Tuesday, April 22, 2008
It's all about the view
Photo by Bob Fritz | Special to The Roanoke Times
"I actually do have a thing about restaurants with a view," Paula Scarola said at the LeMont restaurant in Pittsburgh.
STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times
Derek Cundiff stands at the site of the proposed Rockledge Center below the walking path atop Mill Mountain.
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Shanna Flowers is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
Shanna Flowers
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PITTSBURGH -- In the elegant LeMont restaurant perched atop Mount Washington, my seat gave me a panoramic appreciation for the hum of a city on a Saturday evening.
Far below, a white ferry churned up the water of the Monongahela River at dusk. The horseshoe-shaped Heinz Field, home of the storied Pittsburgh Steelers, looked like a small but beautiful toy field, with its manicured green field and sunflower-gold seats.
A cluster of hotels and centers of commerce created a steel-and-glass skyline. The lights of PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, broke the darkness.
An evening at the LeMont is more than just a dining experience. It is a viewing pleasure.
"From the day we opened, the view has brought them in," said LeMont general manager Alexander Colaizzi, adding, "the food and service keeps them coming back."
So with the benefit of my dinner a few weeks ago at the LeMont, I've come to one conclusion about the proposal for Mill Mountain: If Roanoke is going to develop it, don't go halfway. If we're going to exploit the mountain, let's exploit the heck out of it.
In other words, take out a swath of trees to open up a vista.
Sure those are fighting words -- my fighting words -- because the project's backers have said steadfastly they will not clear-cut trees.
But what's the use of a mountaintop venue without a view? I'm betting the owner of Rockledge, better known as former Mayor Ralph Smith's old digs, didn't buy it because of its close proximity to the Star.
It's the view, baby.
Actually, I've been indifferent to the project. On one hand, I've watched as Roanoke has yet again balked at anything that sniffs of change and how it has taken personal digs at the agents of change.
Photo by Bob Fritz | Special to The Roanoke Times
"I actually do have a thing about restaurants with a view," Paula Scarola said at the LeMont restaurant in Pittsburgh.
STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times
Derek Cundiff stands at the site of the proposed Rockledge Center below the walking path atop Mill Mountain.
On the other hand, I've wondered why residents -- whatever their opinion on the proposal -- can't get as worked up over children not finishing school and the socioeconomically divided community Roanoke is becoming as they do about a restaurant in a mountaintop park or an amphitheater along a greenway.
Mill Mountain's future has become a campaign issue in next month's city council elections.
Without getting into all the history and political back and forth of the project, here's the down-and-dirty version:
Valley Forward, a group of young Roanokers, proposed a redux of the mountain's old Rockledge Inn, which burned down in 1976. That version would have been a three- or four-story lodge.
Mill Mountain advocates shrieked. Valley Forward held a bunch of meetings. They went back to the drawing board. They ditched the lodge concept, and a restaurant became the featured attraction.
The proposal's latest incarnation is a 10,000-square-foot development called the Rockledge Community Center. About half of the space would be a restaurant. The other half would be split between a ground-level coffee shop and a community room.
"We just really feel it's a natural place to put some amenities up here," Derek Cundiff, an architect and Valley Forward member, said as we stood last week on the mountain.
At one time, the group floated the idea of a restaurant similar to the high-end Bookbinder's restaurant in Philadelphia. But Cundiff said last week the group does not want an exclusive restaurant that would be too expensive for some Roanokers.
He said Valley Forward envisions a place with a price list along the lines of Outback Steakhouse, where diners could nosh on everything from low-end appetizers to midrange steaks.
But Cundiff deflected emphasis on the eatery, pitching the development as another way for visitors to enjoy the mountain. It could be a place for birthday parties, Scout functions, a layover for bicyclists, meetings.
"We try to stay away from, 'It's just a restaurant,' " Cundiff said.
Valley Forward Chairman John Lugar shared during a short interview how someone has broached the idea of wireless Internet and bicycle racks.
That's all well and good but what about the view?
The center would be situated on a slope, largely hidden by trees. That's on purpose and part of an effort to compromise with people who don't think the project should be visible from downtown.
Say what? I appreciate Valley Forward's willingness to compromise, but if you can't see in, you can't see out. Not seeing out, in my mind, undercuts the purpose of the development.
"It's not exclusively about the view," Cundiff said. "This needs to be more than just something on top of the mountain with views."
Rather than focusing on the view, he added, Rockledge Center visitors could enjoy the tree canopy. Nothing personal, but I can sit in my back yard and do that. When I go up high, I want to look low.
Curiously, one of the early pages of Valley Forward's Web site touted the use of mountains in cities such as Chattanooga, Tenn., and yes, Pittsburgh.
Which takes me back to Pittsburgh's LeMont and the dinner I recently enjoyed there. I talked to some fellow diners who shared their thoughts about the place.
"I was just admiring the view," Pittsburgh resident Bill Hoy said as he stood near my table peering out of the window.
At the next table, Paula Scarola of New York was in town on business.
"I actually do have a thing about restaurants with a view. If it's at the top of something, I want to go," said Scarola, who has dined at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
She looked out over the brightly lit city and said, "So far, I'm very happy."
As Roanoke considers what it will do with Mill Mountain, it needs to remember what Alex at the LeMont told me. The food and service keeps 'em coming. But what gets them in the door?
It's the view, baby.
Shanna Flowers' column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
