Cardinal News: Then & Now takes a look back at the stories we brought you over the last 12 months. Through the end of the year, we’re sharing updates on some of the people and issues that made news in 2025. This installment: an update on a project to convert a 200-year-old house to a coffee shop in Roanoke.
Renovations continue on a 200-year-old house that a couple in Roanoke plan to turn into a coffee shop that they’ll call Fishburn Perk. But progress slowed this year after the couple’s other business, Noke Van Co., burned down in a fire in April.
Keri VanBlaricom, owner of the coffee shop with her husband, Justin VanBlaricom, said in early December that the project is about 45% done, where she was looking to be about 80% done by this point in the year. Most of that progress has been on the exterior of the building, like completing the front porch, she said. She said she hopes the project will be complete by the end of 2026.
But she’s excited to get into the logistics of the coffee shop. She’s sketched with chalk on the floor where the barista counter will go, and what the layout of the main room will look like, and has photos saved on her phone of the types of seating she wants in each room. She’s starting to plan out a menu, including various coffees, pastries and potentially paninis, and what kinds of drinks she’s planning to offer…