Friday, May 01, 2009
New 'Fork' matches a neighborhood on the rise
Larry Bly
Larry Bly runs an ad agency and does freelance writing in the Roanoke area.
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The Fork in the Alley folks have opened a second location in what used to be Roanoke's tough and seedy West End. It's now becoming the tony area of town (Cotton Mill apartments under renovation across the street, Jefferson Center, the new YMCA, plans for apartments in the old Y), and it's already catching on with the lunch and early cocktail crowds.
Except for an over-ambitious shakedown at the front door by a waitperson recently, I've found Fork in the City to be quite nice on a lot of levels. I wanted to be seated at the bar until my dinner partners arrived, but found myself having to explain how many, when, which table I'd prefer "right now, as the place fills up rather quickly." Well, it didn't, and I found myself taking up a four-top for nearly a half hour when I would rather have been chatting it up at the bar until my friends arrived.
Fork in the City is opened for breakfast and the owners have added seafood entrees and soups, and changed the names of a few South Roanoke "Alley" favorites to reflect the new location, such as the Black Bean "Y" Burger and the "6th Street" and "Marshall" burgers.
The restaurant is definitely going to be an asset to this growing part on the edge of downtown Roanoke. It's already turned a marginal property into a lovely space, both inside and out for dining, drinking and live music. The inside dining area is ample with two outside dining decks yet to be opened.
I've been over several times and tried to check out new items on the menu. Much to my surprise, the crab cakes are exceptional (surprised I was, as this is not a seafood venue), featuring large lumps of sweet crab, held together with very little binding and crispy brown on the outside.
Accompany that with a side of their homemade slaw and you have a winner. The slaw is both sweet and piquant, chopped rough, not blended into submission. It has a nice texture and a flavor that accompanies many of their entrees easily.
I found the seafood chowder to be to my liking, though not exceptional and others in my group thought it could have had more flavor. The classic Caesar is a winner, especially with the wood-fired croutons. The Fork smartly takes advantage of their open-wood oven for many items aside from pizzas.
One recent lunch ordered the Missouri Club, a classic sandwich that many of us recall from the Miller & Rhoads Tearoom in the long-gone downtown Roanoke department store. Anyone can put sliced ham, grilled chicken, bacon and tomato between two slices of bread. What some restaurants that offer the Missouri don't understand is that it's about the sauce that tops the sandwich. The Fork folks do, and come as close to the original as anyone, aside from me. I have the actual M&R recipe, and I make it at home.
The sauce that tops this sandwich is a blend of spices, cheese and other "secret" ingredients. This sandwich delivers on all counts, save for the "bubbling hot" part. The kitchen was slammed the day I was there and there wasn't time for the "bubbling" cheese. But it was hot, and it was really good. The M&R Missouri came to your table directly from under the broiler, so the cheese was indeed bubbling and brown. Warning: this is almost more food than you can eat at lunch; it's a super value at $8.95.
I revisited a favorite entree from the Fork in the Alley menu, Pollo Vera Cruz, which is sliced chicken breast sautéed in olive oil with tomato, garlic, green and black olives, capers and mushrooms in a white wine sauce, served on linguine. What's not to like about that? And it makes a nice dinner entree for less than $20.
A friend had the baked Jamaican, but complained that it did not deliver on the menu's "Some like it HOT" claim. While she thought it quite delicious, she said it was quite tame. Who knows, maybe the cook left out the heat.
I'm not a breakfast person, so I'll have to try their new breakfast items at another time of the day, which you can do. The "served all day" breakfast items include: huevos rancheros (eggs atop two flour tortillas of black bean, queso blanco and peblano peppers), a garden frittata, a breakfast pie (quiche), or a beignet, to name a few. By the way, they take the lovely beignet to another level in the desserts section by offering to deep fry them, top them with vanilla bean ice cream and shower all of that with a shake of cinnamon. I'll have to give it try sometime.
Fork's gourmet pizzas have always been popular, sizzling from the wood-fired oven. A friend recently had the Reuben and found it to be a classic, as promised.
Burgers are popular here as well. So, too, are the "dogs," served 11 ways or made to your own liking from the "build your own Dog" listing.
The bar is large and service is excellent, both for drinks and for ordering food. Very attentive, this bunch. Oh, and there's a new music system: a f digital juke box made by the Bose TouchTunes system, but I have no idea how it works or how one hears something if you want to use it. It's a curiosity that I intend to revisit, along with the good times to be had there.
As they say, stick me with a fork, I'm done for now.
Fork in the City
551 Marshall St.
Roanoke, VA
540-345-FORK
