On the corner of Columbus and King streets, in front of the now defunct Scotland Yard restaurant and now known as Eammons, there was once a guy in a kilt, waving and smiling at all the passersby. This congenial motif inadvertently earned him the moniker The Guy in the Kilt by everyone who saw him occasionally from 1978 to 2004, when he was one of the restaurants owners.

Although he never intended to be a spectacle, he said, people honked and waved constantly, and even tour buses would come by and [people would] take photographs, he added.

Welcome to the world of James Graham, a restaurateur in Old Town who enjoyed celebrity status for a while but has since retired to write short stories and paint out of the kilt and the public eye.

Graham was born in Scotland, and was a champion professional dancer from 1954 to 1971, he said. While he enjoyed his tenure as co-owner of Scotland Yard along with Susan Troup, he suffered a stroke and couldnt don the kilt anymore. Troup nursed him back to health over the next few years and now he is a consultant to other restaurateurs, he said.