Dee Dee Perkins: The Woman Behind Brevard’s Authentic Soda Fountain Experience

By Rebekah McCubbins

In 1994, Dee Dee Perkins was looking for a career change. She was working in an ad agency in another town, and the job didn’t fit her priorities. “I really wanted to be a part of my local community, and our children were small, and I didn’t want to be an hour away from where they were,” she shares. So she created Rocky’s Grill & Soda Shop and personally ran the shop, along with her family, until closing it in August of 2023.

Rocky’s was never just a business. From the very beginning, Dee Dee Perkins wanted her authentic 1940s-style soda shop to be a place that brought the community together.

“There were 14 empty storefronts in downtown Brevard when we opened up our shop,” she recalls. “There was a small group of local businesses, in a very concerted effort, [that] wanted to see our downtown revitalized. And I wanted to be a part of that revitalization.”

Dee Dee’s love for her community was the catalyst for Rocky’s. It was a rebirth of the longstanding Varner’s. Varner’s began as a traditional drugstore in 1941. Like many small-town drugstores at the time, it boasted a soda fountain. Through the years, Varner’s was sold several times, operating as a pharmacy and lunch counter. But no matter how the shop changed, the soda fountain persisted.

So when Dee Dee wanted to open a business in downtown Brevard, she jumped at the chance to continue the shop’s history. “We first created a gift shop on one side of the building, and then took over the space of the lunch counter several months later,” Dee Dee explains, “and renovated, keeping all the original fixtures and elements that were really important to its history in play.”

The building wasn’t the only aspect of Rocky’s that remained true to its roots. “We created our own homemade recipes, but our menu was still authentic to what you would expect to find at a drugstore lunch counter and soda fountain,” Dee Dee says. “And the soda fountain was just as important as the restaurant side of things. We made milkshakes the old-fashioned way, in the silver cup. When you received your milkshake, you got [it] in one of those wonderful, heavy milkshake glasses with the silver cup [of the] leftover milkshake beside it.”

The goal at Rocky’s was to ensure that each guest got the full, authentic soda fountain experience. But that didn’t mean that Dee Dee wasn’t innovating. “We were creative with our ice cream sundaes,” she shares. Her ‘Outrageous Sundaes’ were always a hit, each inspired by and named after a local attraction or regional reference. Customers could enjoy the ‘Devil’s Courthouse Sundae’ before heading out to hike the nearby mountain. Or they could order a ‘White Squirrel Sundae’ and eat it while looking for one of the locally famous critters. Whichever sundae they chose, Rocky’s clientele was sure to get an experience authentic to Brevard and its community.

And Dee Dee’s commitment to her community shone through in every aspect of the business. She sourced supplies from other local businesses whenever possible, and speaks of those connections with pride. “We loved the collaboration with our neighbors wherever we could find it,” she explains. “Wherever we could locally source products, we chose to do that.”

“[There is] a wonderful local mom-and-pop bakery that’s right next door that has European bread, and we served our sandwiches on their homemade bread every day,” says Dee Dee. That bread was just one of many small businesses partnering with Rocky’s. They also used local coffees and honeys in their restaurant, and still feature local businesses in their gift shop.

With all of the love that Dee Dee and her family poured into Rocky’s, it’s hard to imagine the shop closing its doors. But as Dee Dee explains “[there are] only so many hours in a day.” And running a restaurant isn’t easy. “A restaurant requires full, hands-on responsibility. And I’ve found that I’m in the restaurant 95% of the time, and I’m working in my business every day, versus working on my business,” she says. She decided it was time to step away from the constant hands-on aspects of operation to focus on other things, like her local outfitters store, D.D. Bullwinkel’s. “As much as I love this original place and love Rocky’s Grill & Soda Fountain, it was time to make a decision on where I needed to place my priorities.”

When asked what she’ll miss most about Rocky’s, there was no question. “Our customers who have become our friends,” she says without hesitation. “The hospitality industry is what I love, and it filled my cup every day. I love the connection to the people who live in Brevard. I love the connection to those people who are coming to Brevard for a visit and falling in love with Brevard for the first time. And I also love all the kids in town, [who] love Rocky’s the most.” 

Asked what she wouldn’t miss about Rocky’s, Dee Dee laughed and said that, like many businesses, she struggled to find staff over the past few years. “Finding employees has always been a challenge,” she says. “But since the pandemic, living in a small town with not a lot of places for people to live, [there is] a shortfall on the labor market.” The “daily challenge” of staffing a restaurant is one stressor she’s happy to leave behind.

Although Rocky’s is closed, Dee Dee continues to be an active member of her community. She still oversees her other businesses, D.D. Bullwinkel’s Outdoors and MooseTracks Footwear. Outside of work, she plans to enjoy Brevard’s great outdoors. “I love to travel, and love hiking and mountain biking, and painting,” she says. And as always, Dee Dee will continue to support a thriving Brevard.