ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 3, 1996 TAG: 9604030019
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
New River Valley restaurant customers will get a chance to taste Australian- style cuisine when an Outback Steakhouse opens in May across Peppers Ferry Road from the Lowe's home improvement center.
The restaurant will feature "high-quality uniquely seasoned steaks" along with a selection of Australian beers, appetizers and American food, said Kevin Rowell, Outback's Virginia joint venture operator. A spokeswoman at the company's corporate offices in Tampa, Fla., said Outback Steakhouses offer a casual dining atmosphere with Australian decor that includes surf boards, kangaroos, koalas and Crocodile Dundee posters. The restaurant chain is named for Australia's sparsely populated hinterlands.
David Clark, Rowell's local partner, said Outback Steakhouses in Roanoke and West Virginia have been doing brisk business.
"I think there's an untapped market for this type of restaurant in Christiansburg," said Clark, who has worked for Holiday Inn and Marriott restaurants in Blacksburg and Roanoke, as well as Bennigan's.
The U.S. 460-Peppers Ferry Road area has seen an explosion of restaurant growth this decade, from the usual fast-food operations to a host of family-style restaurants including Pargo's, the Texas Steak House, Ryan's Family Steak House and a Red Lobster under construction.
But Clark said he does not think the area around the New River Valley Mall is saturated with restaurants. "We feel like the more restaurants there are in the area, the better it is for everybody, because it draws people."
The restaurant will occupy 6,400 square feet and employ about 80 full- and part-time workers, Rowell said. It will seat up to 220 people.
Rowell, who operates several Outback Steakhouses in Virginia's Tidewater region, said the site was not his first choice. He would have preferred to open closer to the New River Valley Mall and the new Wal-Mart Supercenter, but a 1.7-acre site - the necessary size - was not available closer to the mall.
"It was really the only site there was," he said, adding that "the site sits up high enough so that you can see us from the mall."
The site is directly across Peppers Ferry Road from Lowe's and across Arbor Drive from State Electric. The restaurant is under construction.
Rowell said the fact that the area near Lowe's may see a construction boom because it is near the site of the proposed U.S. 460 bypass did not enter into his decision to build there. Indeed, officials with the Virginia Department of Transportation with whom he spoke cautioned him that the bypass is not guaranteed.
Montgomery County land records show Outback bought the site for $325,000 on March 4.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB