Photo by JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Tyler's Country Store, located off of U.S. 220, is named after Barton Reynolds' 1-year-old grandson.

Jenny Kincaid Boone covers retail and real estate.

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Jenny Kincaid Boone

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The Storefront blog

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It took a month to clean, lay orange and white floor tiles, and paint the front counter maroon and orange.

After hanging a Virginia Tech flag near the front door, a sister-and-brother team officially revived a country store in Roanoke County earlier this month.

Janice and Herbie Blackwood and Barton Reynolds are the new owners of Tyler's Country Store, a convenience shop and deli on U.S. 220 at Clearbrook. The store, previously home to Kingery Brothers Country Store for nearly 30 years, changed hands in early 2009 after Wayne and Randy Kingery retired from the business.

The Kingery family went on to open a separate meat shop near the store, at 5437 Franklin Road.

But last July, the former owners, Thomas Milton and Ashley Russell, of what was then called The Store, closed the business unexpectedly, said Robin Barker, who is Wayne Kingery's daughter. It sat dark for more than six months until Reynolds asked the Kingery family about it.

Reynolds lives in Boones Mill, and he used to stop regularly at the country store for breakfast or lunch. He wanted to try his hand at running the business.

"I've always wanted to do something like this and never had the opportunity," said Reynolds, who left his job at Mid-Atlantic Fasteners in January. He worked in food service sales for a Salem food distributor in the past.

Reynolds recruited Blackwood and her husband to be part owners and handle the business' finances. Members of Reynolds' Sunday School class at Fellowship Community Church in Salem pitched in, helping to spruce up the store for opening.

Blackwood and Reynolds recruited other family members to help at the store, including their sister, Sandra Mutter, and their brother, Kevin Reynolds.

Their deli at Tyler's Country Store serves a variety of breakfast and lunch fare, including sausage biscuits, hot dogs, sandwiches and potato salad that's made using their grandmother's recipe.

"We have tried to keep it like the Kingery's," Blackwood said, even though they do not sell meat produced by the Kingery family's farm. The store is closed Sundays and does not sell alcohol.

Still, a Virginia Tech theme is evident in parts of the store, and in keeping with a family focus, the enterprise is named for Reynolds' 1-year-old grandson, Tyler.

Herb Cellar to relocate

The Herb Cellar, a women's clothing and gift shop on Franklin Road in Roanoke, soon will relocate.

The store plans to move about a mile away, to Piccadilly Square, another retail center on Franklin Road.

On April 1, the Herb Cellar will open inside the former spot of Suzabella. It will close its store at Townside Festival on March 31, said manager Pete Brooks.

Brooks would not comment on the reasons for the shop's move from Townside, where it's been for 10 of its total 13 years in business.

"The new location mixes well with the existing tenants at Piccadilly Square," Brooks said. "We share the same customers."

Caution Flag moves, expands

You don't have to look too far for a local NASCAR collectibles, diecast cars and apparel store.

Caution Flag moved a few doors from its previous spot, but it's still in the same retail center at 520 Williamson Road in Roanoke. Owner Dwight Hanna nearly doubled his shop's retail space with the move several months ago.

That's mostly because he has been building up the store's inventory. Hanna said that he lost a lot of merchandise last year when a fire next door at Weekend Sofa Outlet damaged his former space.

News from the Storefront at blogs.roanoke.com/rtblogs/storefront/:

n Some food retailers are switching out name-brand foods with generic brands.

n Petco opened at Towers Shopping Center in Roanoke earlier this week.