It is designed to help local folks and tourists know what is going on in Roanoke. While his blog is more specific to Roanoke, I am going to stray over some city and county lines, and include things which are in relative proximity to Roanoke, such as the Statue of Liberty (ok, New York is an eleven-hour Greyhound bus drive).
But, we will include places in Blacksburg, Floyd and Salem.
Of course, this means we will have to inadvertently snub some places we like in Roanoke itself, including Kirk Avenue Music Hall, the Village Grill and Happy's Flea Market as well as Showtimers Theatre, which is now staging the musical-comedy "Once Upon a Mattress."
However, we think this list will help anyone looking for the proverbial thing to do rather than sit at Starbucks and read "Infinite Jest" (the late Daniel Foster Wallace's novel is some 1,100 pages long):
1) A Little Bit Hippy: An always unique place inside Towers Shopping Mall which offers cool tye-dye t-shirts and organic soap..........yes, they are the reason why we have '60 activist Wavy Gravy pictured.
2) The Bazaar: This shop across from Towers offers records (we can't promise that you will find David Bowie's 'Let's Dance' there, but you just might), vintage clothing and live music.
3) The Taubman Art Museum
4) Mill Moutain Zoo
5) CUPs: This Grandin village coffee shop features a very large collection of bobble-head dolls. They also have Trivia Night on Tuesdays (yes, they are the reason for the image of coffee beans which we found via Turkish Wikipedia).
6) The Lyric Theatre (Blacksburg): A great place to see movies in Blacksburg; the critically-acclaimed film "Before Midnight" starts there on Friday.
7) Fork in the Alley: A great place to eat outdoors in the Crystal Springs neighborhood.
8) Third Street Coffeehouse: This little gem-of-a-palce is only open on Friday nights and we had a hard time finding it (use Mapquest or ask a friend), but there is some great local music there.
9) Star-Lite Drive-In (Christiansburg): Along with Hull's Drive-In in Lexington, this is the last remaining drive-in within driving distance from Roanoke.
10) The Salem Museum
http://www.roanokedoesntsuck.com
http://www.showtimers.org
http://www.alittlebithippy.com
http://www.taubmanmuseum.org
http://www.cupscoffeeandtea.com
http://www.forkinthealley.com
http://www.salemmuseum.org
There's more on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," regarding Things To Do in Roanoke: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com
Hello there, this is Jason. Yes..THAT Jason. No not that one the OTHER one.OK. To clarify I am the "Roanoke Doesn't Suck" Jason. I really enjoyed this list. I have been to all these places except the "Third Street Coffeehouse" (Which I really need to check out) and the "Star-Lite Drive-In". I just found out about this Drive In the other day and I heard it's great. There actually is another local drive-in called "The Mayberry Drive-In" in Moneta. It's pretty cool and the old fashioned diner is really great. They have fried Oreos AND Fried Green Tomatoes. NOM! SO thanks again for mentioning me.. Don't forget my brilliant wife Brenda who is my "Roanoke Doesn't Suck" partner and has helped make it what it is and will be. Have a great day!
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