
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 10, 1993                   TAG: 9309100260
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

BIG BOY ON U.S. 460 REOPENS AS OUR HOUSE

Big Boy restaurant on U.S. 460, which has been closed for two days, reopened Thursday with a new menu and a new name.

The restaurant - now called Our House - is still owned by a partnership headed by local developer Herb Alcorn, but the Big Boy franchise has been dropped.

"We're going to give this restaurant a Blue Ridge Mountain flavor," Alcorn said.

The new menu features more home-style items, such as meat loaf, red beans and barbecue.

"No more frozen patties or frozen steaks," Alcorn said.

The restaurant will also offer a soup, salad and vegetable bar with two entrees each day for lunch.

Alcorn said there were many factors that led to dropping the franchise - one of the main ones being that the closest Big Boy to Alcorn's Blacksburg restaurant is in Pigeon Ford, Tenn.

"We just weren't getting any advantage from the national advertising," Alcorn said.

The franchise agreement with the Detroit-based company also prohibited local management from changing the restaurant's menu or prices, Alcorn said.

"We're really looking forward to giving it a down-home flavor," he said.

The restaurant's owners, Homestyle Restaurants Associates, filed for financial reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court last December. Debt at more than $1 million and assets at less than $1 million were listed in court records.

Alcorn said the reorganization is "progressing well."

by CNB