history
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history |
A long time ago, the mayor of Doran Bottom, Marv Mcguire, the Original Cuz, gave some advice to local
boy Mike Thompson. He told Mike to open up a honky tonk in the family's old dairy barn. Mike, with
a degree in art history, and his wife Yvonne, a journalist born in Hong Kong, both had a passion for
great food. The restaurant started out with five tables in the bottling building. Back then, there
were only four employees. A little beer garden was added, and then the barn was renovated, and the
restaurant went big time. Over time, the restaurant has grown bigger and bigger. We renovated the
hay loft upstairs,and hired bluegrass bands to keep the hungry crowd happy on weekends. Mike and his
artist friends have covered the restaurant with bright paintings and objects collected from around the
world. Cuz's philosophy is still the same as it was in the beginning- good food served quick and hot,
steaks big enough to do all the advertising we would ever need, and fish so fresh and varied that it
seemed the beach had come to southwest Virginia.
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Cuz's has been luring people in from a five-state region since 1979, when husband and wife Mike and Yvonne Thompson opened the place in his family's old dairy barn. Coal barons land their helicopters in the back pasture. Filet mignon "bullets," as Cuz calls them, are flown in from Iowa. And every Monday Yvonne gets a call from a just-off-the-boat fisherman in Honolulu; by Wednesday the catch of the week -- a recent feature was escolar, a more tender version of swordfish -- rolls into Pounding Mill on a FedEx truck...I love this place, this scene, this hell-bent way of making food and fun.
Beth Macy, The Roanoke Times |
The creamed mushrooms on garlic croutons will be the tastiest appetizer you've ever eaten. So will the broccoli and cheese beignets. In fact, anything you order will be the best of that particular food you've ever had.
Blue Ridge Country
writer Lee Smith |