Historic Roanoke enjoys restaurant renaissance

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan 8, 1996 by Jack Hayes

ROANOKE, Va. -- Like many Southern cities where half-vacant historic zones are being re-energized with restaurant openings, downtown Roanoke is on a growth path paved by veteran local operators.

Despite estimates that give the city one of the highest per-capita concentrations of restaurants in Virginia, Roanoke's downtown witnessed a 10-percent increase in dining venues between January and October of this year.

"We're seeing growth by leaps and bounds," said Phil Davis, food and beverage director of the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center, which debuted in April following a massive refurbishment of the original historic downtown property. Local critics recently rated the hotel's 160-seat Regency Dining Room as the city's top destination.

"There's soon going to be so much pedestrian traffic we'll have to close off the streets as they did in Winchester [Va., on the northern end of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley -- Roanoke being its extreme southern terminus]," Davis said.

In fact, the downtown district adjoining Roanoke's quaint Market Building -- itself housing a food court and a string of tableservice units -- boasts 65 restaurants, according to Phil Sparks, the city's acting chief of economic development.

Furthermore, although the city's recovery is considered far from complete, its downtown this year expects to break a tourism record set in 1994, said Catherine Fox, tourism development manager for the local convention and visitors bureau. That likelihood has prompted operators to intensify their quest for new downtown sites.

Thus, the list of downtown concepts under development includes a dining theater that will operate as Market Square Cinema Cafe; an as-yet-unnamed Middle Eastern concept to be launched by the owners of the nearby Mediterranean-Italian Cafe; and a $1.6 million brewpub, called Roanoke Microbrewery.

"We see a great opportunity here for this new concept," said Randy Moneymaker, one of four local partners in the Cinema Cafe project, which, like the brewpub venture, targets a spring 1996 launch.

Moneymaker said the Cinema Cafe should open by February with 250 seats and two screens.

"I think the concentration of restaurants here is creating its own momentum," added Walter Vanucci, who operates Carlos Brazilian Cuisine on Market Street and who plans to open a copy of the concept in downtown Greensboro, N.C., next January.

Vanucci, who had operated another Market Street concept, Vanucci's, until building renovation forced its closure, explained that as long as new customers keep arriving, new restaurants will continue to open.

For a city with a small population -- about 100,000, or 250,000 in the greater Metropolitan Statistical Area -- downtown Roanoke has a diversity of cuisines, according to local operators.

One block from Carlos Brazilian Cuisine is another Market Street concept called Asian-french Cafe, operated by Steve Nguyen and his mother, Khang Thi Dao. And the new Middle Eastern concept will serve Turkish and French cuisine, unconfirmed reports said.

"We do a fusion of Vietnamese, French and Oriental specialties," said Thi Dao, who launched her concept as a food court in the City Market Building.

Another Market Building operation, Chico & Billy's, opened a sit-down unit on the sidewalk outside and now remains open until 4 a.m.

Other markets across the region where restaurant expansion either has triggered or has accompanied a downtown resurgence include Chattanooga and Nashville, Tenn.; Raleigh, N. C.; Greenville, S.C.; Tampa and Miami Beach, Fla.; and Richmond, Va.

"Yet for nearly 20 years, Roanoke had been stagnant," said Roland Macher, founder of five-unit Spanky's, a casual-themed chain operating in college towns like Harrisonburg and Lexington, Va.

Basing Spanky's operations and development office here, Macher launched a new downtown concept called Star City Diner in April, and he hopes after fine-tuning to begin franchising it up the East Coast.

Macher and others said that although Roanoke lacks a college in its downtown, the city draws students heavily from nearby Blacksburg, Va., which is home to Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

On Friday nights, according to Macher, downtown Roanoke teems with a crowd of 20- to 30-year-olds.

"This summer we had nearly too many college students downtown," said Matt Kennell, executive director for Downtown Roanoke Inc.

But Kennell's enthusiasm far overshadows his concern.

"A tremendous number of new businesses are opening along with the restaurants," he said. "The activity is nothing short of dramatic."