FRONTReviews > Readers and patrons of the business journal are invited to submit reviews (along with an optional photo) to news@vbFRONT.com. We’ve expanded our reviews to include books, music, art, performances, culinary—with a preference for local productions. Reviews must be original, include the author’s name and location, and should be brief, under 350 words.
Tasty, inside Food Fanatics Kitchen just off the west side of downtown Roanoke (near the Jefferson Center) is a good choice for a number of reasons—a primary one is if you’re just not sure what you want for lunch or dinner, or your guests can’t make up their minds. FFK offers a delightful menu. Artisan-like appetizers; well diversified salads; soups; burgers and sandwiches; a limited but decent pasta selection; grilled entrees from all four (beef, fowl, seafood, vegetable) sources, and then—their brick oven pizza specialties. Pizzas here deserve a special callout: they’re super fresh, perfectly thin-crusted, and so versatile. Though FFK gives you complete freedom to design your own, I recommend picking a combination they have already crafted… I am certain someone took great care in all the pairings. I have to add, the pizzas are not large; but they do satisfy, and you probably won’t be carrying home leftovers. If there is anything that would take part of a star off a review, it’s the name (and that doesn’t really count… but really? I don’t think anyone I’ve met cares for that rather strange moniker, even if the intent is just to be obvious)—and on occasion, the neighborhood itself. Sitting outside is usually a treat, but we’ve experienced loud vehicles, music not of our selection for dining, and on one visit, a domestic dispute that brought
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out the cops. That said, the cuisine—as well as the impeccable service—is too good to miss. My various parties and I will all be back for more FFK. —Tom Field
Planted This is Where You Belong: Finding Home Wherever You Are by local author Melody Warnick (Penguin; 2017) hit me hard as I’ve always searched for the place where I feel most at home. It turns out there are some very practical steps you can take to become rooted into the community where you live. With chapters like: Lace Up Your Sneakers, Buy Local, Say Hi to Your Neighbor, and Create Something, you will learn from Melody’s voyage from Texas to Blacksburg, VA (nonetheless). It’s such a great read that even I, being a native of Roanoke City, enjoyed every chapter as we try to establish roots in Salem since we moved back here from Atlanta and Asheville 8 years ago. —Kris Cone
Off to a good start Golden Cactus Brewing in Roanoke launched recently inside a renovated industrial building at what has been dubbed the West End part of downtown. The airy, brightly colored building with
