The story below is a preview from our May/June 2018 issue. For more, Subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition.
Photo By John Park
Experiencing the foods of the world can be timely and expensive. Fortunately for Roanokers, there’s Williamson Road.
In the Japanese language, the word dojo means: the place of the Way. Traditionally used to describe martial arts halls, dojo is now used to denote any place where learning and meditation occurs. For Toya Jones, dojo is her happy place.
Jones, a Southwest Virginia native, is no stranger to owning successful businesses. She had owned several by the time she decided to convert an old bus into a food truck and sell upscale grilled cheese sandwiches at local music festivals and craft breweries.
Jones thought she’d take The Dojo Grill Food Truck out once a week. “It would be my little side hustle,” she says, smiling and shaking her head at her own underestimating of the thing. Within three months of opening, Jones was inundated with bookings. Five to six days a week she had the truck out, oftentimes double-booked.
Jones loved taking her truck out, but her ultimate dream was to own a coffee shop. Spurred on by her food truck success, Jones began looking for a brick and mortar. She wanted a place where she could marry her comfort food sandwiches to her cozy idea for a coffee shop. She found a place on Williamson Road and opened in May 2017 (at time of press they have opened in a new location at the Taubman Museum of Art’s cafe space).
Besides coffee (sourced from Open Road Roastery in Draper, Virginia), Morning Brew Coffee Company offers in-house made sandwiches and soups from the Dojo Food Truck menu, wraps (breakfast and lunch style) and all-fruit smoothies. I’ve tried the California Wrap, and Apple & Cheddar Grilled Cheese (a Dojo Food Truck favorite). The wrap was full of fresh ingredients: turkey, hardwood smoked bacon, avocado and baby Swiss. The grilled cheese–hunks of melted cheddar, tart apple slices and thick hardwood bacon between fresh sourdough bread–hit all my comfort food trigger points. Jones says she spends lots of time experimenting with flavors for her sandwiches. Her efforts are paying off. Both sandwiches were a satisfying complement of flavors.
I also deeply appreciate Jones’ approach to smoothies—all fresh ingredients, no added sweeteners. I’ve had the Go Go Green Smoothie and loved it. As for coffee drinks, Morning Brew offers all the classics and one curve: the Vietnamese Coffee Drink, made with sweetened milk and chicory espresso, giving it a strong and earthy, New Orleans-style flavor. I like Morning Brew’s Mocha Latte. It’s smooth and rich, without masking the taste of fresh roasted coffee infused throughout. Like Dojo’s sandwiches, it is a beautiful combination of coffee and chocolate.
“People will eat our sandwiches and say, ‘Wow, this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten,’ and that amazes me,” says Jones. “It’s just bread, butter and cheese.”
Except it’s not. It’s dojo.
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