The last time I lived in a college town was when I was in college. You know, before we had kids. Back when we didn’t even start getting ready to go out until 10 pm, and when “Bar & Grill” actually meant “Bar (with food).” I had forgotten about this party-driven aspect of college towns, towns that exist solely because a large university planted itself there and a hard-drinking, student-loving community grew up around it. So when the kids and I arrived at 5:30 pm in Blacksburg after four days on the road (we had an extra day thanks to the car breaking down), all I remembered is how much fun college towns are. How much personality each little local place has, and how much good cheap food there is. I had no intention of grocery shopping and eating in. I wanted to go downtown.
The kids and I wandered up and down Main Street for about half an hour looking for a burger. We passed the Frosty Parrot top-your-own frozen yogurt place (filed that one away for later), a pita/gyro/falafel place (filed that one away, too), several pizza-by-the-slice places, and finally found a bar & grill with about a dozen twenty-somethings smoking cigarettes outside the front door. It looked like a fun place, full of people, so we passed through the smoky corridor and seated ourselves at a high top, the only seating I could see besides stools at the bar. The place smelled like stale beer, and no wait staff paid any attention to us when we sat down (I realized after our next experience that there probably wasn’t a wait staff), and while I would have been fine there (I REALLY wanted a beer after our trip), I figured maybe it was a little too much bar and not enough grill for the kids. So we moved on.
After more wandering, we found Gillie’s, a vegetarian restaurant I would have loved to eat at after four days of road food, but my son wanted a meat burger, not a bean burger. So on we walked. Finally, when we could take the searching no more, we landed at The Rivermill. All I saw was “Bar & Grill,” and I was sold. We walked in to find a bearded young man perched on a bar stool, texting as he sat sentry. He glanced up at me, then down at the kids and said, “I have to have all the unders out by 9 o’clock.” He glanced at his phone. “It’s 7:50 now.” I laughed on the inside, absolutely delighted with the unexpectedness of this burger-hunt, and how completely different it was from our past 8 years of eating out with children (you know, where you get a kids menu and a packet of crayons because they are actually expecting children to eat in their restaurant.)
We went to sit down in one of the wooden booths and the sentry said, “Order at the bar,” then went back to texting. As we ate our burgers and I drank my beer (both of which were incredible, by the way, and I think the burgers were $6.50ish as opposed to the $9 we usually paid in the Twin Cities) I smiled to myself as I watched a guy across the street, hiding behind a baseball cap and sunglasses and trying to look cool, pitch and swagger down the sidewalk with the focused purposefulness of the drunk-who’s-trying-not-to-look-drunk. The kids ate their burgers and drank their bar juice (pineapple?) and were totally oblivious to the differentness of it all. Maybe because it wasn’t all that different to them. It only seems different to me because I remember that other life, the life in a college town before having kids, when you could just pop in wherever you wanted, whenever you wanted, without worrying about whether they’re going to have mac n’ cheese or applesauce, or whether the place is appropriate for your companions. The life where I might have been the drunk-who’s-trying-not-to-look-drunk.
I got my unders out by 9 o’clock, after having our pictures made in the photo booth over by the pool tables. Since then, I have heard that THE place in town to take kids is Macado’s, a funky little restaurant that actually does have a kids menu, complete with mazes, word scrambles, and maybe even crayons. The funny thing is, my 8 year old son really wants to take his dad back to The Rivermill when he arrives in town. Because as my son said after four grueling days on the road and finally, finally arriving at our destination, “The Rivermill was awesome!” I think we’re going to like it here, bars (with food) and all.
Butterfly Mind 
Hahaha, you’re brave to take the tyke to the nitty gritty part of college town.
I came here as a student and have done my fair share of bar-crawling. I’m old enough now to acknowledge that students aren’t always the best neighbors, especially when the semester kicks in. But it’s good to get yourself out there and appreciate the good value and positive qualities. You hang out enough and the bar staff gets friendly.
Places I recommend going with kids for dinnertime:
Mike’s Grill – best burgers in town
Souvlaki’s
Sycamore Deli
Benny Marzano’s (huge pizza slice, might need to share)
PK’s has a great menu for all ages, but it gets pretty barr-y at 9 or so.
