Billy's is Back - and Worth a Visit!
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David Hungate
Billy's cowboy bone-in ribeye
The cowboy bone-in ribeye comes with grilled asparagus and roasted garlic potatoes.
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David Hungate
Grilled oysters at Billy's
Mmmm, the grilled oysters are ready.
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David Hungate
Billy's in Downtown Roanoke
The corner that hosted the start of the downtown Roanoke dining renaissance more than 30 years ago is again home to a restaurant.
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David Hungate
Billy's cowboy bone-in ribeye
The cowboy bone-in ribeye comes with grilled asparagus and roasted garlic potatoes.
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David Hungate
Part of Billy's wine selection
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David Hungate
Billy's inviting outdoor courtyard.
The courtyard at Billy’s features a fire pit.
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David Hungate
Doughnuts at Billy's
The small, rounded “doughnuts” arrive with chocolate and fruit dipping sauces.
The new incarnation of the venerable downtown spot has both a feel of the old place as well as a flavor of its own.
Going to a restaurant is more than the sum of its parts. It’s always about the food, the service and the atmosphere, but there’s another layer of the experience that’s tougher to quantify, and that’s the restaurant’s sense of place. Not just the building or the décor, though these are important. But the way all of these elements blend with the location to give diners a sensation that they wouldn’t feel in any other place on earth. This can wind up being a bad thing, say in a restaurant with good food and service, but a big window looking out over an industrial park.
On the other hand, take Billy’s, which opened up this June in the old Billy’s Ritz location on the corner of Salem and Market Street in Downtown Roanoke. Looking through the floor-to-ceiling windows, there are great views of the Market Building, the railroad tracks, and a sliver of the Hotel Roanoke, and it’s hard to think of a vantage point that shouts “You are in Roanoke” any louder.
Like a lot of things in Roanoke, Billy’s is an interesting mix of upscale and casual. The infrastructure is gorgeous, with plenty of dark wood, great historic architectural features, and ultra-modernized restrooms, but the tables and chairs in the dining room seem designed almost to pass below the radar. This could be a move calculated to prevent the furniture from districting diners from the food.
We met in the bar – I had dropped my wife and gone to park the car around the corner – and by the time I got there, she had a glass of pinot grigio and was enjoying the show. As the sunset illuminated tourists with badges from the Taubman Museum bustling past on their way to the bridge over the railroad tracks, and myriad other folks heading to and from various downtown entertainments, she perched on a barstool taking it all in.
“This is my new favorite spot for people watching,” she said. I mentioned something complimentary about the décor, and she agreed, but crooked a thumb back over her shoulder and said, “Yeah, but it can’t be that fancy. They’ve got SportsCenter on the TV.” Again, that mix…
Judging from the arthouse glass, the gorgeous dark wood trim, and the huge mirrors along the wall, it would be easy to assume that you needed to brace yourself for a mercilessly upscale menu, but Billy’s food and prices manage to be upscale without going off the scale. For example, the appetizer menu has some ambitious items like grilled oysters on the half-shell and ahi tuna in a seaweed salad, but there are also more down-to-earth offerings like mac and cheese with country ham, nachos, and grilled chicken wings dressed one of five ways. Regular readers may already know that I went for the wings. I’m aware that I have a problem. Though the fig balsamic flavor sounded intriguing, I instead opted for the Jamaican jerk, and it’s hard to feel any regret on that score. Sweet and spicy without being overwhelming, the flavorings really allowed the char-flavor of the chicken to emerge. My wife was slightly less impressed than I was, but she conceded that this was simply because they weren’t hot enough to eat through metal.
“But I recognize that some people are not into pain,” she said, “so this is probably pretty good.”
Notwithstanding this slight imperfection, we both really enjoyed the grilled oysters, topped with garlic butter and bread crumbs with parmesan. They were creamy and tender in texture, not cooked so much as to make them rubbery and prevent their flavor from being strong enough to stand up to the seasonings. I normally like oysters breaded in something really unhealthy and deep-fried in something worse, but these ones could make me a convert.
As we waited for dinner, we decided to saunter back up the upscale scale, and ordered a couple of old-school cocktails. She went classic, opting for a dry martini, but I was intrigued by the Whiskey Smash on the drink menu. Much like chicken wings, I’m a well-known sucker for bourbon and rosemary, and this one had them both, along with bitters, soda water and a dash of lemon juice. It put me somewhat in mind of a mint julep; though much less sweet, it still had that refreshing summer cocktail vibe.
My wife ordered the Cowboy Ribeye, served bone-in and seared slightly, at a perfect medium rare. Since it was a full 16 ounces, I helped myself to around six of them. But then when I left to go to the restroom, she stole four of them back. I had decided to try one of the daily specials, a pair of flounder filets, served over pasta with fresh spinach and a tomato, almond, garlic and parmesan cheese sauce. The flounder was firm and flavorful, and the portion was a lot bigger than I really needed, though I can’t recall complaining about it at the time. We had just started thinking about dessert, when our waitress stormed up to our table, carrying a brown paper bag and an aura of unbridled enthusiasm.
She shook up the bag, opened it under my nose with a flourish, and demanded, “Smell my bag!”
I took a whiff, and it was like my nose had died and gone to the nicest Krispy Kreme in the world. This was one of their most popular dessert items, turns out. She called them doughnuts, but they were more like beignets – round, and served with powdered sugar and chocolate or fruit sauces for dipping. This girl has a future in pastry sales. The next order to come from the kitchen came to us, and they were fantastic. As I ate each one, I was performing mental calculus about how much extra time at the gym it was costing me, and I just couldn’t make myself care.
While I’m talking about our waitress, she was friendly, efficient and hospitable, even in the face of large parties (the table next to ours was occupied by eight delightfully manic ladies exchanging gifts, gossip and pink champagne). She was also thoroughly knowledgeable about the menu and food in general. If the rest of the staff follows her style, there are a lot of restaurants in town that should be jealous.
After dinner, we decided to wander around the restaurant a bit to check out the décor, and were surprised to see another cozy bar hidden around a corner. In a warm room with rich colors, this area had an intimate pubby feel. Our waitress told us this was the “rum bar,” but there were plenty of other libations on display as well.
We barely had time to take this spot in when the Ron Popeil voice in my head (he’s always there) whispered, “But wait, there’s more!” As usual, he was right, and through a set of double doors, was a third bar! As we walked in, it took me a moment of looking around the random layout of couches, tables and a big gas fire pit to realize that we were actually walking out. Tucked in between Billy’s and the adjacent buildings is a sky-clad courtyard with a poured concrete bar in one corner and a crowd of revelers enjoying drinks and a taste of outside.
“This place is a one-stop pub crawl,” my wife said.
I had a chance to sit down with general manager Colin Jones to talk about the menu, the name, and his experience opening a restaurant with his “mentor” Roger Neel, who also owns Roanoke eateries Corned Beef and Co. and 419 West. Jones focused a great deal on his relief that the restaurant is finally open and starting to settle in to a routine, saying several times that one of his biggest goals is consistency.
Jones describes the challenges of doing business in such a venerable location; the building dates back to 1912, and Billy’s Ritz did business there for nearly three decades. He notes that there was an obvious temptation to resurrect some of the old restaurant’s signature dishes.
“They had a chicken teriyaki dish that I hear about often that they did really well, they had a ratatouille that was amazing.” However, in the end the team decided that they were already living under the shadow of a long-standing, popular restaurant, and to try to fill the old guard’s shoes would invite inevitable comparisons.
Moreover, Jones says, the decision to go with all original items gives executive chef Eric Martines more of a free rein to innovate. Fresh from a stint working in oceanfront restaurants in the Carolinas, he has a penchant for great seafood, and Jones says he aspires to make Billy’s known as a Roanoke destination for fresh seafood. The flounder dish I sampled during my visit was certainly not out of line with this goal.
As they move forward, Billy’s could probably do pretty good business simply trading on the nostalgia for Billy’s Ritz and on the restaurant’s prime location. However, Jones and his colleagues seem committed to rising to the level of their surroundings and matching the dining experience with their location. The last incarnation lasted 27 years, and if the new one can live up to its goals, there’s no reason it couldn’t match that milestone.
Billy’s
102 Market St.
Downtown Roanoke
540-206-3353
billysroanoke.com
David Hungate