THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 27, 1996 TAG: 9606250117
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: On The Town
SOURCE: Sam Martinette
LENGTH: 82 lines
Tim Batterson figures it's just a matter of time before Colley Avenue becomes the Main Street of Old Dominion University.
That's one of the reasons he and his wife, Mary, are moving Batterson's Restaurant & Pub to the old Coach House location.
Not that he's giving up on the building on Hampton Boulevard his restaurant has occupied since 1990. The restaurant has a long history of serving college students. I heard my first Bob Dylan tune there 1965, when it was Ward's Coffee Shop.
Prior to being Batterson's it was the Class Room and Acey's. When the move is completed - he hopes by mid-July - plans call for the old location to reopen as a burger and beer bar for college kids.
``Old Dominion is eventually going to take this over, and even though we've got time left on our lease, it's time to move.'' Batterson said. ``The Coach House was open, so we've gone in and are basically rebuilding the whole place.''
The Coach House was a Colley landmark for years until it changed hands, then names. The last restaurant closed a couple of years ago. Then the building served as a tackle shop and a home-health-care business. Now the Battersons are building a horseshoe bar, putting booths along the walls and transferring their menu and their customers, they hope, to the new location.
``It won't look anything like the old Coach House,'' Tim Batterson said. ``We're going to build the booths so that everybody will be able to see the fireplace. We'll eventually go outside with a patio, and Monday nights we'll be outside grilling steaks.''
He's referring to the Monday night steak special, when Batterson himself carves New York strip steaks to order, at 50 cents an ounce. He says he'll buy the meal for anyone who can eat a 46-ounce cut with all the accouterments (salad, baked potato and so forth) in less than an hour. So far he has had to pay up once, to an ODU baseball player who finished just two minutes under the wire. Steak accounts for 90 percent of the business on Monday nights, he said.
The move to Colley puts the Battersons closer to home. They live two blocks away from the new location, and their two kids go to Larchmont Elementary. Tim, 42, has spent much of his life within the area.
``I started working at the B&R Railroad (where Burger King is now) in 1974, and Mary and I met when we were working at Friar Tuck's.''
Later he moved to Il Porto and Phillips' Seafood Restaurant at the Waterside, then managed a resort property in Florida, he said.
He credits the demise of the Old Coach House with helping to build his clientele during the early years of Batterson's.
``A sizable portion of the people who used to go to the Coach House came here, and a lot went to O'Sullivan's,'' he said. ``The only problem I see at the new location is the walk-in trade we get here on Hampton Boulevard. It's a nice little walk from ODU to Colley Avenue, especially in the wintertime.''
The clientele Batterson hopes will follow him includes everyone from professors and grad students to young professionals he grew up with. After 10 p.m. the younger college students come in for live acoustic or rock music.
As for the menu, I'd suggest a Bat Burger - a half-pound of beef with fries or onion rings ($4.25), or a slab of ribs.
``I smoke my own pork and ribs, then chop the pork for barbecue,'' he explained. ``We also make our own barbecue and steak sauce.''
When the ribs are a special, you get a half-slab for $4.95 and a whole slab for $10.50. Regular entrees include a broiled eight-ounce chicken breast ($9.50); an eight-ounce New York strip ($7.95) and a 14-ounce New York strip ($13.95). All come with salad and fries or baked potato.
There are soups and salads, including Gwen's Texas Chili, and sandwiches, including a BLT ($3.25); club ($4.65); Reuben ($5.45); a fried ($4.25) or broiled chicken sandwich ($5.45), and a steak sandwich with fries ($6.50).
Batterson said he plans no big changes to the menu after the move until next fall, when he'll introduce seafood, pasta dishes and prime rib. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by SAM MARTINETTE
Tim and Mary Batterson hope their old clientele will follow them to
their new location on Colley Avenue. They plan to reopen their old
location as a burger and beer bar for college kids.
AT A GLANCE
Batterson's Restaurant & Pub: 4814 Hampton Blvd., 440-1901.
Food: steaks, ribs, sandwiches and salads, full ABC.
Open: Lunch and dinner, Monday through Friday; open at 5 p.m. on
Saturday and Sunday.
Prices: entrees and specials, $4.95 to $13.95; most sandwiches in
the $4 to $6 range. by CNB