Smallplates

Photos by LINDSEY WAGNON | Special to Laker Weekly

The outdoor tiki bar, a few hundred feet from Small Plates, offers live music on weekends.

Small Plates Restaurant, which opened Memorial Day weekend, offers tapas or appetizer-sized menu items.

Small Plates Restaurant at the Sportsman Marina in Huddleston offers Smith Mountain Lake a big city-dining experience in bite-sized packaging. The eatery, which opened Memorial Day weekend, specializes in gourmet, tapas-style dining.

Small Plates owner and entrepreneur Waller Perrow, a Huddleston resident, grew up in Lynchburg and spent many of his childhood summers visiting relatives at SML. He moved to the lake a few years ago. Perrow bought the establishment, the former Sportsman Restaurant, when he learned its previous owners were closing the business last winter.

"I live right across the street from the restaurant's previous owners, they're good friends of mine," said Perrow. "It was heartbreaking to see it close since it was kind of a neighborhood hangout. I've owned restaurants, bars and nightclubs before so I bought it from them. At one point I swore I'd never get into the restaurant business again, but this was just something I couldn't resist."

Perrow chose to make the restaurant tapas-style as an experiment to see if customers would like it.

"It's kind of the way that I like to eat," said Perrow. "I like going out and getting a lot of courses, trying out the flavors and textures of food instead of getting one big plate of the same food. It's summertime at the lake, who wants to get a big huge meal anyway? A lot of our customers just want a small portion."

Tapas-style dining is a popular trend in large cities, because it encourages diners to engage with one another while experimenting with menu selections and sharing dishes. At Small Plates, customers use small, square plates to sample the tapas or appetizer-sized menu items.

Perrow said chef Justin Fada's menu ranges from beef and poultry to several seafood choices. A culinary school graduate himself, Perrow invests his gourmet cuisine know-how into the business by bringing some of his own recipes to the menu.

"I've had a love for cooking since I was younger. I went to school for other things at first, but finally got a culinary degree from Johnson & Wales University," said Perrow.

Not only is Small Plates a place to eat, it has both an indoor and outdoor bar. Below the main dining area is The Dam Bar, a casual, full-service bar and lounge where guests can dance to and enjoy live music or a disc jockey on Friday and Saturday evenings. The outdoor R11 tiki bar is situated at the shoreline a few hundred feet away from the restaurant. It serves lunch and dinner seven days a week and has live music on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Restaurant Manager Collin White said many of the tiki bar's guests arrive by boat.

"People at the tiki bar usually arrive by boat and dock at the marina," said White. "They hang out there for a while, then sometimes head over to the restaurant for dinner or dancing. The tiki bar is really popular."

Perrow said Small Plates has done well in its first summer.

"In July, we had a 50 percent increase over June. When the weather is pretty, we're really busy because we get a lot of our traffic by water. We have a limousine that brings people from the marina to the restaurant. When it's raining, we don't have as big of a crowd," he said.

According to waitress Rebecca Coffey, diners seem to like the food at Small Plates.

"I've worked at a lot of [restaurants], traveled across the United States and worked at a lot of resorts. Honestly, I was skeptical of tapas-style dining here at the lake. My first night here I served a table of six and a table of eight, and they told me it was the best meal they'd ever had in their life," she said.

Perrow also owns other businesses in Roanoke, but he said launching Small Plates has been his priority this summer.

"It's a big job, it's a lot of work. It's been a while since I owned a restaurant and I'd forgotten how much work it was, but it's also something you've got to love," said Perrow.

Perrow said he plans to keep the restaurant open year-round and add holiday events to its attractions. Small Plates Restaurant and The Dam Bar opens at 5:30 p.m. everyday except Tuesdays. The R11 Tiki Bar is open daily, 11:30 a.m. to sunset.

Small Plates, 16111 Smith Mountain Lake Parkway, Huddleston. smallplatessml.com or 297-2072