Maggi George boldly advertises The House on Main Street with signs, flags and fliers throughout the town of Buchanan.

Billed as a tearoom and bed and breakfast, The House is establishing itself as Buchanan’s newest downtown venture and is steadily gaining a reputation for its food and ambience.

The heavy promotions mainly are to attract clientele who were used to seeing the historic landmark as a funeral home.

The brick Greek Revival dates  to 1840 when it was home to a man who went on to become a commodore in the Confederate Navy .  Later the house was fired upon during the Civil War.

It served as the longtime home of Rader Funeral Home until the late 1990s.

“Casually chic,” is how a recent, first-time diner, Alice Romig of the Nace community in Botetourt County, described The House.

“It’s a lovely place for lunch, especially for two women who want to sit and talk,” said Romig, who was having lunch with Connie Diez.

Both women said the first bites of their portobello mushroom and Muenster cheese panini sandwiches were good.

“I had high hopes, and we will return,” said Caroline Fesquet, after hosting an 85th surprise birthday luncheon for June Rutherfoord, a former Buchanan resident who now lives in Roanoke.

Laura Wilbon, who, with Genevieve Goss, arrived early for the birthday luncheon, previously had dined at The House with her husband. “It’s an elegant place,” she said .

George brings a mix of recipes from her large extended family that includes many Italian, German and Irish cooks to The House.

The food, she recently told her mother, “is just our regular food but they [diners] love it.”

George, a Rutgers University  graduate, handles the lunch menu that includes sandwiches and salads with the help of Jacky  Clark, the restaurant’s only waitress.

As cook, George also bakes the fruit pies and other desserts for the week. Chef Tysha Breeden comes in to help prepare the weekend dinner fare that includes lamb, salmon and many of George’s Italian entrees served in candlelight.

The dining room, with its antique buffet and linen-cloth-covered tables with  place settings of china and silver, represents an older era of Buchanan.

“I want it to be just like you are going to grandma’s,” George said of the dining room that seats 45.

“Every antique dealer within a  hundred miles of here knows my face,” George joked, adding that she and her family — husband, John; son, William, 11; and daughter Rose, 7 — furnished The House with personal items and buys from flea markets, yard sales and antique dealers.

Olive oil, eggs and cheese are the main staples for George’s kitchen. She buys ingredients, meats and fresh fruits and vegetables from the market across Main Street from the restaurant and makes rounds to Roanoke Valley groceries.

The restaurant opened April 11 but the Georges are still renovating the upstairs  to become a bed and breakfast inn.

John George, a retired policemen who now works with a security company, also works part  time in the restaurant.

Maggi George, formerly marketing coordinator for the Virginia Symphony in Norfolk, said she just wanted to run a business that would incorporate her marketing skills, love of cooking and interest in bed and breakfast inns.

The Georges originally toyed with the idea of an upstairs art gallery but adhered to town council and town gallery owners’ advice  that the town didn’t have enough traffic to support her plans.

“The town voiced interest in us having a bed and breakfast. They want to make Buchanan a destination,” George said.

The Georges also concurred with town wishes and kept their kitchen small in case they want to reconvert the tearoom into a residence. “The town wanted me to protect the integrity of the house as a residence.”  The kitchen had to be gutted and new electrical wiring and water pipes had to be installed.

The Georges are “providing what’s been a missing link in our business community,” said Buchanan preservation manager Harry Gleason.

Twelve years ago when Buchanan instituted its preservation and revitalization program, the town had three restaurants, Gleason said, adding that eight are open now. Some are replacements of others.

The tearoom and the inn, Gleason said, “provide a good transition for one of Buchanan’s grandest homes.”

“We always have people looking for a place to stay,” Gleason said of the inn. “More and more it seems tourists who are coming by from out of state seem more interested in that kind of stay.”