611 restaurant

[NW Mailing List]

Any N&W fan in the vicinity of Roanoke should know about the Great 611 Steak Company where I had another excellent meal this past Saturday.  This is a fairly large restaurant that seats 213 people with an outstanding N&W Ry. decor to go with its good and reasonably priced food.

There is hardly a square yard of wall space that does not have a historic N&W photograph or some artifact of the N&W.  A  HO gauge Powhatan Arrow (complete with round-end observation car) rests on a wall shelf and another N&W train circulates on a track suspended over a portion of the restaurant.

The wait staff wears shirts with the N&W Ry. logo on the front and a diagram of a Class J locomotive on the back.  There was even a placard on each table commemorating the restoration of the 611.  Finally, behind the check-out counter is a large print of a side elevation drawing of a Class J locomotive.

As an indication of the popularity of the restaurant, this past Saturday I could not find a parking spot during three circuits of the restaurant parking lot and ended up parking in the adjacent Quality Inn parking lot.

Further details, including menu prices, can be had at www.thegreat611.com/ although the map shows the location too far south.  The restaurant is at 3830 Franklin Road, and can best be located by GPS or a computer map program.  Otherwise, it can be found on a frontage road near the intersection of US 220 and VA 419 near Roanoke's south city limit and beside a Quality Inn.

I have no connection whatsoever with the restaurant in any way other than as a customer, but I just think that N&W fans would like to know about this unique museum-like restaurant when they are in this vicinity.

Gordon Hamilton
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