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Canyons of the Blue Ridge—The Culmination of Bart Conway’s Talents

Story by Sam Calhoun

After starting eight different businesses, including being the co-owner of P.B. Scott’s Music Hall and owner of the Tumbleweed Restaurant and Cottonwood Brewery, Bart Conway settled down in Blowing Rock six years ago and opened Canyons of the Blue Ridge—a well-kept roadhouse-type restaurant and bar that is known for its eclectic menu that features Southwestern and Mexican fare, weekly live music and the most honest drinks in town.

In the summer of 2001, Conway acquired The Emporium Restaurant in Blowing Rock, the former Holly’s Tavern, to continue what has become a High Country tradition—casual fine dining in a unique atmosphere with a seemingly endless selection of cuisine. Six years later, Canyons is known just as much for its food, music and green practices as it is known for the view of the canyons below Blowing Rock from which it takes its name.

To fully understand Canyons, you must first understand Conway’s path to Blowing Rock.

Born in Washington D.C. and raised in Winston-Salem, Conway jumped immediately into the business world as a young man, owning and operating a wide selection of businesses—too many to recount.

His many careers eventually led him to Blowing Rock in the 1970s—his parents owned a cottage just outside the town—where he thought he would teach skiing. Instead, Conway became co-owner of P.B. Scott’s Music Hall and began his long career in the High Country hospitality world.

After P.B. Scott’s closed and Conway tried a few other business ventures, he ended up opening the Tumbleweed Restaurant in Boone, located at the present day Parthenon Restaurant and MAP Realty, in 1989. The idea for Tumbleweed came to Conway while he was on a ski vacation in Taos, New Mexico. During the trip, Conway was introduced to authentic Mexican and Southwestern food—food that was worlds different from the chain Mexican restaurants common on the East Coast. He decided that he had to bring the flavors he experienced in Taos to the East Coast, thus Tumbleweed was born.

But Tumbleweed wasn’t simply a Mexican and Southwestern restaurant, it also included a brewery that made its own beer that was sold at the restaurant. Situated at the entrance to ASU on Highway 321, the restaurant and brewery took off and quickly became a hot spot for the college crowd.

In 1995, a chain Mexican restaurant in the Midwest, also called Tumbleweed, sued Conway over the name and he was forced to pick a new one. To decide, Conway hosted a contest where the grand prize was a keg of the brewery’s beer. An ASU professor came up with the idea to name it Cottonwood, referencing a tree common in the Southwest.

So, in 1995, Tumbleweed Restaurant changed its name to the Cottonwood Brewery—the same year that Kenny Baughman, Cottonwood’s brewer, won a bronze medal at the Great American Beer Festival for Cottonwood’s Belgian Amber Framboise. The award spoke volumes for Baughman and the brewery as 2,000 beers from around the country enter the contest annually.

With the accolades and the new name came growing pains and Conway decided to move the restaurant to Blowing Rock Road in 1996. The new location didn’t fare as well for Conway as the original site and the restaurant and brewery dissolved over the next two years. Conway eventually settled with his partners and went on to trade in the stock market for a few years before opening Canyons in 2001.

When Cottonwood closed, the new brewer at the restaurant took the recipes to Mooresville where he opened the Carolina Brewing Company. The brewing company’s Low Down Brown beer went on to win a bronze medal at the Great American Beer Festival.

With all this experience in the High Country restaurant realm, Conway culminated his talents to open Canyons in 2001. He kept the popular Southwestern and Mexican fare from Tumbleweed and Cottonwood but he added traditional meals as well so that every type of customer could find a dish that suited them at his new restaurant.

“We have various menus because we deal with so many different types of people,” said Conway, who prides himself and his staff on making everything on the menu from scratch and “using local greens at every opportunity.”

In addition to the extensive and eclectic menu, Conway offers new food specials twice daily—at least four for both lunch and dinner.

From The Emporium—the restaurant that inhabited the space at 8960 Valley Boulevard in Blowing Rock before Canyons opened—Conway changed the menu, added music and a stage, put color on the walls and did his best to change the atmosphere.

“But we did maintain the roadhouse feel of this place,” said Conway. “You can’t reproduce this.”

Conway is known for his taste in good music and he makes sure that musical acts are playing at his restaurant every Friday and Saturday night. On Sundays, Conway hosts a jazz brunch with Todd Wright—a tradition that Conway has made a part of his restaurants since 1993.

Conway is most proud of his staff, though.

“I’ve got a great core of people,” said Conway, who said that some of his employees have been with him since Canyons opened. “And my kitchen staff just works their butts off as you can imagine since all our food is made from scratch.”

Conway employs more than 60 people at Canyons.

“They do all the work. I’m just the gum that holds it all together,” said Conway.

Conway teaches his staff to treat people well under every circumstance—a philosophy he thinks is crucial when working in the hospitality business.

“We treat our patrons like gold,” said Conway.

In the future, Conway wants to continue what he’s doing—serving good food, pouring “honest” drinks and booking the best in live music.

Considering that Conway is a man that has had his hand in multiple successful and epic businesses in the High Country, we can’t wait to see what he does next.

Canyons of the Blue Ridge is located at 8960 Valley Boulevard in Blowing Rock. The restaurant and bar serve lunch and dinner seven days a week from 11:00 a.m. to after midnight—food specials change twice daily. For more information, call 828-295-7661, click to www.canyonsbr.com or email info@canyonsbr.com.