Mac and Bob’s restaurant in Salem, which has had quite a trying year, is the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Year. It was honored Tuesday night during a ceremony that named nine winners in different categories, as well as the overall winner and the People’s Choice.
The People’s Choice Award ended in a tie between Downshift and One Earth Landscapes.
Since 1980, Mac and Bob’s has grown from 10 stools to 330 seats and 100 employees. The restaurant has its roots in Roanoke College’s salad days (so to speak) as a national lacrosse power (co-owner Bob Rotanz scored the winning goal in the national title game in the 1970s) and the owners have raised their families (quite literally) in the kitchen and dining room of the restaurant.
The restaurant—helped greatly by its customers—emerged from a bankruptcy triggered because the restaurant required tips to be shared throughout the staff (which they discovered is illegal). They lost in court, but came out of the bankruptcy stronger than ever, says Rotanz. Customers raised $147,000 for M&B’s defense.
Two-year-old Downshift—Handcrafted Bikes and Brews is basically a coffee shop, bar and bike shop on Campbell Avenue in Roanoke that opened two years ago and has seen solid success since.
One Earth Landscapes is a landscaping service begun in 1983. It handles residential and commercial landscaping.
The winners by category include:
Best New Small Business: Total You Health
Business-to-Business Services: B2C Enterprises
Business-to-Consumer Services: Mac and Bob’s Restaurant
Health & Wellness: Virginia Autism and Behavior Consulting
Legacy: Medaco Security Locks
Micro Business: Arara Language Solutions
Not-for-Profit Organization: Bradley Free Clinic
Tourism & Hospitality: Tour Roanoke
Wholesale/Retail: Fleet Feet Roanoke
About the Writer:
Dan Smith is an award-winning Roanoke-based writer/author/photographer and a member of the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame (Class of 2010). His blog, fromtheeditr.com, is widely read and he has authored seven books, including the novel CLOG! He is founding editor of a Roanoke-based business magazine and a former Virginia Small Business Journalist of the Year (2005).
