Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 13, 1993 TAG: 9307130092
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Actually, Penn admits, it was more than a sample.
"I just couldn't stop eating it," he said.
In a few months, he will be in a position to eat all he wants. Butterworth is opening a food and beverage service in the entertainment center.
"We're targeting Labor Day. We may be able to get open sooner," Butterworth said. "We want to get it completely refurbished and on line before we open the doors."
Penn launched the Ellery's nightspot at the start of this year featuring performances by popular blues performers. It is now closed for re-tooling, including the addition of the restaurant.
Pulaski Town Council approved a $30,000 loan July 6 from Urban Development Action Grant economic development funds for the nightclub-restaurant combination. Work is under way in the building at 220 N. Washington Ave.
Butterworth and Penn, both 46, got together through Jim Stewart, who heads a technology transfer program based at New River Community College.
Members of Butterworth's family in Dinwiddie County have been in the barbecue business since he was 5 years old. He came to Floyd County in 1971, and has been involved in four restaurant ventures in Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Floyd since then.
He was looking into the possibility of a wholesale venture selling barbecue products to restaurants. Stewart put him in touch with Penn. When Butterworth learned that Penn planned to add a restaurant to his entertainment center, he offered to help set up the kitchen.
"And as I went on, I got sucked deeper and deeper into it," Butterworth said. "He reeled me in like a big fish."
Penn said Ellery's will have an even more ambitious program when it reopens, including country music Thursday nights, beach and contemporary music Fridays, and comedy and jazz Saturdays.
With Pulaski being just off Interstate 81, the club will have the opportunity of picking up performance dates by various artists traveling between Nashville, Tenn., and points north.
"It will be a real mix of music in here," Butterworth said.
His restaurant will specialize in barbecues with a variety of sauces, including four house sauces in addition to the others mixed locally.
"All the sauces in here are original and made on the premises," he said.
Meals will include a luncheon buffet, a complete dinner menu and light snacks while the shows are on after 10 p.m. The fare will include items such as Southwest Virginia-style chicken and fresh sea food brought in from the coast each week.
Meats will be cooked on the premises - Butterworth is importing a cooker from North Carolina that prepares 250 pounds of meat at a time - and specialty sandwiches will be available. A catering service is planned.
"We'll be experimenting with a lot of things, but we'll be staying in the blues and barbecue vein. That's a natural," Butterworth said.
It will be another specialty restaurant for downtown Pulaski, the third to open this year.
"It gives people who don't live in the town a reason to come downtown," Butterworth said.
"It'll still be Ellery's Blues & More. I'll just be the `& More,' " he said. "Together we could do better than each of us could do separately."
by CNB