Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Pat Laughlin (right), owner of Courthouse Cafe in downtown Pearisburg, gets a birthday card from friend and business neighbor Angie Franklin of Angie's Hair Care. Watching are cafe employees Ciara Meredith (left) and Sasha Elliott. At top: Laughlin prepares a Chicago-style hot dog for a customer. Below: A customer emerges from the cafe.

PEARISBURG -- "Totally awesome," Stanley Kerr Jr. said on a recent Wednesday morning after finishing an unorthodox breakfast of a Chicago-style hot dog.

"If I can excite my taste buds in the morning, then, hey, maybe I'll eat something even better later in the day," Kerr said.

The hot dog, made with a Vienna all-beef dog, neon green relish, pickle and tomato slices and topped off with celery salt, is a signature menu item at the Courthouse Cafe, Giles County's year-old espresso bar.

The chef behind the counter, Chicago native Pat Laughlin, wishes more locals would try his signature dish. While the dogs are known as tasty and cheap among hikers up and down the Appalachian Trail, they've been a hard sell to locals used to the pink "meat" wienies.

"Try an all-beef hot dog today!" a sign on the menu says.

Asked why many locals resist trying the dogs -- which include a New York-style dog made with Nathan's brand wienie and sauerkraut and all-beef dogs dressed with chili -- Kerr said he thinks many locals "want a value, but they don't want to try anything new."

Some people prefer what they know, a bowl of pinto beans and corn bread for $2, say, to a $2 hot dog they've never tried before, Kerr explained.

Laughlin shakes his head at the irony, that a coffee shop dedicated to the vision of bringing local artists, musicians and residents together at a downtown gathering spot is mostly patronized by out-of-town visitors.

"This is the place to be," said Lynn Maynard, after ordering her cafe favorite, the Bagel Boy sandwich. Maynard, who works for an out-of-town surveying company, was taking a break from working in the courthouse records room.

Maynard's co-worker Josh Sparks said, "The very best thing they have here is West Virginia Coal coffee."

Paintings and photographs by local artists hang on the walls. The shop features displays of local pottery, jewelry and candles for sale and serves coffee roasted nearby in West Virginia. Most of the muffins, pies and other baked goods come from local bakers.

"Anything that's local that will work -- or if it doesn't work -- we'll try it," Laughlin said.

Laughlin, a retired car wash manager, came to Giles County to be near his daughter and six grandchildren.

On arriving in Pearisburg, he said his goals were to fish the New River, which he hasn't done. And to read every book in the Pearisburg library that appealed to him, "which I've pretty much done," he said.

Then, "I made the mistake of reading a newspaper. It said 'brick building for sale,' and that was my doom," Laughlin said.

In 2005, he bought the building where well-known cobbler Frank Mutter had plied his trade for decades and remodeled it. He opened what he dubbed "a '50s-style coffee house for the 21st century" in 2006. Today he's the self-proclaimed "non-alcoholic bartender of Giles County."

His shop offers poetry readings, music in the evenings and Internet access that is mostly used by the Appalachian Trail hikers who frequent the place.

Since opening the restaurant and coffee bar, Laughlin has become involved in ongoing efforts to revitalize downtown Pearisburg and is committed to his vision of creating a vibrant community gathering space to appeal to locals, hikers, artists, poets, coffee lovers and hot dog enthusiasts.

A believer in the power of art and community as an economic engine, Laughlin is working on plans to have a mural painted on one wall of his building and is a big supporter of the recent reopening of the old town movie theater.

"The big thing in our mind right now is that Pearis Theater," Laughlin said.

While the Giles County courthouse has for generations drawn people to the town, it's not really an anchor for economic development today. The theater could be that anchor.

Laughlin does occasionally get a glimpse of his dream to bring locals together. On Wednesday, Kerr was joined by Bluff City native Bob Leece and William Kaufman of Walker Mountain and a few others for a rollicking conversation.

Observing the scene from the door where he was taking a cigarette break, Laughlin smiled.

"Sometimes it really works," he said.