Photo courtesy Stan Rosenfield & Associates.

Popular food personality Alton Brown, made famous by his ability to explain the geeky science behind food in an entertaining way, is bringing a live performance to the Roanoke Performing Arts Center in November. Tickets go on sale in June.

According to his publicity folks, Brown will visit more than 40 cities in his “Alton Brown Live! The Edible Inevitable Tour.” The show is promised to be a combination of “stand-up comedy, talk show antics, multimedia lecture, live music and food experimentation,” with some audience members invited to the stage to be Brown’s assistants. A press release also says the audience should be prepared because “ponchos will be involved.” Hmmm.

Brown was made famous by his television show “Good Eats,” which aired on the Food Network for 13 years before moving to the Cooking Channel. He has been the culinary commentator for “Iron Chef” for 11 years, hosted “Next Iron Chef” for five years and has also been a judge on “The Next Food Network Star.”

He has also written a slew of books and won some nice awards, including the James Beard Award for top food show host in 2011.

Brown will appear in Roanoke on Saturday, November 9 at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $39 and go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 7. They will be available at HomeTownBankTix.com, at the Roanoke Civic Center Box Office, or charge-by-phone at 1-877-HTB-TIXNow (1-877-482-8496).

The Roanoke Times | File photo.

For the second year in a row, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation is working with restaurants to raise money for the country’s most visited national park — that’s right, the Blue Ridge Parkway attracts more visitors every year than Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon combined.

But it lacks funding, so it needs our help. The Blue Ridge Parkway brings in an estimated $2.3 billion in revenue to localities situated along its path, so it makes sense that some local businesses are giving back. The money raised through this fundraising effort, Plates for the Parkway, will be used for various projects such as the ones described here. Last year, Plates for the Parkway raised $8,000.

Here’s how this works: Participating restaurants agree to donate a certain percentage of their profits between June 10 and 13 to the foundation. Some restaurants plan special events to raise money for their donations. All you have to do is go out to eat at a participating restaurant during the designated time.

Here are the participating restaurants for 2013 and their donation amounts. The foundation is still looking for additional restaurants to support this cause, so if you are a restaurateur reading this and you’d like to help, click here.

* 202 Market, Roanoke, 10% of lunch or dinner on June 10, 11, 12 and 13

* Fork in the Alley, Fork in the City, and Fork in the Market, all in Roanoke, 10% all day on June 10

* Natasha’s Market Cafe, Floyd, 20% during lunch on June 11, 12

* The River and Rail, Roanoke, 10% lunch and dinner, June 11; 10% lunch on June 12; 10% lunch on June 13

* Chateau Morrisette, Floyd, 20% lunch, June 12

* Local Roots, Roanoke, 15% all day, June 12

* Blue Ridge Restaurant, Floyd, 20% all day June 13

In addition to donating some profits from lunch and dinner service, The River and Rail in South Roanoke is having a Plates for the Parkway benefit dinner at 6:30 p.m. on June 11. That will be a three-course dinner paired with beers from Parkway Brewing Company in Salem. The cost per person is $55, with 10% of the proceeds going to Plates for the Parkway.  Call 540-400-6830 to make reservations or e-mail Devon Steiner at devon@riverandrailrestaurant.com for more details.

The Floyd Country Store, Veranda Bistro in Roanoke County, and Martin’s in downtown Roanoke are also participating, but their dates are to be determined. Also, there are tons of North Carolina restaurants participating and some Virginia restaurants that are outside of our coverage area. Things are subject to change, so please check out the complete list here.

Cheddar corn chowder and a pimiento cheese sandwich on potato sourdough at Mockingbird Cafe. Photo by Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times.

My companions for a recent visit felt the same. We took our time studying menu choices, local art and quaint floral tablecloths. Staff went out of the way to explain menu options, ingredients and flavors. A number of items, such as salads, sandwiches and certain baked goods, are available every day. Changing entrees, soups and baked goods are also offered on a daily basis.

To continue reading this review, please click here.

Correction: An earlier version of this blog entry said Freckles, where Jerry Rush previously worked, was on Luck Avenue. It was on Kirk. Our corrections policy.

The space on the corner of Campbell Avenue and Fifth Street in downtown Roanoke hasn’t had a tenant for a year or more, but it will soon be bustling with the smell of coffee and scratch-made food.

Jerry Duncan and his business partner, Jerry Rush, hope to open 501 Speakeasy in the storefront by June 15. Duncan said the word “speakeasy” is included in the name not as a reference to the prohibition-era illegal bars but as a play on words, because they want their cafe to be a place where people can relax and “speak easily” among themselves.

Both men have experience in the restaurant business — Duncan has worked as a cook in multiple local establishments, including Howard’s Soup Kitchen, Awful Arthur’s, the Happy Belly Deli at the co-op and Bread Craft. He has also worked with Across the Way Productions, which puts on FloydFest each year, and is an artist. Rush co-owned a coffee shop called Freckles on Luck Avenue before it closed. Both men are originally from Roanoke.

