Yee haw! Country/western bar coming to Roanoke
A country/western restaurant and bar will two-step its way into downtown Roanoke later this year.
Sidewinders Steakhouse & Saloon will be located at 16 W. Campbell Ave. The space formerly housed Dolce, Mix One6 and Red Clay but has been empty for almost two years.
Co-owner Robert Howard of Roanoke said Sidewinders will serve “good-priced” steaks, seafood and some signature items such as rattlesnake bites. “We’re not trying to compete against Frankie Rowland’s or anything like that,” he said, noting that the signature steak cut will be a bone-in rib-eye. At lunch, the restaurant will offer an all-you-can-eat soup and salad bar.
Howard, who has two investment partners. including Roanoke attorney A.C. Chakravorty, said extensive renovations are underway to the interior of the building, including fresh paint and the installation of hardwood floors and oak trim. The business will feature live country/western or southern rock bands on Friday and Saturday nights, as well as a 1,000 square-foot dance floor.
“There is just no place to go dancing in Roanoke unless you are into hip-hop music,” said Howard, who hopes to draw an older crowd.
About 15 years ago, Howard owned a country/western night spot just outside Richmond called The Godfather. He said he and his partners are obtaining permits and will apply for an ABC license to sell beer, wine and mixed drinks. They hope to open Sidewinders this fall. Here is the business’ Facebook page.
Howard said they looked for the right building for about two years before settling on 16 W. Campbell. “A lot of people came to me and said ‘Nothing makes it there – it’s got a bad omen or something’,” he said. But Howard added that he thinks it’s all in how well you run a place.
I’m not a huge country/western music fan, but I would definitely take advantage of the excuse to wear a pair of cowboy boots out for a fun meal one night if the food and the atmosphere is good. What do you all think?
August 7, 2012 - 5:37 AM
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My neck got redder just reading that.
But seriously.
I do think Roanoke needs a moderately-priced steakhouse, but I have to wonder about the potential for such a location. Downtown seems problematic for drawing families, particularly early dinner crowds. The mall-bound chains seem to have the corner on that market. I wish them luck, and hope their bar-and-dance crowd is sufficient to pay the bills.
I think the musical orientation will weigh heavily in favor of success in RoVa.
As for the menu? That will probably do the same. Ever look at the lines outside of an Outback, Lone Star, Texas Roadhouse, etc.? Inexpensive, relatively tasty beef houses do well around here.
Good luck to them…
I was never a country music fan until I moved to Nashville for a couple of years. I’ve actually been missing a true country/western bar ever since leaving there. Here’s hoping that it will be the real deal.
I’m kind of super excited!
When will it be open?
Another comment on the steakhouse genre – it’s pretty interesting that so many entrepreneurs have paid Frank Beamer for the use of his name on similar formats, and all have failed, consistently so.
As I said in the previous post, inexpensive relatively tasty steakhouse work around here. Key phrase there to the latest group trying to comp Beamer’s name to food success.
Babs, it might have been kind of buried in the entry but they want to open sometime this fall. They still have to get all their permits and apply for an ABC license, and finish the renovations. And since those things almost always run into delays, Mr. Howard did not feel confident naming a more specific opening date.
I remember my parents taking me to some country/western steakhouse one time and for the life of me I do not remember where it was. I just remember it had a lot of cool country/western decor on the walls and sawdust on the floor and good steaks. It’s a fun memory.
Off topic…have you heard from Nona lately? Missing her pet stories.
Love the idea! It’s what Roanoke Valley has been needing for a long time. Poor choice of location, good luck, hope it can make it there!
I have been saying for years that Roanoke needs a country bar, glad to see we finally are. Should offer a better crowd than what Corned Beef draws.
It does seem like downtown has a couple of “death” spots, and that location is certainly one of them. All of Campbell beyond Jefferson seems to struggle a bit, and having a direct view of the bus station probably doesn’t help in that particular spot. Hopefully the country music acts will be enough of a draw to overcome whatever “bad mojo” there is there.
I think another one is the corner spot currently occupied by Thelma’s. I was hoping that their existing customer base might help them break the curse of that corner, but their recent troubles may suggest otherwise. Maybe the proposed hotel will drive more business that way, especially since Hampton Inns don’t usually have their own restaurants?
Hope there will be adequate parking for their evening endeavors, otherwise they won’t last.
Years ago the Golden Horseshoe was the place to go to two-step in your boots. Hopefully this place will bring back what Roanoke has been missing for a good while! And I hope the location won’t deter its success.
First valley metro will need to enforce a no loitering zone around the bus station to eliminate what goes on there now and to make it look more appealing for diners looking out of the window. They are going to need someone on the restaurant side of Campbell to keep vagrants away. Since there is no parking on Campbell patrons will need to walk thru bus station from parking lot to get to restaurant and with the buses running until 9:00p.m. patrons who are not familiar with downtown but heard rumors of the bus station may be wary. And yes, i do ride the bus daily and get annoyed at the people around there at times but I can also see how the bus station crowd( not the riders) but the people who hang out there all day long!!!! can make it hard for businesses to survive on Campbell.
The missus and I are part of that “older crowd” that the owner is hoping to draw in. We’re delighted at the prospect of a great new place to kick up our heels to our favorite type of music. We hope that the bands start at a more “reasonable” hour,like 9:00 pm, for us older-crowders.
