www.roanoke.com

Update posted May 22

According to this website, BTO frozen yogurt, which already has a location in Radford, is opening in Salem on West Main Street.

That makes at least 13 frozen yogurt shops from Radford to Roanoke and the Smith Mountain Lake area. Here’s my list:

Frogurt in downtown Roanoke
Sweet Frog at Towers Shopping Center
Sweet Frog in Hardy
Sweet Frog at Towne Square Shopping Center (opening soon)
Sweet Frog in Christiansburg
Sweet Pete’s at Ridgewood Farms in Salem
Frosty Parrot in Blacksburg
Yogurt Cafe in Southwest Roanoke County
Naticakes at the Bonsack Kroger shopping center (opening this summer)
Menchie’s at Hunting Hills Plaza
Bloop at Hunting Hills Station in Roanoke
BTO in Radford
BTO in Salem (opening soon)

End update

I mentioned in this blog post last week that a new frozen yogurt store was opening at Hunting Hills Station, a shopping strip just below Chick-fil-A and Starbucks on U.S. 220.

I’m back with more details on the store.

The new frozen yogurt store is a franchise called Bloop, which is based in Lynchburg where two stores have already opened. A third Lynchburg store is opening soon, as are stores in Charlottesville, Winchester and Greensboro, N.C.

The Roanoke franchise owner, Ryan Schwartz, said he wanted to bring the business to Roanoke because he thinks there is room in the market for more frozen yogurt and he believes in the business model.

The business model he speaks of includes Bloop’s Cup-4-Cup program, in which the company donates 5 cents of every sale to Charity: Water, an organization that is raising money to provide drinking water to third world countries.

“It’s yogurt with a difference,” Schwartz said. “This is something I’m passionate about. I’m passionate about making a difference.”

He said he’s not worried about competition from other nearby frozen yogurt stores, including Menchie’s at Hunting Hills Plaza, Yogurt Cafe on Electric Road near Brambleton Avenue, and Sweet Frog at Towers Shopping Center, because he likes the location of the new store and believes in the business model.

Bloop is expected to open the end of June. It will offer 12 flavors of ice cream at a time, 45 toppings, and charge 39 cents per ounce.

Naticakes, a cupcake and frozen yogurt shop that donates some of its proceeds to a foundation that helps children, will open at the Bonsack Kroger shopping center late this summer.

Nicole Sloane started the business several years ago after the death of her 23-month-old niece, Natalie Wynn Carter, according to the company’s website. Sloane thought the business would be a good way to generate money for the Natalie Wynn Carter Foundation, established in memory of her niece. Ten percent of the proceeds from sales at Naticakes goes to the foundation, according to the company’s website.

The foundation aims to help children by providing “spaces for children to play through the building or renovation of playgrounds” and working with other organizations with similar goals, according to its mission statement.

I’ve haven’t been able to get in touch with Sloane to learn more details about the plans for the Roanoke store.

It will be located in the last remaining vacant space at the Bonsack Kroger shopping center, adjacent from Sal’s Restaurant, according to Millie Moore, a broker for Retail Real Estate, which handles leasing at the shopping center.

Naticakes has at least two other shops, in Morgantown, W.Va.,  and Lexington, Ky., according to its website.

There also appears to be plans for another frozen yogurt shop in the retail strip just below Starbucks and Chick-fik-A on U.S. 220 in Roanoke. A building permit filed this week in Roanoke says that one of the spaces at 4118 Franklin Road will be renovated for a yogurt shop. I’ve left a message with the proprietor. When I have more details I’ll post an update.

The last I reported on the Hummus House restaurant located in the Crystal Tower Building was that it might, or might not, be closing.

Total Action Against Poverty, which owns the eight-story building at the corner of Second Street and Campbell Avenue, has ordered its tenants to leave the building by May 31 because of a pending sale on the building.

But then they reconsidered and told Hummus House owner Daniel Melki that he could stay because his restaurant was separate from the rest of the building. If an unnamed developer buys the building, they could do their renovations around the restaurant, Melki said he was told.

That’s where we left off.

I talked with Mekli this week and he said he decided to leave the building along with Mr. Bill’s hair salon, the Cutting Edge hair salon, and Katherine’s Studio, also a hair salon.

“I just didn’t think it was a good idea to stick around with all the construction going on,” Melki said.

His last day open in the Crystal Tower building is Friday. You can also grab one last falafel on Saturday at the Local Colors festival in Elmwood Park, where Melki will be vending.

Melki still hopes to reopen at another downtown location but said he hasn’t settled on a new spot just yet.

Courtesy of CUPS-a-Go-Go

Cups Coffee and Tea in Grandin has opened its second location, CUPS a-Go-Go on Brambleton Avenue.

The new location has a drive through (hence the name), kitchen and a coffee roaster, which is roasting beans for both shops.

Owner Michelle Bennett hired Alexis Hinchey to manage the shop and develop its menu. Hinchey is the former owner of Kneadful Things bakery that was on Memorial Avenue.

Bennett is also working with Christopher Spoon, a coffee roaster.

Spoon learned to roast coffee years ago at Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea. He later started his own business, Honest Coffee Roasters, which provided coffee for Cups.

Spoon recently sold the business and started a new one, Cups Coffee, which is roasting coffee beans for Cups’ two locations. You can read more about the local coffee roasting scene in this story I wrote for last Sunday’s newspaper.

Bennett said Cups a-Go-Go’s opening has been well received, partly because of the location at 2825 Brambleton Avenue. The shop was Dave’s Coffee Time until Bennett bought that business earlier this year. Before that, it was home to Mojo Cafe, which closed last year.

A sign hangs on the doors of the closed Burger Bistro in Salem. Photo by Stephanie Ogilvie

Less than a year after it opened in Salem, Burger Bistro has closed.

“We just couldn’t do enough sales to stay open,” owner Randy Childress said.

A sign on the door at the Mill Lane Commons retail center on West Main Street says the burger joint closed Monday.

Childress, who sold the Chick-fil-A at Tanglewood Mall months before opening Burger Bistro, said running an independent business was more difficult than operating a franchise.

He said he doesn’t have any immediate plans to get back into the restaurant business.

In other Salem news, Miranda Beck, reporter for The Roanoke Times’ So Salem publication, reports that the Salem Chick-fil-A will open June 7 at 6:30 a.m.

She also says that the boutique Because Girls Will Be Girls and the salon Pampered and Polished on East Main Street are moving to Apperson Drive. Read more here.

Steve Caldwell prepares fries at Five Guys. Roanoke Times file photo

Five Guys Burgers and Fries will open restaurants in Roanoke and Christiansburg by the end of the year.

The Roanoke location should open at Tanglewood Mall in October or November, said Molly Catalano, a spokeswoman for the burger restaurant.

She wasn’t sure where at the mall the restaurant would be located, but it sounded like it might be the former Charlie’s American Grille location in the front of the mall. Charlie’s closed in September.

A spokesman for Tanglewood Mall said he couldn’t comment because the lease hadn’t been signed.

The last Five Guys in the Roanoke Valley was in Salem on West Main Street. The company closed the restaurant in January 2011, having decided not to renew its lease at Mill Lane Commons.

The Christiansburg Five Guys will open at Spradlin Farms shopping center by the end of August or beginning of September, Catalano said. Work to outfit the space for the restaurant should start in June.

Five Guys already operates a restaurant in Blacksburg on University City Boulevard.

The Crystal Tower building at the corner of Second Street and Campbell Avenue. Photo by Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

Last week I reported that the 17 tenants in the Crystal Tower Building would be asked to leave because of a sale pending on the downtown office building.

At that time, the Hummus House restaurant hadn’t received its notice to be out of the building by May 31 as several other tenants had.

