What's In a Name?

Behind every name is a good story and reason for the name. We wanted to share with you how Honeysuckle Hill Bee-stro and Bee Supply got its name.

Several years ago while visiting friends in Virginia, we were struck by how many homes had names attached to them. Although naming homesteads was something common in the south and the east, it was something that didn’t really move west. Andy and I decided that we wanted to resurrect the tradition of naming one’s homestead when we got back home.

We decided on the name Honeysuckle Hill. As we would take late spring walks past the property, honeysuckle was the fragrant aroma that beckoned us to wonder what lay beyond the vines and briars that acted as a walled fortress to the property. The beauty of the honeysuckle grew voluntarily among the shale dirt of abandoned coal mine property.

Once we purchased the property and crawled through the vines and briars, we saw the small lake that was formed by the strip mining and the hill that was formed by the dirt removed to make that lake. We saw the tree that had grown around a shovel that had been left decades earlier. We walked down the old mine lane made with brick manufactured here in our community. The lane was used to haul coal out from the earth when the property was known as Hoosierville Block Coal Company where some of the finest coal in the Midwest was harvested.

We knew this piece of dirt we purchased had its own life and had sustained life well before we ever stepped foot on it. We choose the name Honeysuckle Hill for the sweet aroma of the honeysuckle that grew up in spite of harsh conditions and the hill that was made by the coal miners who eked a living by harvesting blocks of energy from the ground.

The word bistro means, “A small unpretentious restaurant”. With seating for about 30 guests and food like grandma used to make, that’s exactly what the Bee-stro will be- a small unpretentious restaurant. Of course, since Andy’s passion is beekeeping, we had to have a little fun with the name tweaking the spelling to reflect the “Hospitality Flavored with Honey” which will be a hallmark of the Bee-stro.

Bee Supply is simply what it implies- a local and online store where beekeepers can get supplies to grow and protect their hives of busy bees which are so important to our food supply.

When we did the logo for the Bee-stro, it needed a romantic, old time feel to reflect the long forgotten tradition of naming homesteads. It definitely had to have honeysuckle and a bee in it. The word Bee-stro needed to be a different color and font than the words “Honeysuckle Hill”. When a friend commented that by making “Bee-stro” a different font and color, it made it look like an afterthought, the realization hit me that the very reason it needed to be different was because the land, the “Honeysuckle Hill”, was here well before the idea of the Bee-stro was imagined and in a sense, the bee-stro is an afterthought.

Now you know the story behind the name of Honeysuckle Hill Bee-stro and Bee Supply. We hope that you will make plans to join us when we open in April, 2017. The honeysuckle won’t quite be in bloom, but you can enjoy the lake, the hill, the food, and the bees with us.