The story below is from our March/April 2019 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Photos By John Park
Brunch at Hotel Roanoke’s Regency Room is full of options, and serving some patrons for over 40 years now.
When New York City chef Stephen DeMarco was approached by Hilton Hotels to consider the executive chef position at its premier hotel in Roanoke, Virginia, his exact response was, “Who? Where?”
Five years later, Chef DeMarco can’t imagine living anywhere else.
DeMarco has been in the restaurant business since he was 14 years old. The 50-year old chef started as a dishwasher at his family’s country club in Florida. DeMarco fell in love with the kitchen. But he never considered becoming a chef until—at the age of 22—an executive chef he was working for suggested it to him.
“He pulled me aside and told me, ‘You know, you should really be doing something. Go to school, become a chef,’” says DeMarco. “He told me about his alma mater, Johnson & Wales in Rhode Island. The next year, I was in culinary school at Johnson & Wales in Rhode Island.”
DeMarco’s first job after culinary school was with the Hilton Corporation at their four-star hotel in Short Hills, New Jersey. He was the patio chef. He laughs as he recounts his humble beginnings flipping burgers poolside. But he’s thankful for those humble beginnings. Over his 30-year career, DeMarco has worked in some of Manhattan’s top eating haunts: Capital Grille, Asia de Cuba and with Todd English at Olives. When he received the call from Hilton concerning the executive chef position at Hotel Roanoke, he’d been quietly thinking it was time for a change.
“I came down here to interview and immediately fell in love,” says DeMarco, citing the beauty of Roanoke’s landscape as well as its people.
DeMarco is passionate in his stewardship of “The Grand Old Lady.” While he admits he knew next to nothing of Hotel Roanoke’s venerable history, he quickly embraced this place where generations of Roanokers have unequivocally linked their story to her own.
As such, DeMarco recognizes his responsibility to feed all Hotel Roanoke’s diners well: whether it’s the third-generation housekeeping employee, the one-time international traveler or the Roanoke family who’s been frequenting Regency Room’s Sunday brunch for the past 40 years.
Ah, the Regency Room brunch; recently named a Top 100 Brunch Restaurant across America by Open Table. Since 1939, the Regency Room has been opening its doors, welcoming guests with her elegant and revered Southern hospitality. Every Sunday, DeMarco and his brunch team of 11 to 15 prepare and serve between 60 to 70 menu items. DeMarco creates a new menu every week, working around his benchmark items; those foods iconic to Hotel Roanoke.
“Every week we have peanut soup, bread pudding and spoon bread,” says DeMarco. “And every week we have our stations: omelets, strip steak carving station, pastries, oatmeal, salmon and desserts.”
Each station is carefully placed throughout the main dining room and on gorgeous display. Then there is an additional room in back where hot lunch entrées can be found.
On my last visit to the Regency Room for brunch, I overheard a Sunday brunch first-timer declare to her husband, “I’ve died and gone to heaven.” An apt declaration when approaching the sheer abundance of Regency Room’s Sunday brunch. It’s enough to make one dizzy deciding where to start.
For me, a Regency Room brunch must begin with their in-house smoked salmon topped with capers and red onions, and a cup of peanut soup. I love the Regency Room’s way with smoked salmon: served in chunks rather than thin-sliced. DeMarco says they’ve been smoking their own salmon for at least 15 years now. It is–by far–one of the Regency Room’s most popular items.
As for peanut soup, my fascination is two-fold: it’s found only at the Regency Room, and I feel like a kid when I’m eating it, slurping peanut butter with a spoon.
For round two, I head to the center station for quiche, bacon and whatever pastry is calling my name (small pastry, mind you, it’s only round two). I also pour myself oatmeal and smother it with all the toppings. Then it’s back to the salmon station for anti-pasta salad (wonderful!) or some other Mediterranean-inspired dish. Or, maybe to the back for a lunch entrée; something southern-inspired with a Chef DeMarco twist to it.
Sometimes I make it to dessert. Oftentimes I don’t. The struggle is real. My husband begins at the omelet station, then heads over to the carving station. My kids start with pastries, move on to waffles, back to pastries and end with cheesecake (except my oldest, who manages an omelet or two).
No matter how you approach Regency Room’s brunch, you’ll never exhaust your options. Good thing Chef DeMarco and the Grand Old Lady are both relentless in their commitment to Roanoke.
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