By Tonia Moxley
The Roanoke Times
May 22, 2005
BLACKSBURG — Whoever the next Dave Matthews-esque superstar musicians happen to be, they won’t get to show their stuff at 117 S. Main St., before making it in the bigs. At least not for the foreseeable future.
The old stage that sat in the dining room had to be torn out because a water leak had caused it to rot, said Gary Walker, co-owner of Cabo Fish Taco Baja Seagrill, the newest restaurant to take over the location of the legendary South Main Cafe.
The placement of tables over the spot where Matthews, Queen Latifah, Hootie and the Blowfish, The Pietasters, Koko Taylor, various members of Jefferson Airplane and many other well-known and unknown acts have performed seems to signal the end of the former live music mecca.
“We’re thinking about” having music, Walker said. “It’s our No. 1 question. But we don’t know anything about running a music venue.”
Chef and co-owner Rob Crenshaw, who was walking out of his new kitchen and heard the music question for the umpteenth time Wednesday, stopped and said to Walker, “Just say no.”
Walker, apparently the diplomat, said “I don’t want to be the guy who puts an end to music” at this location. “In six months, we’ll consider it.”
For now, the owners, including Maeghan Crenshaw, say they want to stick to what they do know — the restaurant and bar business.
The three Virginia Tech grads opened their first Cabo Fish Taco four years ago in Charlotte, N.C. The concept, which mimics the ubiquitous tacos pescados, or fish tacos, found at stands up and down the beaches of Southern California and Baja, Mexico, is the first of its kind in Blacksburg.
“We wanted to create a place we would want to hang out in,” said Walker, an avid surfer.
It’s been a stretch for the trio to run both locations, but it’s coming together. The place was packed last weekend as Tech students collected their diplomas and headed to town with their parents to eat a celebratory meal.
It went so well the restaurant sold out of food and had to close for two days afterward to wait for deliveries.
The “support has been amazing,” Walker said.
The food is light, a basically vegetarian menu with some chicken and lots of fresh fish. Black beans, rice, corn, salsas and other fresh side dishes and sauces round out the food offerings.
The bar serves 40 kinds of tequila and boasts a drink menu that includes 13 kinds of margaritas.
“And they all taste different,” Walker said.
Before the atrium was added to the building, before the place even sold real food, Jim Collier, now a Tech professor, spent many a night of 1979 and 1980 drinking “really cheap” beer and listening to all kinds of bands there.
He said he “got a little nostalgic” sitting in the new dining room Wednesday night eating Cabo’s signature fish taco dish.
“The music is in the bricks of that place,” he said. “I remember it was cramped and hot and you were pressed up against the stage. It was just fun.”
But at 44, Collier said college band music “doesn’t do it for me anymore.” The high-end tequila and well-made margarita at Cabo do.
“And the building has never looked better,” Collier said.
It took eight months for Walker and the Crenshaws, who are husband and wife, along with their silent partner Jeff Ames, to remodel the old church building.
Ames is also co-owner with his brother, Greg Ames, of Boudreaux’s restaurant on Main Street.
Toms Creek Investors, the development partners who bought the building at auction last year, put about $30,000 into exterior repairs and have helped subsidize Cabo’s rent, Carry Hopper, one of the landlords, said Wednesday.
He estimates that Walker, Ames and the Crenshaws put between $60,000 and $100,000 in sweat equity into remodeling the interior.
Some of the work was major, such as expanding the kitchen, plumbing the downstairs bathroom, installing heat in the atrium and building a deck and stairs that open into an upstairs lounge with two pool tables.
“They were in there all night and back up in the morning. They’re young,” Hopper said of the 30-something restaurateurs.
Hopper, who said last year that one of the reasons the partners bought the place was to save the music, said Wednesday that he’s not disappointed it won’t feature bands.
“The Lyric seems like a much better music venue. If people wanted it [music at the restaurant], they would have supported it,” he said.
Three previous owners, Linda Ruth Schwab, Kirstin Unger and Linda Smith, tried to keep the music going. All eventually closed up.
“It seems like too much to try to do both,” Hopper said.
Hopper, who owns a jewelry store across the street at Kent Square, said he’s eaten in the restaurant a half-dozen times since it opened last week.
“I feel like Norman in ‘Cheers.’ I won’t get home on time for the rest of my life,” he quipped.
Graphic: Cabo Fish Taco Baja Seagrill
Address: 117 S. Main St., Blacksburg
Phone: 552-0950
Hours: 11:30 a.m - 2 a.m, seven days a week
Offerings: Fresh seafood, salads, wraps and fish tacos; full bar specializing in tequila drinks
Web site: www.cabofishtaco.com
Copyright The Roanoke Times 2005
Tags: Blacksburg, Cabo Fish Taco, fish, restaurants, taco, Tonia Moxley, Virginia Tech