The story below is a preview from our May/June 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Food Hut is equal parts brunch destination, entrepreneurial incubator and community gathering place.
Courtesy Food Hut
Breakfast Tacos featuring buttermilk pancakes, American cheese, sweet tea fried chicken, bacon and a runny egg.
Layla Khoury-Hanold
Food Hut serves a menu of elevated comfort food from a cheery walk-up window next to Golden Cactus Brewing.
When I moved to Roanoke, I thought I’d left my waiting-in-line-for-brunch days in New York. But I’d gladly wait all day, rain or shine for Food Hut’s chicken and waffles or the killer Cubano, with Yard Bull Meats’ Tasso ham, citrus slow roasted Cuban pork, and Swiss piled onto Cuban bread imported from Miami and pressed to perfection.
In addition to Food Hut’s curated menu, which founder Patrick Riley describes as “sneaky elevated comfort food,” it’s Riley’s community-centric approach and his team’s penchant for creative collaboration and entrepreneurial spirit that’s helping create a new kind of community gathering place in downtown Roanoke.
“Roanoke is such a perfect place for entrepreneurs, everything from food to artists and merchants. So much independent, really cool stuff is happening,” Riley says. “One thing we’ve really tried to focus on at Food Hut is being a gathering place for that. To become a third space for the community; a true, safe, reliable gathering place for friends and colleagues and the community of Roanoke.”
Riley originally hails from Chicago and honed his cooking chops in fine dining restaurants there. In 2018, when he and his wife were seeking a lifestyle change and hoping to start a family, the couple moved to Roanoke. While Riley always planned to open a restaurant of his own, he first worked as the head chef at Heliotrope Brewery in nearby Lexington. But when Riley and his wife welcomed a child in 2020, the hour-and-a-half round-trip commute no longer made sense.
Nicole Salzbach
The Food Hut crew, left to right, Atticus Wooden, Lucas Bergmann, Bryan Walsh, Patrick Riley, Lexa Nava, Eden Martin.
Shortly after, the pandemic forced restaurants to shut down. Riley took his time, scouting around for the right spot in Roanoke to open his own eatery, somewhere he could envision cooking approachable food, with a community-focused vibe and potential for collaboration. When the space next door to Golden Cactus Brewing became available in winter/spring 2021—a nondescript walk-up window and a small kitchen, with ample outdoor seating and a built-in, craft-beer loving customer base—he knew he’d found it.
Courtesy Food Hut
Food Hut's signature chicken & waffles, donuts and French toast sticks make for a winning brunch combo.
In the winter/spring 2022, Food Hut started with pop-ups in collaboration with local butcher shop Yard Bull Meats, then fully launched in July 2022. As Food Hut has grown, collaborations remain a major focus. During winter, Saturday brunch featured Bread Run Roanoke, which included a pastry pop-up from baker-owner Julie Casey as well as menu specials incorporating her baked goods, such as French toast sticks made with challah and a berry parfait with house made granola (fret not, her challah French toast and Basque chai cheesecake will remain Food Hut menu mainstays). Sundays regularly feature coffee and donuts, with Roasters Next Door coffee and donuts by RND-co-owner and chef Quincy Randolph. Over the last several months, this pop-up has given Randolph a chance to pilot flavors, such as white chocolate with potato chips or cinnamon-espresso sugar, and finetune the donut recipe, which he’s now added to the menu rotation at RND’s Vinton location.
Want to learn more about Food Hut and their collaborations with other local restaurants? Check out the latest issue, now on newsstands, or see it for free in our digital guide linked below!
The story above is a preview from our May/June 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!