Greetings: Welcome to the Spring Edition of the Blackwater Newsletter. We are
so happy that the winter is over and spring has arrived. This past winter was hard
on most of us here at the Lake as we had three snow storms to deal with and
some very cold temperatures. However, we all seemed to have survived, and now
we can look forward to the new life that spring brings. As always, we all want to
thank you for your continued support over the winter months, and now let me
catch you up on what is new at the Blackwater Café.
“Best of Awards”: The Laker Magazine again announced the winners of the
“Best of Awards” and we are very proud and thankful that we won nine awards
including Best Breakfast, Best Steak, Best Seafood, Best Sandwich, Best Burger,
Best Desserts, Best Chef, Best Wine Selection and our favorite, Best Customer
Service. Thank you for this special recognition.
New Seasonal Hours: We will be changing our hours and days of operation
effective Sunday, May 23rd. We will be open for Dinner seven days a week
starting at 5PM and we will continue our Sunday Breakfast/Brunch from 8AM
until 1:30PM. As always, we encourage you to call for reservations so that we
can accommodate you and your guests and meet your expectations.
Breakfast/Brunch: We have received some good feedback from you and have
added several sandwich items to our Sunday Brunch menu. In addition, we will be
offering $1.99 Bloody Marys and Mimosas and $2.99 glasses of wine during our
Sunday Breakfast and Brunch.
Wine Dinners: Our monthly Wine Dinners were very successful and lots of
fun. Our last Wine Dinner will be Tuesday, May 13th. We will restart these
dinners in September and they will continue to be held on the second Tuesday of
each month September through May.
Jazz Dinners: Our plan is to continue the monthly Jazz Dinners throughout the
year on the third Thursday of each month. We have also made an enhancement to
the system so that we can now transfer the live Jazz to the Grille Room with a
special microphone that will allow you to enjoy the Jazz at a much quieter level.
So make a reservation and come by and enjoy the Jazz of the Charlie Perkinson
Trio.
New Menu: Our new Spring/Summer menu will be offered starting in early
May. We will keep many of the favorites and Chef Mark and Chef Cara have
created some seasonal items that I am sure you will enjoy. We will also continue
to serve our Certified Angus Beef Prime Rib every Friday Night. As always, Chef
Mark will create nightly “specials” that I am sure will tempt you.
Improvements: Many of you have noticed that we have put a new roof on the
building and added a permanent structure over the front door in place of the old
canopy. This has given the restaurant a much better look and a more functional
entrance. We have also upgraded our Music and TV system. We now have High
Definition on both televisions in the Grille Room, a new HDTV over the bar and
new re-engineered music system compliments of Focus Four.
Seafood Connoisseurs: You will notice that we don’t have fish on our menu.
The reason is that we want to be able to offer the freshest seafood choices
available and not be locked into one or two choices. We will continue to source
the best possible seafood available and continue to offer Seafood Specials daily.
Chef Mark and Chef Cara will be preparing some exciting offerings from around
the world in the weeks to come.
Food Safety: All of us know about the dangers of unsafe food. All we have to
do is read the newspaper or listen to the news about recent episodes of food
contamination. ServSafe leads the way in providing the restaurant and foodservice
industry with an up-to-date comprehensive food safety training and certification
program. While most restaurants have a person designated to be their food safety
expert I am pleased to say that our kitchen staff and management team are all
ServSafe Certified. We take food safety very serious.
Blackwater Staff: The Blackwater Staff is excited about our continued success
and look forward to serving you this season. We are proud to announce that we
continue to have the same fine staff with three culinary trained and educated Chefs
in our Kitchen led by Executive Chef Mark. Sous Chef Cara, Chef Geran, Kitchen
Assistant Nate and a new hire, soon to be Chef Carlos round out our team.
I would now like to take a moment to recognize the Best Servers at the Lake. We
have won the local Laker Magazine’s “Best of Award” for Best Customer Service
for the third time. What makes this Award so special is the award is not a
restaurant category, which means you, the voters, had to make a special effort to
recognize what we do. What makes our Servers so special? Well, they care and
they are passionate about what they do. So as I mentioned, the Best Servers at the
lake are right here at the Blackwater Café and they are Barbara, Sue, Niki, Susan,
Mike, Miranda, Fred, Paul and Diane, along with our friendly bartender, Melanie.
Our great hostess is Lynn and our General Manager is John.
Economic Update: The economic conditions have put a strain on most of us and
the restaurant industry in no exception. In fact, the restaurant industry got hit
harder than most because when most consumers get hurt economically they stop
spending and eating out becomes more of a special occasion. It is unfortunate but
a few local restaurants have closed. However, a few new ones have opened. We
think the worst is over and we are happy that we are still standing.
We will continue to focus on being the best restaurant around the lake
community. We have stayed the course by maintaining our quality mindset,
serving quality food, providing quality customer service and placing a priority on
our customer’s total dining experience. The past is always a great platform for
learning and we will take all the feedback we have received and apply them as we
go forward.
Our passion is to be the best and our commitment is to listen and make the
necessary changes and never forget that “Your Dining Experience is Our
Priority”.
Again, thank you for allowing us to serve you and for being so supportive.
so happy that the winter is over and spring has arrived. This past winter was hard
on most of us here at the Lake as we had three snow storms to deal with and
some very cold temperatures. However, we all seemed to have survived, and now
we can look forward to the new life that spring brings. As always, we all want to
thank you for your continued support over the winter months, and now let me
catch you up on what is new at the Blackwater Café.
