Amelia Glaser and Mark Linson at Thursday night's meeting. Photo courtesy of Suzzane Gandy

Last week I updated you on the latest concerning the grocery store, restaurant and cafe planned for the Sixteen West development on Church Avenue in downtown Roanoke.

Today, I’m back with a few more details.

The Downtown Roanoke Neighborhood Association held it’s monthly meeting at the building Thursday night, where cheese specialist Amelia Glaser and chef Mark Linson served up lots of different cheeses, breads and cured sausage. They and developer John Garland also talked in more detail about the plans for the marketplace.

Garland, president of Spectrum Design, said he’s long envisioned a downtown marketplace that included a grocery store and pharmacy.

“It needs to be a market for what people need everyday,” he told the group.

Although no one has committed to financing and operating a pharmacy at Sixteen West, Garland said he’s reserving a space for one.

Glaser and Linton emphasized that they want the marketplace to have a European feel, with downtown residents and workers walking or biking to the marketplace several times a week for fresh food.

Glaser, whose business the Laughing Gouda provides wine and cheese catering, is opening the S&W Market, where she’ll sell her cheeses as well as local, organic meat, produce, dairy, and wine and beer. She also hopes to provide delivery for groceries and catered meals, cooked up by Linson.

Linson, a former chef at the Blue Apron in Salem, is opening the Cork and Crust restaurant next to the grocery store. It will serve tapas, cheese boards, soups, and wood-fired pizzas.

The pair is also opening Cafe 16, which will serve Floyd County’s Red Rooster coffee, as well as tea, smoothies, pastries and breakfast foods as well as to-go food, such as wraps. The cafe is expected to open first, sometime this spring.

Plans for a new store were also discussed Thursday night. That store, located in one of the five vendor stalls on the first floor, is named 16 Etc., and will sell sundries, such as paper towels. The other stalls have not been leased.

Construction on the first floor of the building has been finished for several months, but much work remains to be done to ready the cafe, restaurant and kitchen, grocery store and vendor stalls. You can see those spaces in this photo slide. (Expand the slideshow and click on “Show Info” to see captions).