ROCKINGHAM — A local business owner is expanding into her own space in Plaza North off of U.S. 1 North next to the Food Lion where she hopes she will reach an under-served area for restaurants — and achieve one of her dreams in the process.
Marsha Reynolds, co-owner of Village Mart Grill which has been attached to the Village Mart convenience store on Airport Road since September 2018, will open The Grille, a sit-down restaurant that will offer a salad bar, homemade sandwiches and soups along with special steak nights.
Reynolds said she has worked for her mother, Jenny Reynolds, who owns the Number 1 Diner, since the diner opened and always dreamed of opening her own restaurant.
“(My mom) made me believe I could do it,” she said. “I never believed I could do what she did,” until she saw a vacancy sign and took a shot calling the number.
Reynolds plans to open The Grille some time before July 1 after about a two-month process of making the move. She said it will serve lunch and dinner and will stay open late for the Raiders’ home games in the fall, so that fans don’t end up “wrapping their cars all the way around McDonald’s” on Friday nights.
“This is a hometown thing and I want to take care of my hometown people,” Reynolds said.
The biggest change, she said, from moving out of the convenience store will be space for seating.
“It’s a bigger area with a bigger kitchen … In the gas station I was limited to what I could sell and do because of space,” Reynolds said. “I want to come and sit down and relax, not be in a rush.”
Reynolds received an outpouring of support on Facebook, with pictures of work being done on the space receiving 621 likes as of Thursday night and over 550 comments. Many commenters expressed relief at having a restaurant option along U.S. 1 North instead of having to travel to U.S. 74.
“(A sit-down restaurant) is a need on that side of town, that side of town is blowing up,” she said referring to the Sandhills Center’s new comprehensive care center being built on U.S. 1 and the purchase of the Rockingham Speedway which promises to bring countless events to the area for years to come.
“It’s unreal,” she said. “It is really hard to believe.”
