Rolling through Roanoke

Listening to bluegrass at Elmwood Park

If you start early enough, you can drive out of Tennessee to the northeast and still have a full day in Virginia. Still dark in Nashville, our loaded car throttled east on the empty interstate. We barely encountered other traffic until Knoxville, most of which branched south toward North Carolina. The road stay mostly uneventful through Tennessee’s northeast point. The blue-tinted peaks of Virginia opened up to us, even as interstate drivers showed little understanding of the constant “Slower traffic keep right” signs. Any frustration melted as we reached the interstate spur that extended to Roanoke.

I fell hard for the city when we visited briefly in October 2014. After talking about returning for a longer stay, Nancy made a Saturday night in the Star City possible as a birthday gift. We would stay for a night, with southwest Virginia serving as a springboard to a larger mid-Atlantic vacation. As long as we had these magnificent mountains to welcome us, the Eastern Shore could wait a day or more. Not to be confused with the long-lost Virginia coastal colony, Roanoke is wedged among small but prominent mountains and sits close to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Colony House in Roanoke

The largest city in southwestern Virginia is also one of the state’s most likable and vibrant. Downtown Roanoke catches the eye with its eclectic architecture. There’s no pattern, but it’s hard to ignore the Gothic church spires, the Tudor structures of the Hotel Roanoke and the post-modern Taubman Museum of Art. More than 1,700 feet above the city stand Mill Mountain and its giant metal star. Almost 100 feet tall, the Mill Mountain Star is the largest structure of its type in the world. Having seen the views offered from its base, we know it isn’t simply a cheesy tourist draw.

As part of the birthday gift, Nancy purchased tickets to Microfestivus, Roanoke’s long-running beer festival. Almost all the brewers were new to us, hailing primarily from Virginia plus a few from neighboring states and some national brewers that snuck into the mix.

Dropping our gear at the hotel, we embarked for downtown. Thick lines formed at the Microfestivus entrance. The City Market hummed with its usual Saturday activity. Expecting to see our share of farmers markets the whole route to Chincoteague, we went stocked the vacation bar. For our Chincoteague stay, we gathered a box of selected Virginia wines at Eli’s Provisions, a wine and beer shop in the market. We hit it last time, and I expect we’ll stop anytime we visit Roanoke.

Limited to 20 pours, we chose our drinks selectively. One drawback for the non-smoking crowd was the cigar tent, which must have seemed like a great idea to every 20-something in attendance. Sure, it’s outdoors, but cigar smoke quickly grows excessive. Some sliders from a food truck warded off the kick of too many early imperial IPAs. A series of IPAs, fruit beers and dark beers that somehow found favor on a humid southwestern Virginia afternoon.

With dozens of new breweries and a good festival atmosphere, we could easily make Microfestivus a new tradition. Hardywood is one Virginia brewer to which I enjoy revisiting. Their Berliner Weisse paired perfectly with an August day.

My love of Belgian-style beers found comfort from many pouring stations. St. Louis-based Perennial Ales was one of Microfestivus’ revelations. The brewery trucks its beer way across Tennessee to reach Virginia, but does not stop in Tennessee. For the sake of good beer, they should. Both the Saison de Lis, with its Belgian yeast profile and eruption of coriander, and the dry-hopped Belgian pale ale with earthy, regional hops (Hommel bier) were among the day’s best Belgian-style ales.

Roanoke brewers fared well. Soaring Ridge debuted Dragon’s Tooth, a double IPA rich with hop oil and passion fruit, while the Berry White was a summer quaffer with Belgian fruit and bramblefruit tartness. A Belgian pale ale from Roanoke Railroad Brewing was among the day’s favorites. Parkway Brewing in neighboring Salem trumped provided the festival’s best gose with Gose Both Ways, which tastes more sour than most gose and was better for it. We had some sliders to break up the beers, and listened to some bluegrass at the park amphitheatre.
Nancy booked a room at the Colony House Motor Lodge, a well-maintained motor court a few miles south of downtown. The same family has operated the lodge for nearly 60 years. The rooms were spacious and the architecture bore all the flourishes of its original design. In a word, it’s exactly the kind of place we want to stay on vacation.

Nothing follows a beer festival better than a bout of swimming. In the hazy afternoon, we eagerly headed to the pool. Like the rest of the motor court, the pool had been well-maintained, and a swim stretched us out after a morning cramped in the car. We swam until our fingers pruned and our limbs ached.

Evening did not diminish Roanoke’s downtown hum. People swarmed around the market and the rows of restaurants. Rather than eat out, we got take-out from a Thai restaurant that had to get rice from the Indian place next door. Saffron or steamed white, it all fit with the curries and a bottle of Virginia Merlot. With that, we began to wind down in our massive, comfortable room.

We'll be back.

The patch of Blue Ridge Virginia brims with western qualities. Like the Billings Rimrocks or the mountains bordering Boise, the Mill Mountain Star was a comforting presence. As other cities like up there skyscrapers, Roanoke lights up its star. We followed it back to the Colony House as a few real stars popped into the cloudy twilight. Should we ever relocate to Roanoke, I could imagine looking up at the star every night. Even on a cloudy night, something always shines above Roanoke.