Gillie’s is delicious for brunch and for fish or vegetarian options. Good date-night option.
The Rivermill and the Underground are definitely more “adult” venues at night. But they are both quality bars with different offerings. The Underground is the calmer of the two when it gets late. They’re open early for breakfast and brunch too!
One place I wouldn’t recommend for children is Champs, because of the high amount of smoke. They’ve got an excessive amount of TV screens tuned to sports though, if you’re into that sort of thing.
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Wow, thanks for all the info, Phil! I’m glad to have this all in one place for the next time we attempt family dining.
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Phil’s comments are spot on about Downtown Blacksburg places. My kids like PKs on Thursdays (get there early) for the Tijuana Toss. You get a large one topping pizza and then they flip a coin after. If you guess which side comes up, the pizza is free. My daughter has been 100% on the guesses. My kids are 8 and 5, BTW.
Sharkey’s is pretty good for kids, but the service can be spotty at times.
But here is what you REALLY need to know:
Kids eat free:
Monday – Firehouse Subs on University City Blvd.
Tuesday – Macados and Sharkey’s. Also, the Macados in Christiansburg has the BEST waiter for kids – Frank.
Wednesday (?) and Saturday – Famous Anthony’s. They also have cheap breakfast with extended breakfast hours on the weekend.
Bull & Bones at First & Main is good for beer and kids and El Rodeo is pretty good too for kids if they like Mexican. Sal’s has great pizza, but is pricey. Sake House rocks, but has no kids menu. I get my kids the Chicken Yakatori (chicken on a stick). Then you can walk over to the chocolate spike for homemade chocolates!
Glad you are finding your way around. Which school will your kids attend?
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Awesome. Love Kids eat free places. I’m guessing Tuesday night at Macado’s will be the place for us to meet all the local families 😀
Not sure yet where the kids will go to school – we are still house hunting.
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Summer Solstice Fest is this weekend. Great place to let the kids run around. That is in downtown Blacksburg.
Then on July 13, there will be a Movie on the Lawn at the Alexander Black House (house on stilts on Draper Road by Kent Square parking garage). It’s free with food (for sale) and free popcorn. Starts at dark, but lots of families come early and the kids run around.
Best place to meet families? Municipal Park aka Caboose Park in Blacksburg. http://goo.gl/maps/6onH
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I love reading your blog posts! You are such a good writer! Fun to read. Glad you all made it safe and sound! Sorry to hear about the car trouble…but I always say everything happens for a reason. As you were making your way to your new life in Virginia, I was making SOAP! 😉 I made Lakshmi, Dana and Maeve and they turned out great! THANK YOU! I CANNOT wait to use them a few weeks from now! I’m going to make Flora and Witch this week 🙂 Oh my gosh this is fun! (if you send me a mailing address, I’ll send you some soap) My son has requested that I make him Peppermint soap. Just Peppermint.
Have fun exploring your new town! Sounds like alot of fun! 🙂
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I’m on it! Thanks Andrea – my son will appreciate the Lakshmi. It’s his favorite.
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It’s one of my fav’s too! It’s so hard to really pick one fav. It depends on my mood… I love the Maeve, the Witch…all of them so much! I gravitate towards lavender so Maeve might have to be my top pick if I HAD to pick ONE but Lakshmi is soooo close behind. Last night I cheated and cut a sliver off my batch of Lakshmi to test out in the shower…I know, i didnt wait 3 weeks but I couldnt help myself. Anyways, after my shower I went outside to give my dogs a break and i could smell that soap all over me. LOVELY.
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oh andrea. i love you. also, i’m very please to see that you’re already making friends (with kids no-less, who know the “kids eat free” places!!)
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Just stumbled upon your blog. We (family of 4) are new to Blacksburg (kids and myself…not husband) and this post was spot on. Not many family friendly places to take a 2&4 year old….so far Sal’s has been it.
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Hey Angela! The comments above give some good places. We love MIke’s, and Macado’s is good too. You might want to try those if you haven’t already. Welcome to Blacksburg!
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