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That was the general perspective of Dave and Ann Trinkle 13 years ago when they bought a South Roanoke property and its adjoining carriage house.
John Park
Most people, when they purchase a restaurant property, have plans of opening a restaurant. They are either chefs, or business folks with a food background, or food lovers longing to gift the masses with their foodie affections. Bottom line: They are restaurateurs and restaurants are their thing.
Not so with native Roanokers Dave and Ann Trinkle. Dave is a medical doctor specializing in geriatric psychiatry. Ann is an artist with a master’s degree in sculpture. They dated in college, married after medical school and moved away from Roanoke. When, in 1993, they moved back home, Dave became the director for Carilion’s Center for Healthy Aging. Ann was busy being a new mom. At no time did restaurant ownership occupy their minds.
Then Dave started admiring a run-down carriage house in the alley outside his office window that was part of a larger property including a stately white home being rented as a restaurant. Every day the property’s owner, an older, well-to-do gentleman, would be outside tending to the white house and its surrounding grounds, leaving the old carriage house—a tree growing through its roof—to its demise. But it was the carriage house Dave liked most. He imagined it as a community gathering place, much like the English pubs he and Ann frequented while living in England during part of Dave’s residency.
“It’s the bar masters who can tell when their seniors are in trouble, because they stop coming to the pub,” explains Dave of his attraction to the pub concept. For months, Dave would go and pester the owner about the carriage house, trying to convince him to do something with the place rather than focus only on the white house that struggled to keep a long-term restaurant in it. Finally, one day, the man looked at Dave and said, “If you have all the right ideas, you should just buy the property.” So, they did.
But it wasn’t that easy. To begin with, Ann was unaware her husband was having these alleyway conversations, and Dave was unaware of his own serious interest in purchasing the property until he started explaining his idea to Ann. Dave approached the purchase as an investment property. Ann, who’d worked for years as a waitress, was skeptical.
“I thought he was crazy,” she says laughing at a conversation that—13 years ago—was anything but funny.
It took a year to renovate the carriage house. When it was ready, no one rented it. People couldn’t envision the place the way Dave could. After months of sitting vacant, it became clear to the Trinkles they would become more than landlords. They would become restaurant owners.
“We were lucky,” says Dave when describing their efforts to get Fork in the Alley off the ground. “We hired [Sam Eakin] who had owned a successful restaurant in the Market Building, and could see the cozy community pub vision I had for the carriage house.” Though Eakin had left the restaurant world to become a farmer, he told the Trinkles he’d give them six months. He stayed two and a half years.
Eakin helped the Trinkles establish their personal restaurant ownership approach: hands off. “We know enough about restaurants to be dangerous,” jokes Ann.
Dave laughs and adds specifics to Ann’s truth-telling.
“We know enough to make the big decisions, but not day to day. The key for us is to hire the right managers. Then they do all the hiring and firing.”
Eakin also set the menu, decided on the wood-fire grill, hired the first round of staff and helped make one of the most critical decisions to Fork in the Alley’s success: the addition of the outdoor patio.
“We had no intentions of building a patio,” says Dave. “It was a completely random conversation with the builder.”
Thank goodness for Sam Eakin and random conversations. The patio is what makes Fork in the Alley, well, Fork in the Alley: a true embodiment of the Trinkles’ community vision. This, along with their wood-fired brick oven and jazzed up pub fare, give Fork in the Alley its distinct identity amongst Roanoke’s restaurants.
Fork in the Alley is eclectic in their offerings. Their pizzas are great—wood fired, not greasy, allowing the topping flavors to shine. Their burgers and dogs menu is fun. You can choose from one of their specialties or build your own, selecting from the substantial list of condiments and toppings running along the menu’s side. Their salads are especially nice; chocked full of fresh, healthy ingredients and not just a pile of greens. The Mediterranean and SoCal are especially tasty. I usually pair them with the house made balsamic or avocado lime vinaigrette.
Dave says even in their menu they pay tribute to Roanoke’s historic South Roanoke community: the Lipes Burger is named after the old Lipes pharmacy where Dave and Ann grew up eating burgers topped with the same Tinnell’s pimento cheese they use in the restaurant today. Betty’s Skettie is Dave’s mother’s recipe. And The McClanahan is named after McClanahan Street—pretty straightforward.
Since opening FITA in 2005, the Trinkles have expanded to the Market Building (Fork in the Market), and Roanoke’s food truck scene (Fork in the Road). This spring they opened a free-standing covered bar in the front yard space of Fork in the Alley that offers a menu of small plates Dave describes as Argentinian goucho grill (literally: cowboy grill) foods—veggies, meats, breads and cheeses.
Surely by now the Trinkles realize the restaurant business is their thing, after all.
Monday - Thursday: 11am - 10pm
Friday - Saturday: 11am - 1am
Sunday: 11am - 9pm
2123 Crystal Spring Avenue, Roanoke
540-982 - 3675; forkinthealley.rocks
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