ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 13, 1996 TAG: 9607150122
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SERIES: This is one of an occasional series on the restaurant business in the
New River Valley.
SOURCE: JOANNE ANDERSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
There are places that have a certain "feel" to them. Backstreets Restaurant, just up from the center of downtown Blacksburg, has a distinctively "neighborhood" feel.
The dark green, natural pine and lattice interior exudes a sense of coziness, while the garden room is flooded with natural light and filled with plants.
The staff is friendly, and the food is very good. So good that owner Steve Andrews is planning to serve more of it to more people in a two-story expansion that will feature rooftop terrace dining.
The addition also will include enlarging and renovating the kitchen. "We're moving with caution," Andrews said.
"Previous expansions were related to our pizza delivery; now we're focusing on the restaurant and staying in one location."
When the addition is completed by the end of 1997, close to 100 more seats will be added to the 82 seats now in the dining room and garden room. .
The first Backstreets opened in 1984 and was so named because of its location in the back of a building on a back street. A year later it moved to its present building at 207 S. Main St.
Andrews bought the building in 1991 and undertook a major renovation that introduced the "Italian garden atmosphere." Walls are simply decorated with a few Italian molds, tomatoes in a basket, grape clusters, a wine bottle and Italian theme prints.
Their pizzas are still popular, but lunch and dinner dining includes appetizers, specialty subs, pasta and Italian entrees and homemade desserts. The pizza business and the menu business each account for about 50 percent of sales.
The on-going popularity of bread is evident on the appetizer list. Freshly baked focaccia - an Italian flat bread - is available, along with garlic bread, homemade breadsticks and fontina bread.
Antipasto, steamed mussels and spinach and artichoke dip with Italian bread can also whet the appetite.
According to Andrews an appetizer, soup and salad makes a meal for many.
There's always a soup du jour, and your salad can be Greek, Caesar, garden deluxe, chef or veggie lover's variety.
Specialty subs include a Venetian with sliced grilled chicken, roasted red peppers, melted Asiago cheese on baked focaccia, and a Mediterranean with herb cheese, roasted red peppers, tomato slices, olives and lettuce also on focaccia.
The predictable - lasagna, manicotti, chicken parmagiana - can be ordered. The adventurous can partake of Tuscan shrimp, chicken and mushroom risotto or one of two Tastes of Italy entrees. Both include fettucine Alfredo. One is a chicken and Tuscan shrimp combination plate; the other offers shrimp marinara and Greek spaghetti.
"All the desserts, except the cannoli, are made here," Andrews said. The most popular is tiramisu - espresso-soaked ladyfingers and mascarpone cheese, dusted with cocoa and served on a cream base. The cheesecake of the day "varies according to the whims of the cheesecake chef."
Andrews and his managers, general manager Eric Sturm and assistant managers Wesley Best and Nancy Henshel, order wine from a specialty wine supplier, so interesting wines and microbrew beers are often featured as specials. The standard wine list includes seven white and red wines, along with three types of chianti.
Anyone who knows anything about the restaurant business understands that turnover is a constant challenge. It's a credit to Andrews that employees like Sturm and Rusty Riley have worked for him nine and a half and 10 and a half years respectively.
Andrews is proud of the warmth dining guests find at Backstreets. "We hired local architect Thomas Koontz because we want to maintain that welcome feeling in the new entry."
He also wanted to be sure that the architectural style of the present building would be fully integrated into the new part.
Andrews is right at home on his corner at Washington and Main streets.
A Blacksburg native and Virginia Tech graduate, he used to ride the Huckleberry Train where it crossed Main Street just a few feet from Backstreets.
After college, Andrews worked for a study abroad program for four years. He met Virginia-native Marcia Stirewalt in England in 1973. They dated for a while, then went their separate ways. Fourteen years passed during which neither married. They reconnected at a little reunion in 1990 and tied the knot five months later.
"Marcia will be doing some marketing and public relations work when the restaurant expands," Andrews said.
As such she'll probably be reading the comment cards along with everyone else on the staff. "We take the comments seriously, scrutinizing every one," Andrews said.
That, along with his hands-on management style and some fine Italian food, contributes to the success and impending expansion of Backstreets, no longer on a back street.
Backstreets Restaurant
207 S. Main St.
Blacksburg
552-6712
Hours: Sunday to Monday 11 a.m.-11 p.m.
Tuesday to Saturday 11 a.m.-midnight
Pizza: $4.99-12.99; Subs: $3.95-7.45
Dinners: $6.45-11.45
Specialties: Tuscan shrimp, chicken marsala, tiramisu dessert
Beverages: beer and wine
Credit cards: MasterCard, VISA, American Express, Discover
No smoking section
Reservations not necessary
Handicapped accessible
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Backstreets owner Steve Andrews is planning a two-storyby CNBexpansion that will feature rooftop terrace dining.