The notice came this week, and owner Daniel Melki told me he plans to close the Lebanese restaurant May 18. He was on a month-to-month lease, he said.

Melki is disappointed that he has to close up so soon. The restaurant opened in February. But, he said the success of the restaurant has given him confidence to seek out another downtown location. He’s not settled on a new space just yet, but assured me he’d reopen, even if it meant putting his equipment and furnishings in storage.

Two hair salons, Mr. Bill’s and the Cutting Edge, are also leaving.

Bill Hollifield and his wife, Wanda, who is also a hair stylist, are moving down the street to 121 Campbell Avenue where they are renting booths from Dream Cutz, a new salon.  Wanda has already moved her station out of the Crystal Tower building. Bill plans to move his equipment this weekend, Wanda said.

“So far my customers are really glad that we didn’t move to where they couldn’t find me,” Wanda told me.

Mr. Bill’s has leased space at the Crystal Tower building since 1971.

The Cutting Edge has plans to move to The Colony, a group of shops and businesses at Colonial Avenue and 23rd Street in Roanoke near Towers Shopping Center. The Cutting Edge will close the downtown salon April 28. The new salon will open May 1.

Rendering courtesy of Proviz

Construction is humming away at the River House, an old cold storage building in Wasena that Ed Walker is redeveloping into a mix of apartments and commercial space.

The building is expected to open to residents sometime this summer. Already, nearly 40 of the 128 apartments have been leased, according to Michelle Rose, who is handling leasing.

Walker, at a news conference Tuesday morning, said the project is also looking for a tenant to operate a restaurant and bar in a 2,600 square-foot space attached to the building.

“We’re in conversations with several restaurants right now to figure out who we would most like to have in that space,” Walker told reporters. He said he’d also like to hear from individuals who might be interested in opening a restaurant.

A Chili’s will not do. Walker is looking for a restaurateur whose food and feel will compliment the building, which is situated next to the Roanoke River and greenway.

“It’s not just a lease. It’s not just someone with a check, but somebody who would strengthen the area,” Walker said.

The kitchen and dining room will be built out for the operator, who would need to provide furnishings, dishware, flatware, etc. The restaurant will seat about 90 people inside, and up to 75 on a patio.

Walker said that he’s aiming for the restaurant to open in early October.

You can read more about the River House here.

What type of restaurant do you think would be a good fit for the project, and Wasena?

Delaines, a formal wear and bridal shop north of Troutville on Lee Highway, is closing, according to this blog post by Cathy Benson of the Botetourt View.

Cathy writes that store owner Deborah Quirin wants to have more time to spend with her grandchildren, work on her photography, and take mission trips.

The store will close by the end of May. Merchandise is 40 percent off.

A little farther up the road in Buchanan, Rancho Viejo has opened where Fanzarelli’s Italian restaurant closed.

(I’ll be out of the office today, but someone will be checking for your comments.  I won’t be able to respond to questions until Monday. Thanks for your patience.)

Here’s another “What’s on Your Mind” update.

Plans for a Bojangles’ on U.S. 220 just south of Hunting Hills Plaza are on hold until the franchise owner secures financing.

Stan Seymour, owner of five of the area’s chicken and biscuit restaurants, said the loan for construction should come through this week. He said he’s not worried that he might be turned down because his other restaurants are successful.

Seymour has previously said that it will cost $1.8 million to build the 3,500-square-foot building. He already owns the land.

If the financing comes through, construction could begin in the next 4 to 5 weeks at the corner of U.S. 220 and Old Rocky Mount Road. The restaurant would open by the end of the year, Seymour said.

A sign announcing the new restaurant is no longer posted along U.S. 220 because someone stole it, Seymour said.

Meanwhile, a remodel will start within 30 days at Seymour’s Vinton Bojangles’. That restaurant opened in 1999 and hasn’t had a remodel since. Plans include expanding the parking lot, moving entrances and remodeling the inside of the store so it matches his newer ones.

The restaurant will be open during most of the work.