Thursday, January 11, 2007
Restaurant comings and goings for 2007
Larry Bly
Larry Bly has plenty on his plate these days. He's got two TV shows on Cox Cable Roanoke. Click ahead for details and showtimes.
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I'm starting out the New Year with a new me. If I'm keeping the same old attitude, my picture is new.
Thanks to Greg Vaughn studios for being kind enough to shoot my face for free -- and he didn't even ask for this plug. What a guy! The old picture made me look like Mr. Potato Head, no offense intended for the much better looking Mr. P.
This one is better, gentler, milder, new and improved. Which means it's been Photoshop-ped to within an inch of its life. Except for looking like I'm wearing a bad toupee, I'm fairly pleased. But the hair is really mine. I'm fond of telling people: "No one would pay good money for hair that looks this bad."
We're starting the new year minus about a half dozen restaurants that were in downtown Roanoke. I hope all the holes will be filled soon. There's always the next guy ready to pour his or her money and time into a spot vacated by others. The closed Jeffrey's will soon become a sushi bar and the word is that the closed Confeddy's will become a barbeque place.
Closed as the year begins is the Full Moon up on Brambleton, but it should re-open later this month. Gone too is Jersey Mike's in the Cave Spring Corners shopping center. And back across Brambleton from Cave Spring, the Tapia's Chicken place is closed, the phone disconnected and the lights out. It was a small family operation, so I'm sorry they decided to hang it up.
Meanwhile down on Campbell Avenue downtown, the Dolce has closed as well. Dolce has had a checkered history in the short time it was been open. First it was a nice lunch place, then dinner only, then mostly a dinner club, finally mostly a club. When I last checked a few days ago, there were bills and junk mail piled up inside the front door, a sure sign that no one's coming around.
I received sad news this week via e-mail: Campbell's Place, on Orange Avenue, has just closed. Tony Campbell explains that "there were multiple reasons ... but it was time for myself to exit." I suspect that the new location wasn't quite as fruitful as the previous one, and with much more overhead. That location, previously Clarence's, has been a tough one for more than a few restaurants.
Over in South Roanoke, the ill-fated Spoon on the Avenue has closed entirely, after trying three meals daily, then breakfast and lunch only. The location seems cursed. No restaurant, either upscale or lesser scale has ever made it on Crystal Spring Avenue. Yet Fork in the Alley, just a simple garage behind the ex-Spoon, continues to be wildly successful with its eclectic menu of soups, salads, hand-made oven pizzas, and live music on weekends.
GOOD NEWS: Zak's is alive and well and expanding! One bit of good restaurant news this 2007 is that I can put a dumb rumor to rest. Several friends had insisted that Zak's was closed or closing. I had lunch there this week and not only are they doing fine, but they're expanding to Wednesday nights for dinner (in addition to Thursday-Saturday nights) and may be expanding soon into the building next to them, thus doubling their current seating. Zak has long ago left the building -- he's moved out West and I miss seeing him -- but his partners have carried on their excellent tradition of hot soups and sandwiches, panninis and other luncheon treats, plus the evening fare of freshly prepared seafood dishes with accompanying sauces and pastas. For those of us who stand in line at lunch to get one of the limited tables, the expansion will be a welcome relief.
MORE GOOD NEWS: Lest my downtown Roanoke pals think I'm unfairly picking on them regarding all of the restaurant closings, I must add that a new addition to lower Campbell Avenue is not only finally open, but is going to be hugely popular: Nico's has opened in the old Italiano's location. They've redone the house and have brought an authentic Italian menu to Roanoke. I had dinner there with friends last week and will report on that (plus a lunch or two) in the near future. Nico's opened their doors ready to do action. Lots of enthusiasm with a total knowledge of how a restaurant should operate. Great service, too. More later.
SOME MORE GOOD NEWS: The former Paradox owners vow that the new 202 Market complex will be open by mid-March after many months of renovations to the building. While Rome wasn't built in a day, it couldn't have taken much more time than the construction crew at 202! 202 Market will have an award-winning chef, formerly a top guy in Atlanta. There will be a piano bar upstairs and a regular bar downstairs with bandstand for live acts. The decor will be sort of South Beach meets Roanoke, if you can imagine that, and the walls will feature exciting artwork from regional artists. This complex in a historic City Market building will bring new life to downtown Roanoke's nightlife.
FINALLY A FOLLOW-UP TO AN EARLIER ARTICLE: Last summer I wrote an article on the closing of the S&S Cafeteria at Towers Shopping Center and about other cafeterias that have operated here in the past. I mentioned that an S&W Cafeteria downtown was located in the current Davidson's clothing store in downtown Roanoke. I wrote that my pal, Jan Wilkins, recalled going there as a kid; and how the cafeteria, in order to attract more families downtown at nights, offered movies for a time.
That brought a response from an out-of-town reader, Paul Dillon, who grew up in Roanoke (and is a relative on Jan's mother's side of the family): "Movies were shown on the second floor, which I think was called the mezzanine ... every Thursday afternoon after school, I went up the steepest imaginable back stairs into a storeroom lit with bare bulbs, hefted the Bell & Howell projector and 8' portable screen down from a high shelf, lugged them down to the mezzanine and set them up. Cartoons, 16 mm, mostly black and white, came in weekly from a service and were waiting for me. I opened up the hard cases, ran the reels for the little kids from 5 to 8 p.m., and afterwards packed the films up to be mailed back to the service. I had a splicer and glue and learned to splice broken film pretty fast. I got a free dinner and made two or three dollars."
So much for Paul's entry into show business. Today, of course, the projectionists' union would shut you down and OSHA would have your boss in prison for negotiating those dangerous stairs. Simpler times. Thanks for sharing, Paul.
And I love hearing from our many other readers as well, anytime you wish to share things from the past.
Bly for now.
