Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 26, 1995 TAG: 9502270088
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JOANNE ANDERSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Quesadillas, tuna steaks and strip steaks are also branded. Children receive an "I've been branded at Dakota" sticker. The brand alone makes this restaurant stand apart. But there's more.
In addition to its signature smoked prime rib, Dakota offers a smoked beef tenderloin. Both are tenderly smoked, adding a light flavor that enhances the natural taste of the meat.
Pizza with a twist - uh, that should be pizza with a turn - is called a "wagon wheel" and comes western-style only with toppings like black beans, avocado, caramelized onions, green pepper strips and smoked pork.
Generosity is the standard here. Salad comes in a bowl the size of a medium lamp shade. The biscuits are hefty. Dinner plates range from 10 to 15 inches in diameter with darn little plate showing.
When chefs Sam Larson, previously at Water's Edge Country Club at Smith Mountain Lake, and James Porter, former banquet chef with Mountain Lake Hotel, were mistakenly called "cooks" recently, Porter confidently quipped, "It's only a title, the food will prove it all."
The salad dressings - with avocado vinaigrette as the house specialty - the sauces, biscuits, a colorful "painted desert" cole slaw, even the tortilla chips, are all made from scratch in the Dakota kitchen. The meat is smoked on the premises, too. The decor is handsomely Western. "We're all kind of pitching in to figure out what a Western restaurant and saloon would look like," said Peter Keciorius, part owner with his wife Linda and Tom and Kathryn Oddo, all of Blacksburg.
"We watched Western movies, but many of the restaurants had heavy velvet drapes and Victorian furniture imported from the East," said Linda. So they're improvising with a more rugged approach, using saddles, bits, lariats, colorful blankets and cowboy hats.
A spur collection dangles above the bar, under the blue mountain peak neon light. A chain saw folk artist from North Carolina created some of the 5-foot tall, silent Indian sentinels in the dining room, and an accomplished sculptor made the more detailed wood art.
A 1897 Victorian mirror that originally graced the Hotel Roanoke stands next to the bar, and a prized antique Coke cooler chills mugs behind the bar.
The music varies between rhythm and blues and pure Western - Gene Autry and those guys. Some Wednesday nights, live Western bands will be playing.
The new restaurant, in the Marketplace space vacated by Texas Steakhouse and Saloon, is a second venture for the Keciorius-Oddo partnership. They opened Famous BBQ on South Main Street last April.
Dakota Barbecue & Grill
Address: The Marketplace, next to Brendles
Christiansburg
Phone: 381-5000
Hours: Open every day, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Serving brunch on Sunday, 11 a.m-3 p.m.
Bar, light menu until midnight week nights and
until 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights
Specialties: Smoked prime rib, smoked tenderloin, famous barbecue
Beverages: Full bar
Price range: Lunch, $3.25-5.95
Dinner, $5.75-16.95
Credit cards: MasterCard and VISA
Reservations: Not required
No smoking section
Handicapped accessible
by CNB