Larry Bly

Larry Bly runs an ad agency and does freelance writing in the Roanoke area.

Recent columns

• SoRo is a go
• Hobos in Rehoboth
• Collins House Inn: Eating is half the fun of staying
• Bubblecake: Aren't you a sweet little cupcake?
• Paradise on Melrose
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• Recipe of the day

Trio Bistro has become something else. It's now a market and cafe.

How does that differ from its previous existence? Well, it's still a place where patrons can order and then sit down to eat, either at the bar or in spacious booths. But now it's more informal. Gone are the fancy menus with Southern cuisine, like steak and potatoes, crab cakes and pecan pie.

Trio has changed its name, changed its focus, and simplified its whole operation. It's now more of a take-out or eat-in, build-your-own-meal kind of place. And there's a salad bar in this new iteration.

The cafe's menu now allows visitors to "build your own" sandwiches, using simple and handy fill-in boxes. You can still order burgers or crab-cake sandwiches, but you can make it your very own by adding an assortment of melted cheeses, bacon, onion, mushrooms, veggies or a whole slew of condiments.

Go to the counter and create your own deli sandwich (starting at $6) by merely filling out the menu boxes for meat (there are ten meats from which to choose), bread (eight varieties in this category should give you about anything you'd like), cheese, veggies, condiments and even a side item from the "side bar," which includes fries, onion rings, potato salad, macaroni salad, cross-cut fries, chips, cole slaw and fruit salad.

The kitchen, largely eliminated in Trio's new cafe structure, still creates at least two from-scratch and fresh soups daily (also available on the salad bar). At least one of them will typically be a seafood soup or bisque, like clam chowder.

Trio has attempted, by this simplification, to bring the prices down -- low. You can walk out with a fresh, hot 12-ounce serving of soup for just $4. Salads are in the $6 range, depending on how many things you pile on. The salad and spread offers vary: chicken, tuna, egg or pimiento cheese.

Of course, the kitchen still prepares your burgers and some of the old familiar sandwiches from the Trio Bistro-Bar-Bottle days, such as barbecue pulled pork, crab cake, fried oyster po' boys or the always-popular steak hoagie. The fried oyster po' boy is a favorite, so long as the kitchen cook doesn't over-fry the oysters. A gentle touch is all that's required here, otherwise it's crusty breading and nothing much else.

I've decided that pimiento cheese is back; it's really in this year. Those who offer it, including Tinnell's in South Roanoke, sell tons of it, if they really know how to make it fresh.

Trio offers a broad list of desserts, cleverly called "Oh no, I shouldn't."

The list includes cake by the slice, cheesecake, strawberry shortcake, truffles and even whole cakes to go. The menu notes that desserts are from "The Buttered Spoon," but this assumes that you'll know what (or whom) that just might mean.

In addition to all of the other changes, Trio has now added a fresh cheese selection in refrigerated units in the bar and wine store areas. It appeared as though there's a nice variety, from what I recently saw, though they were still putting the place in order the last time I visited.

Trio still boasts one of the nicer bars downtown, and it has not changed. Well, perhaps there has been one change -- the addition of a "bar menu" for the barflies. And the wine shop still offers an impressive lineup of domestic and imported wines: white, red and otherwise. I recently bought a nice bottle of Camus there.

The new Trio is a little more do-it-yourself, quick in and out -- or not, if you choose; but its goal is to serve fresh food at more reasonable prices than before.