Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 1, 1993 TAG: 9307300437
SECTION: DISCOVER PAGE: D-24 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Lone Star Cantina closed after about a year of operation. On the Rise Bakery, which offers European style breads, opened last month.
Businesses do come and go in the city's downtown, but there have been more arrivals than exits in recent years.
The downtown's core, its historic City Market area, includes the Center-in-the Square theater and art complex and a cosmopolitan collection of shops. There are several antiques and collectibles places, two bakeries, a homemade-ice cream store, several art galleries, a pottery outlet and clothing boutiques.
Its farmer's market, which is the longest running market in the state, actually sells vegetables and flowers grown locally. In the past couple of years, vendors selling folk art and grapevine furniture have joined the produce places.
The trendy, upscale atmosphere of many of the City Market shops gives the place a tourist atmosphere, and it is a tourist center especially since the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau in housed there and open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
They love travelers, but shop owners say business from locals is quite heavy and still their base.
Thelma Pugh, whose Thelma's Boutique was a lonely operation when it opened five years ago on Salem Avenue, has built up a regular local clientele for the popularly priced basic and easy-care clothing she stocks.
She's a one-person operation, except that husband, Don, does the book work. When customer traffic is slow, you might find her applying sequins to a plain shirt to create a design someone has commissioned.
Violeta Roman also is a hands-on shop owner. Her House Unique Galleria showcases works of area artists and sculptors, but includes a variety of gift items and home accessories. She said the mosiac tile tables, which can be ordered in custom colors, are a bestseller.
If one word could describe the retail operations in downtown Roanoke, it would be "different," different in the mix and different in the wares.
For example, next to Antiques & Collectibles on Salem Avenue is Mish Mish Inc., a modern art and graphics supply store. Big Lick Ice Cream Works Inc. mixes its homemade sorbets and creams in a storefront between the Fret Mill Music Shop and Hannabass and Mason butcher shop and across the street from Kim's Seafood and Deli.
Down at the corner, on Salem, is the Patina boutique, which carries fashion you wouldn't be ashamed to show a Hollywood star.
At Brothers Bakery, the focus is on baked breads and sweets, but the owners also do homemade soups and dishes like chicken salad with apricots for lunch orders or take-home. The bakery moved into larger quarters this spring; its old space is now Big Lick Ice Cream, which is partly owned by the Brothers Bakery people.
Food is a big part of downtown Roanoke. Some of the city's finer restaurants are in the area and its truest vegetarian place, Eden Way, which is run by Seventh-day Adventist families.
It surprised Joe Cassell and David Selfe that the products in their shop appealed as much as they did to both residents and visitors.
Cassell and Selfe opened Twist & Turns on Campbell Avenue in November 1992. The men intended the market shop mainly as a wholesale showroom for their wrought iron accent and garden furniture, which is manufactured in the Roanoke Valley. They stocked some off-beat gift items to dress up the place and they're still shaking their heads at how sales have gone.
Their furniture is now being marketed nationally to other retailers, but they're also selling it to area people and to tourists who drop in from Interstate 81 and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Cassell said that in one week he shipped a table and chairs to Louisville and another set to Little Rock, Ark., both bought by tourists.
by CNB