“Best of Awards”: The Laker Magazine again announced the winners of the
“Best of Awards” and we are very proud and thankful that we won nine awards
including Best Breakfast, Best Steak, Best Seafood, Best Sandwich, Best Burger,
Best Desserts, Best Chef, Best Wine Selection and our favorite, Best Customer
Service. Thank you for this special recognition.
New Seasonal Hours: We will be changing our hours and days of operation
effective Sunday, May 23rd. We will be open for Dinner seven days a week
starting at 5PM and we will continue our Sunday Breakfast/Brunch from 8AM
until 1:30PM. As always, we encourage you to call for reservations so that we
can accommodate you and your guests and meet your expectations.
Breakfast/Brunch: We have received some good feedback from you and have
added several sandwich items to our Sunday Brunch menu. In addition, we will be
offering $1.99 Bloody Marys and Mimosas and $2.99 glasses of wine during our
Sunday Breakfast and Brunch.
Wine Dinners: Our monthly Wine Dinners were very successful and lots of
fun. Our last Wine Dinner will be Tuesday, May 13th. We will restart these
dinners in September and they will continue to be held on the second Tuesday of
each month September through May.
Jazz Dinners: Our plan is to continue the monthly Jazz Dinners throughout the
year on the third Thursday of each month. We have also made an enhancement to
the system so that we can now transfer the live Jazz to the Grille Room with a
special microphone that will allow you to enjoy the Jazz at a much quieter level.
So make a reservation and come by and enjoy the Jazz of the Charlie Perkinson
Trio.
New Menu: Our new Spring/Summer menu will be offered starting in early
May. We will keep many of the favorites and Chef Mark and Chef Cara have
created some seasonal items that I am sure you will enjoy. We will also continue
to serve our Certified Angus Beef Prime Rib every Friday Night. As always, Chef
Mark will create nightly “specials” that I am sure will tempt you.
Improvements: Many of you have noticed that we have put a new roof on the
building and added a permanent structure over the front door in place of the old
canopy. This has given the restaurant a much better look and a more functional
entrance. We have also upgraded our Music and TV system. We now have High
Definition on both televisions in the Grille Room, a new HDTV over the bar and
new re-engineered music system compliments of Focus Four.
Seafood Connoisseurs: You will notice that we don’t have fish on our menu.
The reason is that we want to be able to offer the freshest seafood choices
available and not be locked into one or two choices. We will continue to source
the best possible seafood available and continue to offer Seafood Specials daily.
Chef Mark and Chef Cara will be preparing some exciting offerings from around
the world in the weeks to come.
Food Safety: All of us know about the dangers of unsafe food. All we have to
do is read the newspaper or listen to the news about recent episodes of food
contamination. ServSafe leads the way in providing the restaurant and foodservice
industry with an up-to-date comprehensive food safety training and certification
program. While most restaurants have a person designated to be their food safety
expert I am pleased to say that our kitchen staff and management team are all
ServSafe Certified. We take food safety very serious.
Blackwater Staff: The Blackwater Staff is excited about our continued success
and look forward to serving you this season. We are proud to announce that we
continue to have the same fine staff with three culinary trained and educated Chefs
in our Kitchen led by Executive Chef Mark. Sous Chef Cara, Chef Geran, Kitchen
Assistant Nate and a new hire, soon to be Chef Carlos round out our team.
I would now like to take a moment to recognize the Best Servers at the Lake. We
have won the local Laker Magazine’s “Best of Award” for Best Customer Service
for the third time. What makes this Award so special is the award is not a
restaurant category, which means you, the voters, had to make a special effort to
recognize what we do. What makes our Servers so special? Well, they care and
they are passionate about what they do. So as I mentioned, the Best Servers at the
lake are right here at the Blackwater Café and they are Barbara, Sue, Niki, Susan,
Mike, Miranda, Fred, Paul and Diane, along with our friendly bartender, Melanie.
Our great hostess is Lynn and our General Manager is John.
Economic Update: The economic conditions have put a strain on most of us and
the restaurant industry in no exception. In fact, the restaurant industry got hit
harder than most because when most consumers get hurt economically they stop
spending and eating out becomes more of a special occasion. It is unfortunate but
a few local restaurants have closed. However, a few new ones have opened. We
think the worst is over and we are happy that we are still standing.
We will continue to focus on being the best restaurant around the lake
community. We have stayed the course by maintaining our quality mindset,
serving quality food, providing quality customer service and placing a priority on
our customer’s total dining experience. The past is always a great platform for
learning and we will take all the feedback we have received and apply them as we
go forward.
Our passion is to be the best and our commitment is to listen and make the
necessary changes and never forget that “Your Dining Experience is Our
Priority”.
Again, thank you for allowing us to serve you and for being so supportive.
| Located at Beautiful Smith Mountain Lake 4730 Scruggs Road, Moneta, Virginia 24121 (540) 721-4333 |
| Spring 2010 Newsletter |
| Click to learn more about the Certified Angus Beef Brand. |
| General Manager: John Gordon Executive Chef: Mark Crim Owners: Tom and Lynn Gordon |
 |  |  |  |  |
"Your Dining Experience is Our Priority"