The story below is from our January/February 2022 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Cast Plates & Pints is quickly becoming the new go-to spot for delicious food and drink, as well as a comfortable setting.
In the South Roanoke County area, when a new restaurant comes to town, folks get excited. There is chatter, and also a collective holding of our breath: Will the food be good? Will the atmosphere be fun? Will we be able to add it to our list of local dining go-to’s?
With Cast Plates & Pints, the answer is an enthusiastic yes.
Cast co-owner, Jeff Tate, grew up in the Northern Virginia area. After graduating high school, he spent a short time at Eastern Carolina University before deciding he’d rather be near his sister at Virginia Tech. Tate made the move to Blacksburg and took a job with Buffalo Wild Wings. He quickly fell in love with both Southwest Virginia and the restaurant life.
“I grew up in Buffalo Wild Wings,” says Tate, as he describes his 15-year stint with the company, working primarily as a regional manager.
After his time at Buffalo Wild Wings, Tate continued his restaurant trajectory with Awful Arthur’s. This is where he met Chris Dye, his now-operating partner at Cast, as well as two other men who would become silent partners in the new venture.
Dye has his own long-standing history in the restaurant world. The born-and-raised Cave Spring native began his career in the food industry while still in high school, working his way through the culinary ranks.
“I started by washing dishes and then moved to cooking and just fell in love with the whole deal, the whole restaurant lifestyle,” says Dye, describing a path that took him from Cave Spring to Nashville and back to the Roanoke Valley as executive chef at the now-closed Blue 5 Restaurant.
It was at Blue 5 where Dye developed an expertise in smoked foods. After winning barbecue competitions multiple years in a row and having increasing requests for his smoked meats, Dye saw an opportunity to do something new. He started his own food truck catering service, 2Dye4Que, which he still operates today.
What brought Cast Plates & Pints to fruition was a happy set of coincidences. Tate and Dye were both looking to expand into their own brick-and-mortar location. They also both wanted to open a restaurant in South Roanoke County if possible. This was the part of the Valley they’d committed to calling home. It was the community into which they wanted to invest.
Finding the perfect location for a new restaurant venture can be challenging. This was not the case for Cast’s owners. In fact, they found the location before they had decided on their concept. The corner spot in West Village Plaza on Electric Road was excellent. It’s only downside was having suffered a series of unsuccessful restaurant ventures over the years. While this may cause some restaurateurs pause, for Tate and Dye it was an easy sell. It was a central location in South County, as well as from each of the partners’ homes. They signed on the dotted line and immediately got to work, gutting the entire space and remodeling it from the ground up.
“We loved the location and we had the know-how for what we wanted to do,” explains Tate. “We just had to get the details together. And it’s a lot of details. A lot more than you’d think.”
“You know, something as simple as the name can incorporate into your whole concept, your whole idea,” adds Dye. “So you have to be really careful with wordage.”
Case in point. Tate and Dye say it took months of conversations to come up with their restaurant’s name. What they finally decided on is layered in complexity. “Cast” plays on the “cast of characters”—the owners and staff—who make Cast happen. It’s also a head nod to the restaurant’s Hollywood-themed decor.
Finally, there is the cooking reference to the cast iron skillet. The rest of the name took shape naturally around Cast’s food and drink menu, as well as the partners’ vision for the kind of place they wanted Cast to be.
“We wanted a place that serves good food, yet you can feel comfortable coming into it wearing whatever you want,” explains Tate.
This is Cast Plates & Pints in a nutshell. Since its opening in November 2020, Cast has become a regular part of my dining-out life. I have eaten at Cast in date night attire and my favorite comfy clothes. I’ve been there for evening celebration events and afternoon lunches with friends. During last fall’s football season while our boys were at their Thursday evening pre-game dinners, my husband and I often made Cast our own pre-game dinner tradition. Every time I eat at Cast, my affection only grows.
The atmosphere at Cast is fresh and modern, wide-open and yet somehow cozy, too. In many ways, their menu reflects the same. Dye explains his goal when developing Cast’s menu was to hit a lot of bases, creating a restaurant where one can come and get a filet or a Chicago dog, chicken tenders or shrimp and grits. At Cast the goal is to open up the options with both food and drink.
“[At Cast] you can have a craft cocktail and a burger,” says Dye.
Tate chimes in with a grin, “Or, you can have a Busch Light.”
What is most wonderful about Cast’s wide range of options is the quality of every Cast dish. From the salmon dip and tempura chicken tenders appetizers to the blackened chicken pasta salad and shrimp and grits main dishes, everything on the Cast menu has culinary shine to it.
This is all Dye’s doing. He is insistent that everything coming out of the Cast kitchen be made from scratch and fresh as possible. All the sauces and pasta are made in-house. Dye buys his produce daily from local sources. He procures his oysters from Hays, Virginia. All these details come together in the kitchen under Dye’s expert care. The result? An entire menu of satisfying choices.
In my early dining experiences at Cast I ordered from my “safe” list: steak tacos, the Original Cast burger, and the pulled pork sandwich; those foods I enjoy even if not prepared with a “five-star” kind of flair. Except at Cast, they are prepared this way. This has made branching out easy and helped me discover an ever-expanding list of favorites. When I’m looking for comfort food I order Cast’s fried green tomatoes or shrimp and grits, both made with pleasing warmth and a touch of kick. I choose their caprese flatbread, smoked salmon caprese, or ahi tuna tacos when I want lighter fare. And when I want an old favorite re-imagined, I order Cast’s blackened chicken pasta salad, a delightful blend of Cast’s homemade penne pasta, Green Goddess dressing, fresh veggies and pimento cheese.
Every time I eat at Cast, I leave content in every way, and already looking forward to the next time I might find my way back again.
“We just want to be in the conversation people are having when they’re talking about where to go eat,” says Tate. “I think we’ve achieved that, and we’re excited about it.”
3555 Electric Road, Roanoke, VA 24018
540-799-7200
castroanoke.com
For Reservations: opentable.com
Hours: Mon – Sun: 11AM – 12AM
The story above is from our January/February 2022. For more stories, subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!