Front Burner: 202 Market expands again
The new sports/cigar bar at 202 Market. Photo by Rebecca Barnett l The Roanoke Times.
Some restaurants in Roanoke offer fine dining with wine, some focus on a specialty such as vegetarian cuisine, and others serve up fried bar food.
When the dinner hour shifts into the late-night cocktail hour, customers can dance at clubs, watch sports or smoke cigars.
Any one of these concepts would be a worthy and challenging undertaking for an entrepreneur, but at 202 Market in Roanoke, they are doing all of the above — and then some.
Since it opened in April 2007, 202 Market has been a chameleon, changing its skin every so often to match what physician/owner Steve Rosenoff and his staff feel is in demand.
Now, the 5-year-old establishment has expanded again, adding a sports and cigar bar on the ground floor that opens onto a charming patio on Kirk Avenue and offers smoking patrons a place to puff in peace. Upstairs, Rosenoff is adding more space for events and private parties.
All of this has led me to wonder what I’ve pondered in the past: How do so many small restaurants with fairly simple concepts come and go while 202 Market, with about 13,000 square feet and a seemingly amorphous identity, marches on?
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August 15, 2012 - 9:30 AM
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I think the answer as to why it’s still open is evident in the owner’s reluctance to say whether it’s making money or not.
202 is fortunate to have an owner willing to dump money into it without requiring a return. Few restaurants operate that way. Maybe Meghan Gill is new and the food is improved, but I’ve never had a meal there (and I went several times in its early days) that didn’t strike me as way overpriced, and to me the entire place is just painfully pretentious. Then there’s that quote from Doris Kostelnik (sp) painted on the window about how it’s like some place you’d find in Manhattan. Oy.
I’d pick Metro all day long.
I’ve never had dinner there, just lunch a few times, and it’s really not that much higher than Metro or any of the other “better” dining places downtown. I recently tried the tempura buffalo style mushrooms and loved that dish. At 11.00, pricy but it’s a large amount too and a meal in itself.
If I remember correctly, didn’t Meghan Gill take over at Pomegranate sometime in 2011? After Tony Pope? Is it normal for a restaurant to have such turnover in the kitchen?
The consensus among dining establishments is to establish an identity.
The simple test is – ‘What is it?…’ The simple answer, and the one that reflects the effectiveness of the establishment is – ‘It is (fill in the blank)…’
That does NOT mean to put five disparate answers in the blank. A restaurant has to decide its’ identity. Obviously 202 Market is just after money, and can’t define its’ core. That’s too bad…
A hot dog stand can take pride in being a hot dog stand, a French cuisine restaurant the same, you just have to man up and decide what you are if you want to succeed.
So what is metro? Asian dim sum…with eggs Benedict for brunch? …braised COFFEE short ribs with CHEDDAR polenta? And sushi on the side?….are we in Asia, France, or the Deep South? … Or just have no idea…. Or maybe we’re “locally” sourced too? When restaurants play on a theme, that real restaurants hold as a standard…don’t go. When the theme is good food, with good service… You’re in the right place.