ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 13, 1996 TAG: 9608130050
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: reporter's notebook
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN
Friday was a big day at Stone's Cafeteria in Christiansburg, but you wouldn't have known it if you didn't pay close attention to the restaurant's outside sign.
The day marked 40 years in business for the family-run operation, a milestone many also may have been vaguely aware of if they glanced at their mugs while sipping their coffee and noticed the "since 1956" notation.
Otherwise, customers filed in and out during lunch Friday, selecting their entrees and side dishes, lingering at their table over lunch and leaving with no obvious fanfare accompanying the big day.
A mix of diners filled the dining rooms: friends and family, retired couples, blue collar workers, lawyers, County Treasurer Ellis Meredith and some of his staff.
Lawyer Christopher Tuck remembers his visits to Stone's that go back to adolescence: "I remember coming here for my sweetheart banquet about 13 years ago, and had a wonderful time."
For Denise Simpkins and her mother, Janet Mattox, coming to Stone's these days brings back memories of when the family first came to Montgomery County some 25 years ago to begin renovating a house in Riner. After a hard weekend of work on the house, the family would stop at Stone's before heading back to Richmond. That became their routine for two years.
Back then, it was one of the few restaurants in the area open on Sundays, they said.
"We love that butterscotch pie. Now I bring my [10-year-old] twins in here for the butterscotch pie. Craig likes it too. He's 7," said Simpkins, who once worked for the restaurant as a cook and at the food bar.
Her mother likes the pie too, but also raves on Stone's "excellent" coffee. Besides, Mattox likes the idea of supporting local businesses. "There's a lot to be said for patronizing local people," Mattox said, instead of chains. "They've taken so much from our little town, but they can't take Stone's."
Jerry Stone, who took over the restaurant from his father in 1970, attributes a lot of his success to good, home-cooked food that can't be beaten by the chains. And usually there's no long waiting line to be served, he said.
His customers may stray momentarily to check out the newest restaurant, but they always come back.
"They try those places. You can tell it for a while, when one opens up," Stone said. "They'll try it, but they'll come back and most of them say they won't go back" to the other restaurants.
Stone admits to being somewhat surprised that his business is actually up in the last year, despite the opening of Red Lobster and several other restaurants in the New River Valley Mall area.
He estimates there are about 50 restaurants in a three- to four-mile radius from his business.
"It's just unbelievable the competition we've got."
Much of his clientele are local people, retirees who have made a habit of Stone's, which opens for breakfast at 6 a.m. and closes at 7:30 p.m. People who were Virginia Tech students in the 1960s, running in for a doughnut and coffee to go, are now regulars in the lunch and dinner serving lines.
It's not just customers that remain loyal to Stone's: its employees do, too.
Jackie Spangler, the restaurant's evening manager, started at the restaurant when he was about 12 years old, Stone said, leaving only to join the Army and to briefly open a drive-in restaurant of his own. Spangler is now 50. Longtime employee Ora Linkous still works some hours at the restaurant and she's 78 years old. Wilda Dickerson has been with the business for about 25 years.
Stone started working with his dad at the restaurant when he was 17. Son Chris, 28, still works at the restaurant, while Jay, 32, left three years ago to join the Richard Childress Racing Team.
While there was no hoopla surrounding the milestone, Stone said he may plan some specials for later this month. Other than that, he said, it's just "business as usual."
LENGTH: Medium: 76 linesby CNB