Sunday, March 19, 2006
Specialty shop Florabella opens in downtown Roanoke
Jenny Kincaid Boone
Jenny reports on the latest news on the Roanoke Valley retail industry.
Recent stories
Mark Newcomb is stepping out on his own in the special events planning business.
He has opened Florabella, a European-style floral, home decor, rental and special occassions planning business in downtown Roanoke. When you walk into his new studio at 211 First St., you'll see an open area where customers can watch the flower designs as they're happening. Customers also are free to pick from a mixture of roses, hydrangeas and other garden-type flowers to arrange themselves. Newcomb calls this an open-air European concept.
In addition to flowers, he is selling home and garden decorations, invitations for special events or weddings, and he offers wedding planning services. He's a former designer for Floral Renditions, a floral shop in Roanoke, and he's had at least 20 years of design experience, including serving as design director at the Homestead, a resort in Hot Springs. Newcomb is accredited with the American Institute of Floral Designers.
McDonald's
New coffee at McDonald's? The fast food giant is inching its way into the ever-growing coffee market by brewing a new kind of joe that it calls a "premium blend."
Served in cups sealed with black lids, the blend has a robust taste, said Blair Primis, a spokesman for the fast food chain. But he simply called the brand "a blend of coffee beans," and he would not detail what kind of coffee it is nor how it differs from the former McDonald's brand.
The new coffee's also not served from a coffee machine like you might find at a specialty coffeehouse. It's poured for customers directly from a coffee pot. And you won't find lattes or other specialty drinks and teas at McDonald's. The chain's just revamping its coffee.
"It's a hot industry," Primis said. He wouldn't name any of McDonald's coffee competitors. But it's not hard to figure out who they are.
El Toreo
Another El Toreo Mexican restaurant is coming to town, and this one is to be located on Orange Avenue, several spots down from Jersey Lily's Roadhouse Grill. The owners of this new El Toreo and others in the area are planning to build the 5,000-square foot restaurant and open it by next January. They're waiting for Roanoke city officials to approve site plans for the new restaurant, said Elijio Arellano, one of the restaurant's three owners.
They also plan to open an El Toreo in the former BB&T building on Valley View Boulevard, beside Applebee's, and near Valley View Mall in North Roanoke. Arellano said they've purchased the building and will start renovations there once they open the Orange Avenue restaurant.
Grandin Village
And there's been some recent retail activity at Roanoke's Grandin Village. Pop's, an ice cream and soda bar, has opened on Memorial Avenue, just around the corner from a new coffee shop called Coda on Grandin Road.
