ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 4, 1995 TAG: 9512050019
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
OH, TO eat again at the Woolworth's lunch counter in downtown Roanoke. It is a piece of the past that anyone with a lick of sense knew was never to return - kind of like a Beatles reunion.
Now, unexpectedly, resurrection.
No, it won't be Woolworth's. But sandwiches and Cokes will slide across the counter once again in the old Woolworth's building on Campbell Avenue. While the landmark lunch counter won't be exactly the same, it is an unlooked-for pleasure to have old favorites, like the surviving Beatles, bringing back a bit of "back then."
Don't look for the lunch counter right way. It needs a lot of work. But the Woolworth's building itself is expected to open again in a couple of weeks. In its new life, it will be a variety store, Campbell Mart, an expansion of downtown's Style Plus clothing store that will carry clothing, jewelry, hair products, household goods and groceries in the new location.
If the new owners make a go of it, the enterprise should give a helpful boost to a part of downtown that has been slow to see any spin-off from the booming City Market. Woolworth's closing in 1993, after 90 years of doing business at the same location, left a big gap - physical and psychological - on Campbell Avenue.
It's time some of the bustle of the Market started easing on up the street.
Meanwhile, the good news for downtown, announced last week, is accompanied by more good news for the Market itself. Five-Boro Bagels, makers of the biggest and, to our taste, the best bagels in the Roanoke Valley at its shop on Electric Road in Roanoke County, is planning to open a second location, next door to Books Strings and Things.
It's regrettable that Martin Brothers Produce, which has had a warehouse at that location for more than half a century, is getting the boot. We hope it doesn't go far. The wholesalers' history is tied to the market's. And the market is a distinctly Roanoke commercial and entertainment hotspot because it remains, above all, a farmers market. That's why it warrants a spot on a list of 63 of America's Great Public Places.
Even so, the bagel shop will be a great addition to a growing variety of eating establishments on the market - amid what we hope will always be a thriving retail trade in fruits and vegetables; in a downtown where, especially outside the market area, every new tenant is welcome.
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB