Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 27, 1993 TAG: 9305270090
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
However, banker Ward Holland, the namesake of Ward's Rock Cafe, said he'd like to be in operation by the evening of June 6.
June 6 is the date of a First Friday, a monthly outdoor after-work beer-and-wine social held in downtown Roanoke to raise money for charity. The events draw large crowds of young adults.
Ward's Rock Cafe, which will be next door to Corned Beef & Co. on Jefferson Street, is a block from the First Friday site.
Holland, a 35-year-old Dominion Bank employee who is losing his job under First Union Corp. ownership, said he and his family have been thinking about a restaurant operation for almost two years.
He said his parents, Glen and Shelley Holland, provided the financial backing; he and his sisters, Anne Martin and Ruthie Holland, "are the labor force."
Martin lives in Kernersville, N.C., with her husband and two children, however, so her participation has been her paralegal skills.
And Ward Holland said his primary involvement will be to give financial advice.
That leaves Ruthie Holland, who graduated from Hollins College in 1991 and stayed in the Roanoke area. She said she will work at the cafe, probably helping to tend the bar.
It will be a new experience. Thus far, she said, her bar knowledge has come mainly from "bar attending."
Ward Holland said the family's inexperience with restaurants is offset by the help of an uncle who owns a Roanoke catering company. He has been hired to set up the cafe's food service.
Pattie Foster, a Lynchburg College graduate who operates Seasons & Occasions Catering, planned the menu and said she will stay with the business until it is established.
Foster was a bank loan officer in the Williamsburg area until she quit to set up a catering business that she ran for four years there. She moved to Roanoke a year ago to be near her fiance.
Foster met Holland when he was a manager in Dominion Bank's corporate accounting department and catered business events for him.
Beverley John, who has been helping Foster part time with the catering, quit her full-time job at Blue Cross and Blue Shield to manage the kitchen at Ward's Rock Cafe.
At lunch, the food service will be cafeteria-style. In the evening, food can be bought at the counter. Foster said she will hire 15 to 20 full- and part-time staff for the bar and kitchen.
The cafe menu announces such dishes as The Hendrix and The Marley, and carries the history of the Holland family. It points out that the family has lived in six states and four foreign countries.
Ward said the family maintains homes in North Palm Beach, Fla.; Wintergreen; and Piscataway, N.J.
The restaurant-nightspot will occupy 3,000 square feet in a building owned by insurance executive Hong Ki Min. Holland said Min abated a portion of the rent to offset the expense of finishing the space, hiring Min's construction crew to do the work.
Holland said the start-up is costing about $200,000, including remodeling and equipment.
A focal point of the cafe will be a second-story roof garden that can seat 50 people. The downstairs can accommodate 85.
Holland said he hopes to provide live music three nights a week.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***