Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 11, 1993 TAG: 9305110059
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
However, by the time the place became a real brewery, it was on its last legs as a Tex-Mex restaurant. Owner Ben Hiatt said the Tex-Mex menu was too limited.
The brewery license had been delayed since the eatery's November opening because of a federal Prohibition-era law that said a brewery owner couldn't own another retail store. Hiatt, who owns other retail restaurants, said he worked out the problem legally.
He hopes to reverse the restaurant's situation on May 19 when he introduces a more varied menu, including standards such as steaks, pasta and fish - and the long-promised home brew.
Hiatt said the restaurant manager and the chef have left and he will manage the restaurant until it gets re-established.
He said he fears that the restaurant has alienated customers with its choice of music and its menu, and he wants to change that.
Lone Star's new music format will be mostly jazz, he said. Jazz and the Lone Star name "don't fit the textbook image, but who says it has to be textbook?" he asked.
Hiatt and Gary Duke of Entrepreneurs Inc. of Alexandria opened Lone Star at a site that had been empty since another restaurant, The Blue Muse, closed in September 1991 after six months of operation. Joining in the venture were Roanoker James W. Graves and the Blue Muse leaseholders, Leonard and Betty Carr Muse of Roanoke.
by CNB