501 Speakeasy will serve espresso and other coffee drinks, herbal teas, handmade soda-fountain-style soft drinks, and lunch and dinner fare. After they’ve been open a while and they get their ABC license, Duncan said, they want to open for dinner and serve Virginia beer and wine.

Duncan said they both have farmer friends they want to support by sourcing locally. In addition, he said, Rush’s mother planted a half-acre garden with produce they ordered for the restaurant.

“We are trying to get all-natural food,” Duncan said. “Whenever it’s available we will get local food.”

Previously, the space at 501 Campbell housed Marie’s Caribbean Creole Cuisine and Big Pine Provisions. Rush and Duncan have spent months getting it back in shape. They’ve replaced the floors with recycled red linoleum tiles, repainted, and redecorated. They’ve also done a lot of heavy cleaning.

The coolest part of the interior at 501 Speakeasy will be the old marble bar behind the counter. Duncan said the lower half of the marble was exposed but they had to scrape away paint to expose the upper half. Who paints marble? Ack! A friend of theirs who used to work for Black Dog Salvage thinks the bar is from the 19th Century and may have been moved to the 1930s-era building from an older establishment in downtown Roanoke.

I’ll keep you updated on the exact opening date. Meanwhile, check out some slides of the interior in the slideshow above.

Billie Raper. Photo courtesy Hotel Roanoke.

Walking through the Roanoke City Farmers Market with Billie Raper on a recent Friday was like being spotted with a celebrity.

The manager of Blues BBQ came outside to chat him up, as did a chef at 202 Market. Farmer Mark Woods said hello, and a woman in a sport utility vehicle on Campbell Avenue slowed down to wave enthusiastically from the driver’s seat.

“Hey, Billie!” she called. “We’re going to miss you!”

Raper heard that sentiment a lot after news got around that he was leaving his job as executive chef at Hotel Roanoke. By the time you read this, Raper will already be in southwest Florida helping to open a posh $70 million retirement community called The Terraces at Bonita Springs.

But Raper, 42, truly left a mark on our community. Through 18 years and multiple roles at the hotel, he reassured countless brides, put touches of perfection on banquets and galas, mentored many a young cook and established ties with local farmers.

All of this was done with a calm demeanor unlike the stereotypical image of a screaming, red-faced chef.

“Kitchens can be absolute places of chaos, and he really had a way about him of keeping everybody focused on the task at hand, with emotions and everything in check,” said Hotel Roanoke general manager Gary Walton . “No matter how tense things got, Billie seemed to always be pretty steady.”

To continue reading this column, please click here. At that link, you’ll also find Billie’s recipes for easy chicken and dumplings, as well as macaroni and cheese.

Did any of you know Billie? Got any stories or thoughts you’d like to share?

The Roanoke Times | File photo.

Thanks to blog reader Debbie, who shared with me a link to a recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article about Roanoke. This is the most comprehensive travel piece about our fair city I’ve ever read. The writer, Gretchen McKay, apparently traveled here with her family to run the Blue Ridge Half Marathon in April.

While here, she squeezed in an amazing amount of experience. The article covers outdoor activities, historic places, museums, shopping, and our favorite topic – FOOD!

I’m going to share a restaurant-related excerpt from her article. I’d encourage everyone to read the entire piece and tell me what you thought of her assessment of our region.

“My husband and I? We hit Roanoke’s dining scene pretty hard, squeezing in more than a half-dozen meals over the weekend. We started on Friday morning with breakfast at Thelma’s Chicken & Waffles on Market Street, and by Saturday night we’d also sampled the peanut soup at the Roanoke Hotel, wood-fired pizza at Corned Beef & Co., fried-green-tomato BLT’s at Billy’s and incredible sushi at Formosa Lounge (served in glowing martini glasses). Helping to wash it all down were some top-notch mojitos at Habana Cafe, a Cuban restaurant on Market Square, and local craft brews at Blue 5. (All the running makes me hungry! At least that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.)

Roanoke also has gourmet bakeries, sandwich and ice cream shops and restaurants focused on sustainable cuisine. On Sunday, I had one of the best brunches of my life at Local Roots, a farm-to-table restaurant in charming Grandin Village, a district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Two miles from downtown, it also has a restored 1930s theater, an old-fashioned ice cream parlor and vintage shops.”

Photo courtesy Leaping Waters Farm on Facebook.

Leaping Waters Farm in Elliston is throwing a huge event at 3 p.m. on Sunday that they’re calling “Feast in the Fields.”

The farm, which sits on 800 acres, will provide half of a steer, three pigs, a lamb and geese for the local food event. The meat will be roasted over open fires in the field. Beer and wine will be for sale and live music will be happening all day.

Some talented chefs will be on site supervising the cooking. They include Food and Wine’s Best New Chef 2011, James Lewis of Bettola and Vittoria Macelleria in Birmingham, AL; Colin Donnelly of The Red Hen in Lexington, VA, Jason Alley from Pasture and Comfort in Richmond; David Brewer from the Imperial Life and Table Restaurant in Asheville, NC; Tanya Cauthen from the Belmont Butchery in Richmond. Local chefs participating include Josh Lebreque and Nate Sloan from Local Roots in Roanoke.

