Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 6, 1995 TAG: 9509060122
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Blake Dingler's ambition to be a restaurateur is at odds with those of patrons who like cheap draft beer. Those who like potato chowder or barbecued pork are in business, however.
About a year ago, Dingler and partner David O'Dell converted a downtown Vinton tavern into O'Dell's Place, a family restaurant that promises all its food is made from scratch.
"We took out the pool tables, the dart board, the juke box and raised the beer prices," Dingler said. A draft, then 50 or 60 cents, now costs twice that, he said.
A second O'Dell's is scheduled to open for breakfast, lunch and dinner by late this month, just a stone's throw from the new pedestrian bridge connecting the Roanoke City Market and Hotel Roanoke.
Like its sister restaurant in Vinton, the Roanoke establishment will de-emphasize drinking.
"I want to make sure my beer prices are higher than everyone else's. That way, people won't come here just to sit and drink," Dingler said.
Given to saying, "I'm into food," the 30-year-old Dingler describes himself as a self-trained cook who has handled a skillet since he was 16. O'Dell is self-employed in two other businesses unrelated to restaurants, Dingler said.
Remodeling began about three weeks ago at 19 E. Salem Ave., which, until recently, was a dark, gaping storefront across from the gleaming First Union Tower.
Over the years, various proprietors ran it as an eatery - for a long time it was The Manhattan - or a tavern, said a spokesman for owner Claude Smith. The last tenant ran it as a deli, but it stayed in business only a few months.
The two-story building sports an enormous green sign that reads, "Restaurant. Good Food." If you cup your hands against the smudged window of the 107-year-old building, you can see a big, wooden bar bristling with beer-tap handles, and a back bar, too.
The bar will be stocked with beer and wine, but Dingler said he hopes people come for the potato chowder, which takes two days to make - one to make the stock, and a second to incorporate vegetables and seasoning.
His barbecued pork, he said, is hand-pulled. After a raw piece of meat is boiled and then smoked over hickory, the meat is separated by hand from the fat, tendon and bone. "That means you get nothing but meat," Dingler said.
Phil Sparks, acting chief of economic development for the city of Roanoke, is a customer of the Vinton restaurant. He called the barbecue "incredible."
Dingler and O'Dell made a long-term commitment to the project, leasing the site for 13 years, Dingler said.
O'Dell "picked this location because of what the future holds," Dingler said.
A 4 1/2-month-old Subway sandwich shop in the same block of formerly long-vacant storefronts does a heavy volume of lunchtime business on weekdays. It is packed with customers, from bus drivers to business people, manager Allan Goldsmith said.
by CNB