AllSports Cafe opens fourth location, first in Blacksburg
AllSports Cafe will open its first Blacksburg location at 1600 N. Main St. today. Mike Shaw | The Burgs
BLACKSBURG – Blacksburg residents and Virginia Tech students will soon have a new sports-themed restaurant to patronize in the New River Valley.
AllSports Cafe will open its first Blacksburg location at 1600 N. Main St. at 4 p.m today, according to managing member Kenneth Atkins.
The Blacksburg location is the restaurant’s fourth location; there are two locations in Roanoke and one in Salem.
Atkins said the restaurant is AllSports Cafe’s largest location and has a similar layout to their location in Salem.
The menu will remain the same, Atkins added, and offers items such as fried pickles, cheese fries, barbecue, burgers, pizza and wings.
Atkins said Blacksburg was chosen as their fourth location because of their desire to “branch out,” and he believes Tech has created a “very sports-oriented town” in the New River Valley.
The specific location, Atkins said, has housed a few restaurants in the past, including Anchy’s Restaurant, which was around for several years, but the building has been vacant in recent years.
Atkins said other locations he had looked at leasing around Blacksburg would have cost him $8,000 to $9,000 a month for space half the size of the location he ultimately chose.
But what makes Atkins think this location will be successful?
“Once people eat our food, they’ll want to keep coming back,” Atkins said. “Our food is what we’re known for around here, and we’re really confident in our food.”
Before opening the Grandin Road location, Atkins said, several people told him it wasn’t a good location for his restaurant. “I’ve been there for 12 years now,” Atkins said.
The Roanoke and Salem locations deliver, but Atkins said the Blacksburg location won’t be delivering right away but will in the future. The location will need to see the volume it has first, Atkins added.
However, customers can order food for carry-out.
The location has a “full-service bar” with Megatouch game machines, NFL Sunday Ticket and Wi-Fi. Atkins said the restaurant won’t have live music but may do karaoke in the future.
Atkins also hopes to eventually accept Hokie Passport.
“We do want the support of the town of Blacksburg,” Atkins said. “We’re certainly going to focus our restaurant on that premise.”
AllSports Cafe’s operating hours are 11 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday; 11 to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays.
For more information about the restaurant, visit www.allsportscafe.net or call 951-4647.
The Roanoke Times | 381-8627
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So, it’s yet another bar that serves the same food as everywhere else. Just what we need.
Comment by Bill — November 1, 2012 @ 3:29 pm
True. I wish them well, as the north end of town is sorely lacking in any kind of restaurant amenities, but I have this bizarre dream that hundreds of other towns the same size as Blacksburg DO have – that is a sophisticated, understated, chef driven, locally supplied food, high-quality aesthetic restaurant. I swear – if you took the former Annie Kay space at the proposed Brownstone complex, or took the former National Bank Building downtown – did a full gut, stripped it back to great farm lighting, reclaimed hardwood floors or polished cement floors, tables and chairs from DWR (Design Within Reach), had a great wine list, regional craft beers and inventive, good, affordable food you’d have a super-hip, easy restaurant that would be mobbed with people who are starving for this kind of dining experience.
Comment by Quality — November 2, 2012 @ 10:21 am