Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 22, 1994 TAG: 9407200016
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Bob and Mary Buckley on Monday opened Java the Hutt in a 48-square-foot booth on the Colonial Avenue side of Towers Shopping Center. Mary says she could see drivers' eyes light up as they got off the Webber Expressway that morning and noticed the "Cafe" neon at her little store.
Bob Buckley said they had a line of customers at one point, if you count two people as a line.
"We actually put money in the register," he said Tuesday, the second day's operation of the drive-through coffee shop they opened in the kiosk that formerly was a place to drop off film and pick up photos.
The couple said getting the former Photo USA booth was a real coup, because others had tried to rent it. Someone wanted it for a lemonade stand; others thought it would be good for a cold sandwich shop or a tiny video store.
Millie Moore, the leasing agent for Towers, said the center didn't want any business there that would compete with operations already in the center. The Buckleys said they think it was Moore's visit to Seattle, where she drank her first latte, that clinched the deal.
Until they moved to the area almost three years ago, Bob and Mary lived in Seattle where, they said, coffee drive-throughs are common, and coffee drinking is an "event."
"We became such coffee addicts there," Mary said.
They're counting on residents liking the brew as much as they do.
As soon as they iron out the wrinkles of a new business - and Mary's sister gets to town from San Diego - they plan to put on the usual "hoopla" of announcing a new business. This will likely be Friday or Monday, because Mary's sister is driving.
These first few days give time to practice and learn, they said. One thing they discovered by the time the second customer showed is that not all early-morning coffee drinkers want basic brews.
That customer asked for a double-chocolate mocha with whipped cream. Among the early arrivals Tuesday was one who wanted "skinny cinnamon" cappuccino.
Java also sells Italian ices and espresso and decafs and regulars and muffins, although the muffins haven't been a big hit yet.
Both Buckleys were in the booth Tuesday. He opened at 6:45 a.m., and she joined him shortly before 8. Bob had the day off from his main job, which is at Moody Graphics Inc. He and Mary moved to the area at the invitation of Moody's owners.
Bob, a native of New Jersey, is a former studio musician. He plays drums and said if you look closely at Madonna's early video, "The Gambler," you might see him.
Mary used to work for USAir as a customer service representative. The rest of the family includes Kyle, 6, and Jessica, 7 1/2 months.
The plan is for Bob to open in the morning and to handle the closing about 6:15 p.m. Mary will run it.
If you plan to visit, here are two tips:
Enter the parking area from 23rd Street, which runs between the shopping center and the Towers theater, and exit onto Colonial.
Also, if you see a sign "Gone Fishing" and no Mary, wait a couple of minutes. She'll be right back.
\ Yes, there is to be a new restaurant in the old Blue Muse-Lone Star Cantina quarters on Roanoke's Market Square. It will be Awful Arthur's, and one of the people working on renovations in the place is the owner, Todd Lancaster.
Lancaster, who also owns an Awful in Charlottesville and has part interest of one in Richmond, will furnish details after all the papers are signed. He promises, however, that it will be a good place to eat and drink and that it will have cable TV, even though he has to buy a satellite dish to get it.
Some parts of downtown Roanoke are inaccessible to cable, says Cox Cable Roanoke, because laying the cable would involve digging through cement, which makes the cost prohibitive. Lancaster said he was quoted $50,000 as the cost to bring cable from the No. 1 Fire Station on Church to the restaurant on Campbell, a distance of about a block and a half.
Nags Head vacationers might be familiar with the Awful Arthur's on the Outer Banks. Lancaster doesn't own that one, but his may have some similarities.
by CNB