This is going to be another event that proves a lot of chefs these days are drawn to the promise of open fields, big fires and whole animals.

In addition to the food, music and alcohol, there will be non-alcoholic beverages, swimming, fishing and pony rides. Children are welcome, as are designated drivers.

Tickets are $50 for adults, $25 for kids ages 13 to 18, $15 for kids ages 5 to 12, free for kids under the age of 5. VIP tickets for $100 apiece will get you early admission, a meet-and-greet with chefs, a farm tour and a farm t-shirt.

For more information or to buy tickets, click here or email leapingwatersfarmfest@gmail.com.

The Roanoke Times | File photo.

There are three main reasons fajitas are never a bad idea for dinner: They are delicious, they are pretty healthy and they are incredibly easy to make.

Yes, you can buy an envelope of fajita seasoning or a bottle of  fajita marinade, but my advice would be to save your money for something else because making fajita marinade from scratch requires mostly ingredients you should already have on hand and takes a matter of minutes.

As you well know, fajitas can be made with steak, chicken or just veggies. This weekend, I made mine with a piece of venison tenderloin because that’s what I had on hand. You can slice up the beef or chicken before marinating if you’d like, but another bonus of fajitas is the fact that you can get away with using a less expensive cut of beef such as a skirt steak, flank steak, or top round. If you want to spend a bit more, go with a London broil or top sirloin. Marinate and grill it while it’s still in one piece, then use a very sharp knife to cut paper-thin slices from the steak and it’ll be tender and delicious.

Here’s how to make a fantastic, from-scratch fajita marinade. Grab a bowl and dump in:

3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2 cloves garlic, minced (or more to taste)
Juice of 2 small limes
1/2 Tbsp. red pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 Tbsp. sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Whisk it all together and pour it over the meat in a gallon zipper freezer bag. You can divide the marinade and put half in with the meat and half in with the sliced veggies (bell peppers, onions) if you like. If you are only doing veggie fajitas, slice up a bunch of bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes and whatever else you like and soak that in the marinade.

Cook your fajitas in a skillet on the stove top or on the grill. After that, you know what to do: Get out the tortillas, sour cream, salsa, shredded cheese, chopped tomatoes and lettuce, guacamole and/or whatever your little heart desires to go on top of the fajitas and go to town. Enjoy.

Do you make fajita marinade from scratch? If so, how does your recipe differ from this one?

The produce selection at the downtown Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op. Photo by Lindsey Nair | The Roanoke Times.

The Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op opened a second location in downtown Roanoke on May 10, one week ago today. I dropped in today to have a look around and take some pictures.

As you’ll see in the photo slideshow below*, they’ve packed a lot of good stuff into this location, but it doesn’t look cluttered at all. You can go in for bulk ingredients, grind-your-own coffee or peanut butter, snacks, cold drinks, ice cream, produce, cleaning supplies, and a lot more. The grab-and-go food section offers sandwiches, soup, salads and the like prepared at the Grandin Village location, which houses a deli.

I picked up a tube of quinoa polenta, two avocados to make some guacamole this weekend, and some rice crackers to snack on.

If you’ve been to the new co-op location or if you go soon, let me know what you thought of the selection, prices and such.

* To get the most out of this slideshow, click play, then click the box with arrows in the lower right corner to expand it to full screen, then click “show info” at the top right.

Alexander’s, a downtown Roanoke stalwart for 33 years, has been named one of OpenTable’s Top 100 Restaurants for Service in the United States for 2013. According to the restaurant reservation website, the award is based on more than five million user reviews of some 15,000 restaurants across the country.

Only four other Virginia restaurants made the list, and none are in our part of the state. The other Virginia restaurants named are The Ashby Inn in Paris, Bistro L’Hermitage in Woodbridge, Cafe Renaissance in Vienna, and L’Auberge Chez Francois in Great Falls.

Alexander’s owner Bridget Meagher commented on the win in a press release:  “We are very pleased by this acknowledgment from OpenTable diners and to be included among the most legendary restaurants in the country. It’s wonderful to know that these diners who visited Roanoke from all over the U.S. thoroughly enjoyed their overall experience and gave us such high marks.”

Meagher praised general manager Boni Mills Webb and members of the senior service team, Bjorn Lindholm, Kelly Ontiveros Gearhart and Ryan Cook, assisted by Chris Blankenship. She pointed out that this award puts Alexander’s in some very fine company; also on the list were The French Laundry in California and Per Se in New York.

I don’t say often enough how lucky we are to have Alexander’s in our city. The fact that they even have a “senior service team” says a lot about their commitment to excellence. There’s a reason Alexander’s has waitstaff who have made the job a career — it’s because they are treated well, they have pride in the place they work and they have a beloved cast of regular customers.

Meagher and Webb are not the type of restaurateurs who seek attention. They don’t call me asking for stories (not that there’s anything wrong with that) or advertise specials to lure diners. In short, they don’t have to. They need only keep doing what they’re doing, which is staying fresh, changing what they need to change to stay relevant, and not touching the aspects of the business that don’t need to be disturbed.

Congratulations to Bridget, Boni and the staff at Alexander’s.