Lawrenceville, right in the heart of Brunswick County where the dish was originally born.

After having Eacho’s stew, I found others in the following days and months that came close to tasting as good. Hagaman Bros. out of Goochland, Virginia, and Wolf’s Revenge out of Richmond, Virginia both come to mind as strong standouts. But as Eacho told me, it’s that bite, that spice he puts into his stew that I was still searching for.

Brunswick stew, mid-cook at The Clubhouse Grill

In August 2019, The Clubhouse Grill celebrated its 6th year anniversary, and in March 2020 The Clubhouse Grill was forced to change it’s business model for the time being to curbside pick up only due to Covid-19. It’s my hope there will be a day soon that I can drive down from Richmond to Lawrenceville, take a seat in the diner, and enjoy the best bowl of Brunswick stew I’ve ever tasted in the area of Virginia that gave birth to the dish.

For more on Clyde Eacho and The Clubhouse Grill, visit- facebook.com/theclubhousegrillva | @theclubhousegrillva