Food & Drink in Cave Spring

At SoRo Chill & Grille, culinary wizards decorate plates with locally grown produce and Cajun-style meats and seafood, garnering it praise as one of Southwest Roanoke County's Best New Things in 2010 from the Roanoke Times' SWoCo. Quartets can overture dinner symphonies with appetizers of the 12-piece new orleans barbecue shrimp, which simmers in a traditional creole sauce meant to be sopped up with crusty french bread or unusually absorbent mustaches. Entrees such as the pasta Mardi Gras fill noodle-shaped voids in diners' stomachs with Cajun-cream-sauce-cosseted fettuccine adorned by crawfish, andouille sausage, and blackened chicken breast. The rib platter's half-rack of slow-cooked meat morsels saunters to the table with fries and a piquant barbecue sauce, spurring on twosomes to finger-paint plates with love letters to the chef.

The one-hour golf-simulator experience typically leaves enough time for each person in a group of two to play 18 holes and each person in a group of four to play at least nine holes.

The grill gurus at Smoqin’ Odie’s Grill and Smokehouse sizzle up a lunch and dinner menu burgeoning with burgers, pulled pork, and steak. Sauces ranging from spicy jamaican jerk to tangy chipotle lime outfit slow-cooked wings ($3.99 for 6; $7.49 for 12) more tastily than miniature leather vests. The friendly staff whisks entrees to tables such as the Smoqin’ Odie’s Big Burger, whose char-grilled half-pound patty day dreams on a fluffy 5-inch Kaiser bun ($4.49), or the Smokehouse chili, which is loaded with smoked brisket simmered with ground beef and chilies ($2.99/cup; $4.29/bowl). Mouths water at the aroma of hickory-smoked Boston butt in a pulled-pork sandwich ($4.49 regular; $6.99 jumbo), and hands comfort provolone as it faints onto the savory brisket tucked into a hefty hoagie bun ($7.99).

The staff at Yogurt Cafe fills self-serve yogurt machines with a menu of flavors that rotate every 10 days. Guests sculpt smooth, spiraling hillocks of frozen yogurt ($0.45/ounce) in flavors such as carrot cake, classic vanilla or chocolate, and mango tango and heap on ornaments from a range of more than 50 toppings. Fresh fruit, candy corn, and butterscotch sauce help hide snowy yogurt peaks from scorned skiers, and the aromas of roasting Caribou coffee ($1.50–$1.70) drift in earthy clouds over mochas ($4.25), which warm up frozen windpipes and sluggish neurons. Sweet teeth sink into baked delights such as raspberry- walnut pastries ($1.99 for three) and blueberry scones ($2.25) to quiet tummies grumbling like Smokey the Bear touring a fireworks factory, and patrons check emails on Yogurt Cafe's free WiFi.