Each fall, I get together with my friend and former work mentor for an extended weekend of talk, travel and fun. Ten years ago, she retired to a small town in Tennessee equidistant between Nashville and Knoxville. Depending on where we are headed, I fly into one of these airports, she picks me up and we drive, stopping to eat, shop or sightsee enroute to our final destination, using our drive time to catch up on each other’s lives. Over the years we have visited Memphis, Ashville, Charleston, Savannah, Nashville, Lexington, Charlotte, Birmingham, Winston-Salem, exploring these cities, visiting their museums and cultural centers, sampling their cuisine and tasting their local wines. On the last day of our trip, usually over a glass of wine, we pull up Google maps on our phones and decide where we will go the following year. So this year (Sept 2020), Roanoke, Virginia was our destination of choice. We debated canceling or postponing due to the pandemic, but decided to continue with our trip recognizing that there would likely be some restrictions on what we could see and do. So I arrived in Knoxville in the late afternoon on Wednesday (one consequence of COVID being that flights were limited), my friend picked me up and we stopped at my favorite jewelry store and restaurant in Knoxville before heading east, driving as far as the town of Bristol to spend the night.
The next morning we drove to the small arts community of Floyd , window shopping the mostly closed boutiques, stopping in the only open business, the country store packed with masked shoppers. After a stop at the small community art center, we continued towards Roanoke googling and calling to see if any of the wineries between here and there were open for tastings. That’s how we ended up at the Villa Appalachia Winery.
Villa Appalaccia advertises itself as a winery with a taste of Tuscany in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was located off the Blue Ridge Parkway, and seemed reasonably straightforward to get to; unfortunately, we learned that google maps does not navigate the combination of elevation changes and winding roads well and we found ourselves driving in circles and ending up at dead ends. Without a cell phone signal, we used trial and error to eventually find our way, spotting vineyards in the distance and eyeballing ourselves to the winery. As promoted, the winery was straight out of a postcard from Tuscany.
The tasting room was quiet, we were the only patrons and the sommelier, Rob, seemed excited to have someone to pour for and talk with. We tasted the three whites available and I opted for the Raspberry Taxi, a raspberry grape varietal for my fourth pour. When another group of customers arrived, we ordered a glass of wine and a cheese platter to enjoy on the covered patio, sitting at an ornately Tuscan tiled table, appreciating the fine weather and each other’s company.
We reached Roanoke by mid afternoon; our hotel was easy to find; an iconic 1900s English manor house, now serving as the Roanoke hotel, it stood out amongst the glass and steel of Roanoke’s other city buildings Built in 1882 by the Norfolk and Southern Railway, the hotel was located across the street from its main railroad station, providing convenient and comfortable accommodations to passengers. Although trains still come and go regularly through Roanoke, when airplanes and motor vehicles dramatically reduced long distance passenger rail travel, the railroad sold the property to Virginia Tech. They also divested their railroad station, which as of 2004 has housed the O. Winston Link Museum of Photography (featuring what else, photos of lots of trains!) and the Roanoke Valley Visitor’s Center.
Virginia Tech closed the hotel but immediately launched a campaign to raise money for renovations. Achieving its goal with a generous last minute contribution from Norfolk Southern, the hotel was reopened in 1995 with a $28 million facelift. Another $13 million was spent building a pedestrian bridge across the train tracks to a new state of the art convention center. This glass encased bridge provided us easy access from the hotel to downtown Roanoke as well as an excellent perch to watch the ten or so trains that passed through Roanoke daily. I have always loved trains – I grew up near train tracks and was often lulled to sleep by the gentle swaying of my bed caused by the thundering vibrations of nightly cargo trains passing by.
Roanoke is a compact city of just under 100,000 people with its restaurants and shops clustered around its city market street and square. On our first night in town, we browsed the downtown area but all but one shop was closed so we masked up and popped into She International. What an interesting find – owned by a former flight attendant who traveled globally, she stocked her boutique with unique women’s accessories, most notably her tulip handbags from the Netherlands. We enjoyed hearing her story as much as she enjoyed telling it. Afterwards, we ate dinner at Billy’s, a popular seafood restaurant housed in a turn of the 20th century building, named for the owner of one of Roanoke’s historic saloons. It was still early into the dinner hour so we had no problem getting a table, enjoying a drink and dinner (my scallop and angel hair pasta was excellent) before the restaurant became crowded (with no visible COVID protocols including maskless wait staff). Leaving the restaurant, we walked the trail along the train tracks, feeling the draft of the occasional train that roared past.
The next morning we walked to the Historic Roanoke City Market with visions of an amazing farm to table breakfast in our heads. The city market was billed as the heart of Roanoke, open 363 days a year, with vendors selling a variety of fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and cheese, local crafters and artists displaying their wares and a diverse mix of eateries. Disappointedly due to COVID, the market, although technically open, was quiet. Except for a few coffee stalls, most of the permanent shops were shuttered, food court tables and chairs long unused were stacked in the corner, no crafters were in sight and a lone security guard sipped his coffee chatting with the UPS man delivering packages to the few operating businesses. It was sad to see the life sucked out of this typically bustling venue.
Roanoke promotes itself as an arts town and the City Market upholds that image. At its four entrances are mosaic thresholds commissioned when the building was renovated in 2011 , each depicting a theme of the market. With so little foot traffic, it was easy to see the murals unobstructed; my favorite was of a young boy strumming his banjo, depicting the concerts and entertainment held in the market during normal times.
Still in search of breakfast, we found a small restaurant with outdoor seating, adjacent to the market, called Scrambled. Aptly named, the menu was limited to scrambled eggs, albeit available with a variety of mixers. The eggs were very good, although maybe not so surprising given this was the menu staple. It was pleasant eating outdoors surrounded by blooming yellow hibiscus, bleeding pink from itheir vibrant red centers.
By the time we finished breakfast, several art boutiques and galleries had opened. Most downtown shops were either on shortened weekday hours, 10am – 2pm or by appointment only given so many people were homebound. My favorite find was Calhoun and Kipp, a boutique featuring the objects de arts of local artists working in metal and glass. We did our part to support the local artist movement, leaving our purchases with the owner to retrieve later. The proprietor recommended that we walk down the street to visit the rooftop of the Kids Square Museum for a panoramic view of the city and surrounding mountains, telling us to let the admission teller know that we wanted to go to the roof, not the museum so we wouldn’t be charged. Following his advice, we did just that and were directed to the elevator, riding to the roof. The view was as good as promised. To the north, across the tracks was the Roanoke Hotel, glass walkway and former train station juxtaposed against a forested peak of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
To the east, the glass peak of the Taubman Art Museum’s atrium points skyward, emulating the mountains visible in the background. The soft undulations of the rest of the building represent the valleys surrounding Shenandoah. We’d walked around the building the evening before, marveling at its unique structure but unfortunately it was also closed due to COVID.
Finally, slightly to the left, is one of the newest additions to Roanoke’s skyline, the Wells Fargo Tower. Built in 1991, this is Roanoke’s tallest skyscraper with a peaked copper dome designed to compliment the dome on Hotel Roanoke.
With a bird’s eye view of the city, we realized that after only one day, we’d explored as much of Roanoke as we could given pandemic restrictions. No worries, it was time to wander further to explore the surrounding countryside.