I bet if they had mechanical bull-riding one night a week, that would eliminate fears about the lack of downtown traffic. Gilley’s, anyone?
It doesn’t appeal to me, but I think there’s a market in Roanoke for that sort of thing.
To me, the problem with that location is the size…same as with the new Thelmas. Hopefully dedicating a bunch of space to a dance floor will generate enough income to defray the rent.
Robert Howard did tell me he aims to work with the city to try and minimize any negative impact from loitering outside the bus station.
As for parking, I hear that complaint a lot but I never have trouble finding parking so long as I am willing to parallel park and maybe walk a couple of blocks. I typically do not pay to park in downtown Roanoke but there seem to be plenty of parking garages and pay lots. This map from Downtown Roanoke Inc. is packed with locations: http://www.downtownroanoke.org/parking/parking-map-and-information
Fake bull riding was passe a couple of decades ago. The country western theme can resonate in this region.
When was the last time you went to a wedding reception and a country line dance didn’t break out. Even for the early 20-somethings, the DJ sticks 3-4 songs in there for the parent crowd.
Hey Lindsey, have you heard anything about Torino’s Pizza? I went by for lunch and it’s banged up and the cash register is gone. I’m so disappointed…they really had great pizza, but maybe they couldn’t overcome their service issues.
It was also way too inexpensive, IMO. Huge fantastic portions were very cheap.
If Roanoke ever wants downtown to be successful, the bus station must be moved.
Kristen, the absolute best cheap but good pizza joint is Cici’s. Pretty good pizza – certainly better than any of the delivery chains – and you get a plethora of selections.
@Kristen, I hadn’t heard anything about Torino’s but I just called and the phone is disconnected. I called the building owner and will share any info he provides.
Speaking of pizza, we finally had a chance this past weekend to eat at Sal’s in the Kroger shopping center at Bonsack. Oh. My. Goodness. I can see why so many people rave about that place. I had a calzone and the tomato sauce was so good I could eat it with a spoon!
Confirmed: Torino’s is definitely closed, according to the owner of that building, Frank Guilfoyle (who also owns Honeybaked Ham next door). That space will be for lease again.
Why wouldn’t they want to compete with another business? Thats a stupid thing to say. We’re not talking completely shutting out another business, but friendly competition should always be a priority in the business game. Otherwise we’ll just keep getting different versions of the same crap on different blocks. I cant wait to check this place out and do some country Two-step’n, sure hope the food is good, I’m tired of only going to Lucky’s when it Roanoke.
Heard anything more about Steak ‘n Shake, or can we go ahead and say that they are not coming?
Reference the front page RTimes article last week where Roanoke tourism leaders crowed that “we are better than Asheville”. I bet they’re really jealous of us now.
@David, I think he meant they are going to be at a lower price point than Frankie Rowland’s.
@Roa10, I will check on Steak ‘n’ Shake.
On another note Sarah’s is open in the Patrick Henry. I stopped by to say hi and pick up a menu today. I hope to try it for lunch on Thursday.
i think the old winn dixie building on plantation road would be a super nice place for a BIG country/western bar.it has been sitting empty for at least 5 years. if it was run by the right people,it might could compete with PHASE II in lynchburg. my only drawback to visiting this new country bar is the parking. but i do plan to check it out .
Lindsey, thanks for posting the parking lot link above. I am SO OVER hearing people say that there is no parking downtown. When I hear that, I immediately know that this person hasn’t been downtown lately. There are three parking garages in the heart of downtown Roanoke that are all within a 2-1/2 to 3 block walk to just about anything you’d want to do. Ample street parking is available, unless you can’t parallel park. Additionally, there are several pay-to-park lots. I just can’t figure out why this comes up time and time again. Where in the world can you expect to pull up to a downtown business and park right at the front door? I travel a lot, and I can’t think of one single city that that happen in.
Is Mama’s Pizza in Salem at Lakeside Plaza closed?
Move the bus station to Salem Ave and put a parking lot there. Two problems solved.
Great Concept and it may work I will try it at lunch for sure. The problem? I see some scary activity across the street with police, loitering,
etc. not a safe place at night for sure. It is doubtful our Police Dept. will concern itself with the bus station activity as our laws are too lax on such issues. Good Luck!
Jason that Winn Dixie location has been vacant for over 10 years now. What a total waste of space.
I think this is something the Roanoke area has needed for a long time. A nice,clean,upscale Steakhouse, bar with good food,music and bands. I’ll be there!!
I belong to a group of country dancers (couples and line)whose hearts jumped with joy at the news of Sidewinders. For a 1,000-square-foot dance floor, we will even come downtown and search out a place to park.
@ Roa10, Steak ‘n’ Shake is still coming. The spokesperson, Lee Garvin, said he would contact me as soon as they are ready to break ground.
@Tami: Thanks for asking about me. It’s always good to be missed.
I am back to work and slowly getting back into a normal routine. I am not going to continue writing The Happy Wag column and blog so I can concentrate on the other parts of my job and regaining strength after surgery.
Thanks!
Just what this place needs!! Another redneck joint!! I can see the brawls and fistfights starting now!! YE HI!!!
@Rose, I am sorry I forgot to acknowledge your question about Mamma’s Pizza in Salem until now. I am having trouble getting in touch with someone to find out the status of that restaurant, but I’ll keep trying. Thanks for the tip.