It’s fall break over here, so I took off work on a Friday and headed out to a small town with my two sons to make a day of it and find a tenderloin. Turns out that Roanoke was perfect place for a couple of teenagers (and an adult that sometimes still acts like a teen) to hang around and find stuff to do. Unlike Sir Walter Raleigh, we had no trouble locating the settlement and when arrived it was still populated with residents and were welcomed with engagement of games, purchasing of artifacts, viewing native wildlife, and sampling their finest local cuisine – the breaded tenderloin
The Tenderloin
The place in town to get a tenderloin is a landmark called The Roanoke Village Inn. The main area is a 21+ bar, but they do have a family area upstairs for dinner. Lucky for us, there is also an enclosed outside patio open for lunch that is also all ages. It was a bit cool outside, but it felt nice and warm under the heaters – and with the fresh air, being outside, it made the perfect atmosphere for enjoying Indiana’s finest sandwich. We couldn’t be happier with the tenderloins that were served to us. It was a fresh piece, pounded flat, breaded and fried to order. We were able to get a cup of buffalo sauce to dip into to enhance our choice of tenderloin taste. Bottom line though, these tenderloins will taste good no matter how you dress them up. The meat is tender and the seasoned breading yields a crispy bite. The “RVI” has been around since the 1950’s and is a trail stop for any roadtrip whether you have their steak, haddock, ribs, or the tenderloin.
The Town
We started this trip off (as we usually do always) with some coffee and breakfast at a local coffee shop. For this trip to Roanoke, we headed into Moose and Mollie’s Café and Gelato. I promised the boys some lattes and they got a caffeine fix with each a salted caramel one and a vanilla drink. I, myself, went to the specials board and ordered up a smores latte. While we waited for the drinks a couple of giant pink cinnamon rolls caught our eye. I didn’t take long for the breakfast feast to commence and we had plenty of energy to start our adventure. The place was fairly large as you could sit in the café on one side or outside under the “carhop”. They serve lunch and Gelato too, so more treats can be enjoyed at any time of day.
As we get near the colder months in Indiana, it’s necessary to transition toward activities inside. The Game On Virtual Sports Lounge houses 6 booths with full play video games. It is like a small stage with artificial grass and a tarp in the back. Video and cameras gauge your speed, angle, and timing while you hurl a football to a receiver, kick a soccer ball around a goalie, or throw dodge balls at zombies as they approach you from the backdrop of an apocalyptic city. There are over 130 different virtual games to choose from. Golf is the main purpose of the booths. You have many courses and difficulties to choose from as you tee off against the tarp. It seems to work the best swinging the clubs; the other sports are hit and miss. There is a full bar and food is served too. It was a fun place to hang out for a couple of hours. Granted, it doesn’t compare to the real thing, but with the variety of different activities, the comfort of being indoors, and the food and drink options it is worth checking out.
If you want a more traditional video game experience, Floyd’s Arcade and Pinball sits right north of town. For $10 for an hour (or $15 for all day) you can jump around and play all sorts of pinball machines and video games. It was a lot of fun bouncing around the pinball offerings. From X-Men to World Cup to Led Zepplin there are all varieties to choose from. If pinball isn’t your thing, you can play classic arcade like BurgerTime and Donkey Kong or sit in some of the newer cabinets where you can race cars against your friend. There is even an X-box and Playstation set up to explore. The Skee-Ball was our favorite there. Nowhere else can you constantly roll that ball up trying to hit that corner 10,000 point circle without worrying about how many quarters you are pumping in the machine. Whether renting the place out for a birthday party or just needing to enjoy a couple hours, Floyd’s is worth stopping in while traveling on Highway 24.
One of the shops off Main Street is Man Cave Collectables, so naturally we walked in to check this place out. Inside you can find all kinds of used hobby and action figures for sale. The place is not huge, but what it lacks in quantity, it makes up in quality. Most of the stuff I hadn’t seen in your typical toy store. I picked up an old Simpsons Burger King kid’s meal toy and my son got a couple packs of soccer cards. There is a toy train that runs along the top of the store and sometimes the lights are dimmed with the smaller LED’s on to create a cave effect.
Across the street from the man cave is the Snickle & Fritz Candy Co. This isn’t your Halloween Candy-type you find at the grocery store. It has all kinds of independent and unique treats. There is much to choose from like Freeze-dried snacks, licorice, slime, playdough, jellybeans, and sours. I picked up some penny candy (sixlets) and my son got a flavor of sour patch kids he hadn’t seen before. There is a nice boutique woman’s clothes store attached. As we were a group of three boys, we didn’t browse as much in there, but we did find some fried chicken socks in a bucket to give to someone as a Christmas present.
The LC Nature Park is a private non-profit nature reserve that contains wild bison and elk herds. You can visit their nature center and go on a guided hike or even just take the Safari Wagon Tour. We were able to go on that wagon tour and view the grounds as well as see animals that call the park home. I’ll admit, I got a Jurassic Park feeling here as we rode through the gates into the area where we waited to view the beasts inside contained by fences. The area contains remains of glacier shores that leave dunes like the ones found around Lake Michigan. Because of the poor soil quality for farming, the dunes have some of the oldest (and largest) trees remaining in Indiana. We started by driving near the bison herd. There are fences protecting us from them (and them from us) so there is no worry about “close encounters” for those anxious about that sort of thing. The mothers were protecting their young while we drove by. It was really cool to see the Elk later on in the park. It was a type of “Loin King” family as there was one male (with huge antlers) guarding over the females and the rest of young. The dominant male had won that position in battle from the other mature male at the begging of the season and would have to battle for the spot next year. As we travelled past the herd, a couple of the younger males were hanging around in a more spread-out group. Some were testing their battle skills by sparring with their antlers. Overall it was a wonderful experience. It was great to see Indiana in a more natural state before farming while also to learning about the importance of preserving nature. With all of the fun and games the boys had on this trip, they both picked the LC Nature Park was their favorite part.
There is more in this small town 15 minutes outside of Ft Wayne. I know we mostly covered the fun and games here with my teenage boys coming along with me. The history, small boutique shops, and wineries of Roanoke will have to be explored another day. In the meantime, it does look like there is another place you can visit or detour in order to eat another great tenderloin.
Two walk in: one wins, one loses
by Michael Tomko
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