Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 25, 1992 TAG: 9203250199
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETH MACY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The owners of Wildflour Cafe & Catering, they've been running their bakery-restaurant from Towers Shopping Center for a year now. And you can tell by one glance of the menu, it's not standard mall fare.
Baked goods are made fresh on the premises, including croissants, their trademark French-cornmeal bread and Evie's special invention - a wheat-based sandwich bread baked in cookie sheets, then split crosswise into two layers.
Their chicken salad holds the mayo, using as a substitute a dressing made from peppercorn-roasted oil and rice vinegar. And their health-food-inspired millet burger - stop the presses - actually tastes good.
But don't misunderstand, as so many people do. This isn't purely a granola kind of place.
"People are afraid of us because they think we're tofu hippies," Doug says, "when actually, we just serve fresh, whole foods made from scratch."
The husband-and-wife team could find no place for tofu on their menu, though they still make it at home. And while vegetarian specialties are the norm, even red meats are featured in their hearty deli sandwiches.
The Robisons aren't card-carrying hippies after all. But it did take some non-traditional moxie for Doug to quit his $40,000-a-year sales job last year - with three kids and a stay-at-home wife - to enter the risky business of restaurants, in which eight out of 10 fold within the first year.
Furthermore, the two of them have no formal cooking training, although the former ski bums did meet on the job in a Utah resort restaurant in 1979. In the early years of their partnership, they also ran a pizza place in a small Montana cowboy town, then lived out of a Volkswagen van doing seasonal work up and down the West Coast.
Reality hit in 1986, when they found themselves broke and heading to Roanoke to live temporarily with Doug's father, Ray Robison. While salesman Doug worked his "first real job with benefits," Evie raised the kids and spent hours inventing elaborate breads, soups and fresh-veggie dishes.
She learned to turn a pot of red beans into a staple, serving it with rice one night, in burritos for a second meal, then in tostadas a few nights later. She pored over Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Restaurant cookbooks and learned by trial and error the finer points of bread-making. Quesadillas, tabbouleh and garden salads were expanded upon and elevated to main-course suppers.
"Every night I'd sit down to dinner and go, `God, this is so good,' " recalls Doug, 38.
As Evie got more serious about cooking, Doug got less serious about selling construction equipment and more interested in working for himself. By the time he quit in February last year, 36-year-old Evie had already begun catering out of their home.
So it seemed natural to look for a place of their own. The Robisons went alphabetically through the Yellow Pages, calling restaurants to see about renting kitchen space for their fledgling catering business. When they got to the L's - Lynn's Cafe & Bakery in Towers Mall - an offer was made, and the whole place, not just the kitchen, was theirs.
"We put everything on the line when we did this," Doug says. "We ran our savings down to zero."
When someone at Ram's Head Book Shop told them "nobody's ever taken any money out of that place," the Robisons got really nervous.
Then they got intimidated. Taking a break from the preparations last spring, they went downtown to the brand-new Blue Muse brew pub and restaurant. "And here was this garish, well-decorated place, and it was so crowded it looked like it couldn't possibly fail," Doug recalls. "Evie walked out of there almost in tears.
"Now six months later, they're outta business, and we're thriving."
Wildflour is doing amazingly well, in fact. The kind of food Evie made at home for so many years broke sales records at the restaurant just last week. The Robisons also scored a major coup a few months back when German baker Burkhard Schaffarra answered their classified ad; the trained baker had recently moved to the area after marrying a woman from Hardy.
He's already taught Evie a few tricks, including speed kneading - two loaves at a time. And he's helped the Robisons cut back their hours slightly, although they still work from 70 to 100 hours a week.
They arrive each morning at 5:30 a.m., then one of them shuffles back home to get the kids off to school. They juggle the business and family - car-pooling the kids, delivering catered foods and running the restaurant's recyclables to the drop-off station - from their one family car, a station wagon. (They bought their first television just last year.)
When their 4-year-old, West, isn't at preschool, he hangs out at Wildflour, his familiar red hair bobbing among the tables and counter tops. When that gets old, he heads next door to Ram's Head, where he reads books until he falls asleep on the floor and the ladies there cover him up with his blanket.
Only one problem: Now that Evie is making all her home cooking en masse for the public, she's at a loss for what to fix at home - or the time to fix it.
She chuckles, "I found out the other day that you can actually buy tomato sauce at the store!"
Wildflour is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Following are recipes for two of the Robisons' specialties:
Doug's chicken salad
4 chicken breasts, 5 ounces each
6 cucumbers, seeded and shredded
2 tablespoons lightly toasted sesame seeds (hulled)
2 tablespoons peppercorns
1/4 cup safflower or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup rice vinegar
2 teaspoons hot mustard powder, mixed with 2 teaspoons water
Poach chicken breasts in barely simmering water just until firm, about 25 minutes; don't overcook. Drain and let cool.
Shred meat, discarding bone and skin. Transfer to a bowl and mix in cucumber and sesame seeds.
For peppercorn oil, heat oil in small saucepan over high heat. Add peppercorns and heat, stirring until aromatic, about 3 minutes. Strain oil to remove peppercorns.
Combine peppercorn oil with garlic, sugar, salt and vinegar.
Whisk in mustard paste and pour dressing over chicken mixture. Transfer to individual salad plates, chilling at least 20 minutes before serving. \
Millet burgers
1 cup millet
1 tablespoon oil
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
3 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup grated carrot
3/4 cup minced onion
1/2 cup minced parsley
1/4 cup soy flour (optional)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour ( 3/4 cup if not using soy flour)
Olive oil for sauteing
Place large pot on medium heat and add oil. When hot, add millet and cayenne and stir 2-3 minutes, until millet gives off nutty fragrance. Add boiling salted water and reduce heat to a simmer.
Simmer, covered, for 35-40 minutes, adding vegetables 5 minutes before done. Transfer to a bowl and add flour, mixing well to avoid lumps. Form into patties and saute in olive oil over medium heat until both sides are crispy.
Serve as a sandwich with cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and Wildflour's special sauce. Serves 6.
\ Wildflour's special sauce
3 cups mayonnaise
1 1/2 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons horseradish
3 tablespoons mustard
2 tablespoons dill weed
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Pepper and garlic powder to taste
Mix together and serve on sandwiches. Keep refrigerated in a jar for up to two weeks.
by CNB