Business

Rooftop restaurant inches toward opening

By Bill Moss, Published: September 27, 2014

Bobby Rogers knows that people want to know when his Main Street restaurant will open and what kind of food it will serve.

Known even before it opens for its rooftop bar — the first in downtown Hendersonville — the restaurant has no name yet — at least not one Rogers will utter in public.
"We're very happy for all the interest," Rogers told the Hendersonville Historic Preservation Commission last week. "It was always our desire from the beginning to not open another Irish-themed restaurant, not have another pizza-themed restaurant, not have another duplicate type cuisine."
Rogers, a homebuilder, apologized for not sharing more but said his reticence is in part strategic.
Bobby Rogers explains renovation work during a meeting of the Hendersonville Historic Preservation Commission last week."We have about three or four different menus that we have laid out and as Main Street changes by the month — and I think currently we have two or three new restaurants that will open in the next several months — I'd like to wait until they open to be sure that the cuisines they have stated they would have are the ones that they have and then we would make our selection at that point," he said. "I'd like to have the ability to change our name and our menu right up until the day we open. I don't think that our town needs another type of repeat business that is already on Main Street."
Rogers first received a permit for renovation of the historic building at 202 N. Main St. in June 2010. Last week, the historic board approved new renovation work, including three new wooden doors on Main Street, new light fixtures, awnings on the Main Street and Second Avenue facades, signs on the front and side and a fire escape in the rear. Work also includes rooftop seating, a greenscaped area between the seating area and roof edge and adding stucco to an interior stairwell enclosure.
Built in the 1920s, the building is was used as a tin shop and the Blue Bird and Carson Ice Cream companies in the forties and fifties. Sinclair Office Supply occupied the building for more than 36 years.