In our monthly Corner Booth food column, we feature restaurant openings, closings, changes, a first-impression review and more.
Welcome to our food column, Corner Booth, where each month Layla Khoury-Hanold will guide us through what’s happening in Roanoke’s food scene. We’ll feature restaurant openings and closings, changes in cuisine concepts or locations, a first-impression review of a new eatery, and our Ask Layla section, where Rambler members can get their burning questions answered on the best places to eat or drink for any occasion. Simply leave a comment with your question or email us at [email protected]. Enjoy! 😋
Henrietta’s Cafe Now Open in Melrose Plaza
Henrietta’s Cafe, a counter-service eatery inside Melrose Plaza, is now open at 2502 Melrose Avenue NW, Roanoke. Here you’ll find a selection of grab-and-go sandwiches, salads, drinks, and desserts, as well as meal combos from the hot line ($4.99 to $7.99), including fried chicken, baked chicken, beef ribs, pulled pork and hot dogs, as well as sides such as macaroni and cheese, braised mixed greens, green beans, mashed potatoes and coleslaw. Henrietta’s is an extension of Market on Melrose and part of the Melrose Plaza development project, which also includes The Excel Center (Virginia’s first adult high school), Wellness on Melrose and a Bank of Botetourt branch, and aims to address food insecurity and health disparities in the Northwest community. There was a grand opening held for the plaza last Thursday. The cafe is named for Henrietta Lacks, the Roanoke native whose cancer cells were used for successful research and created a line that is still being used today. The Henrietta Lacks Plaza outside the Noel C. Taylor Municipal Building includes a statue of her.
“What Henrietta’s hopes to do is, first of all, provide fresh, healthy food options, hot food options, grab-and-go for people in the community, students that are attending Excel — it’s a place they can come and gather,” says Mindy Boyd, chief operating officer of Goodwill Industries of the Valleys, the operations arm of Melrose Plaza. Henrietta’s will also serve as a food education hub: “We’ll have cooking classes; we’ll teach people how to eat better, cook better, and use fresh produce in their cooking,” Boyd says. The cafe will also partner with the Wellness on Melrose to offer a market kiosk with shopping options, recipes and coupons. “It’ll really tie it all together on how you shop for food, how you cook it and how you change your health through food,” she says.
Chris’s Coffee & Custard Relocating to Historic Starkey School Building
Chris’s Coffee & Custard — a cafe that serves coffee, frozen custard and light fare and gives employment opportunities for young adults with special needs — will close its current location in Southeast at the end of August…