Bistro making move into Glade

By CAROLYN R. WILSON/For the Washington County News

The next time Roger and Cindy Goodson serve their house-made veggie burgers or deliciously messy Sloppy Joes, it will be from one of the quaint, historic buildings that flavors downtown Glade Spring.
It’s that family-diner feeling that prompted the owners of Whistlepig Bistro to pick up the two-year-old business they describe as “only a child,” and move to a town that offers a keen sense of community and what they describe as a piece of Americana.
“Just in the past two weeks, we’ve had so many people stop by to welcome us to Glade Spring. They’ve offered to help clean and paint. One lady even brought us soup,” said Goodson, who is amazed at the local support.
“We’ve always liked the Glade Spring, Meadowview and Emory communities. They have a family, community feeling. When we came to look at the vacant building in downtown Glade Spring, we loved it. It’s small, but charming.”
Natives of the area, Goodson and his wife embrace the local culture with their style of cooking. They purchase local produce every chance they get and even admit the name of the restaurant, Whistlepig, is an Appalachian term his grandfather used for a groundhog. “I thought about naming our business Kudzu Café, but Whistlepig is much more unique.”
Developing a customer-based clientele is important for the business owners, something they believe Glade Spring will offer. Goodson explained their bistro, formerly located in Damascus, catered to tourists who passed through town hiking and biking along the Virginia Creeper and Appalachian Trails during warm weather months. It was a seasonal setting that offered the Goodsons limited contact with the customers, something he said is important to any chef.
“You can always tell who’s in the dining room by the ticket in the kitchen. If you don’t have a regular clientele, you don’t know how you’re doing as a chef.”
Scheduled to open no later than the week of Nov. 21, Whistlepig Bistro will offer a limited introductory menu that includes homemade soups and salads, beef and veggie burgers, pulled pork barbecue, buttermilk and herb grilled chicken and hotdogs, a classic favorite.
“Our veggie burgers are homemade, something that is unique to this area,” Goodson said.
He’s looking forward to making new friends in the community, as well as developing a style of food for the new location.
“There’s always a certain flavor of a place, but when you manage your own kitchen, it becomes your style of food. There’s no venue to muddle through to be heard,” said Goodson. “And, I like to use the kitchen and dining room as my voice.”
The restaurant owners said the clientele will help shape the menu. “We’ll change the menu according to what sells well, and we’ll reinvent it as we go along. It’s just another chapter in the life of the restaurant,” said Goodson.
One thing he won’t change is using fresh, local produce, something he likes to refer to as “real food.” The owners insist on cooking with the seasons, using everything from farm-fresh tomatoes to fall butternut squash.
He’d like to think his menu offers families good, healthy options that not only taste good, but are good for you.
The chef gained much of his experience working at various restaurants in the area. He began his culinary experience at The Starving Artist Café in 1987 where he fell in love with cooking.
“The Starving Artist Café taught me that you can have fun while doing good work, and I just kept moving forward with that,” said Goodson.
In 1998, Goodson worked a sous chef at the Virginian Golf Club in Bristol, Va., before moving his work back to Abingdon’s Wildflower Bakery, where he created a dinner menu for the bakery.
In December 2009, the husband and wife team purchased Fatty’s Diner in Damascus, later renaming it the Whistlepig Bistro. They welcomed the opportunity to become entrepreneurs in the restaurant business, work that challenged their creativity and fulfilled their dreams.
“It’s hard to say what the restaurant will be like five years from now, but it’s going to be fun getting there.”