It’s Wednesday morning, and Kyle Wills is enjoying breakfast at Skid’s Restaurant off West Haggard Avenue with his old college roommate, Mitch Rippy. The eggs are scrambled, the bacon is crispy and the coffee is hot — the way it has been every Wednesday for the past 20 years.
“He comes in every week without fail,” said Skid’s owner George Katsoudas.
Over the years, Skid’s has collected a number of regulars, each with their own stories and connections to the town and university. It is a place to catch up, meet before the big game and watch Elon change from the windows of a small-town restaurant.
“We have so many [regulars],” said Katsoudas. “Ninety-five percent of the time they will order the same thing. The only way they change it is if I have a special running, or if they just want to come in for a cup of coffee.”
This loyalty defines the restaurant and means the world to Katsoudas. The continuous pattern of returning customers has allowed him to maintain a place that provides classic Southern hospitality and allows for friendships and the community to grow. Wills is one of the regulars.
“There are now 14 guys in this regular Wednesday group,” Katsoudas said. “It has grown slowly. You meet one person, and you meet another person. Ten years go by, and you are buddies now, just from coming here.”
Wills has been at Elon longer than Skid’s, moving here when he was 12 years old in 1970 from Greenville, North Carolina when his father became the athletics director at Elon. He hasn’t left since. He grew up with the school, and eventually attended Elon, even though he said he thought the school might have been moving backwards.
“As time went on, it was clear that we didn’t,” he said.
Now, more than 30 years later, Wills drives five minutes to work and sits at his desk in the Alumni Field House as Elon’s senior athletic director of business and communications, bringing his colleagues with him to Skid’s every Wednesday.
Since Skid’s opened in 2003 it has formed a close connection with Elon.
“The university means a lot to me in terms of how I have grown,” Katsoudas said. “I have connected with the faculty, especially the athletic department. They have invited me to cater for them. To me [the university] is a part of the restaurant.”
Wills has stayed in the same place without boredom, watching the school and town rapidly expand in the past few decades. The area is not slowing down as both the university and town have expansion projects popping up in every direction.
“The nicest thing about Elon is that it is never stagnant,” Wills said. “The vision of the Board of Trustees is remarkable. Students leave for the summer and say ‘holy smokes’ when they come back to the changes. Imagine 20 years of that.”
Wills can’t help but think of the changes from an athletics perspective.
During his time here, there have been nine head football coaches, one retired golf coach and three presidents.
“Sometimes in a place like this, you just hold on for the ride,” Wills said. “It keeps on moving, and I was fortunate enough to keep moving with it.”
According to Katsoudas, any new growth is good for the town. Students leave during the summer, but he figures there will be more reason to stay with a better downtown area, proposed by the Town of Elon, adding attraction to his own restaurant.
Skid’s has even made annual regulars with Family Weekend. Students will bring their parents for a nice breakfast with a side of Southern hospitality. Three years later, they will still be coming back.
“I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve done good for the school and for the town,” Katsoudas said. “It’s not something I pushed, but something that has happened naturally. Customers enjoy what I have, and they keep coming back.”