ROANOKE, Va. – Construction is underway on a coffeehouse in Fishburn Park, following a couple years of back and forth between future owners, neighbors, and Roanoke City Council.
It’s a dream soon to become reality for the vanBlaricom family, as they get to work on the “Fishburn Perk” coffeehouse, named after the TV show “Friends.”
“It’s called Central Perk because it’s in Central Park,” Maddy vanBlaricom said. “I was like it’s in Fishburn Park, and what could be more perfect?”
Maddy vanBlaricom is a senior at Patrick Henry High, she dreamed of one day opening her own coffeehouse, but her parents told her she should just start now.
“I said yes, I think I know just the building that we might be able to run a really cool coffee shop out of,” mother Keri vanBlaricom said. “So I brought her here, we walked around.”
It’s been a two-year process, with some people voicing concerns that the coffeehouse would take over the public park and green space it sits in.
“We had some opposition,” vanBlaricom said. “We had some things to really like, clarify, and pursue with both the city and the neighborhood.”
Now, things are back on track, and they’ve already got boots on the ground, fixing the house up and preserving the history of the house built in the early to mid-1800s ′s as best they can.
“Really cool discovery process, mostly excavating under the porch since it was the most in disrepair, but we have broken China, medicine bottles, a lot of glass from different periods,” Keri vanBlaricom said.
Pieces that one day will be displayed inside the coffee shop.
“It definitely has changed my perspective a lot of like what I can do with my life and my future,” Maddy vanBlaricom said. “I can make things happen if it’s something I want, if it’s something that I feel adds to my life and adds to other peoples’.”