Business Profile: Elderberry's

By Maddie Abram
December 6, 2008

When first walking into the smoothie, wrap, and tea establishment Elderberry's Meg Hodgkins said, "it gives off a welcoming feeling the second you walk in the door." 

"With its teal blue sponge-painted interior and chalkboard menu, I knew immediately that I would like this place," Hodgkins said.

In first hearing the word Elderberry, one might think of the fruit, a purple-black fruit of the elder tree. It is a healthful fruit with medicinal properties. In the New River Valley the word Elderberry is common, as many automatically think of the smoothie, wrap, and tea establishment. 

The Elderberry's in Roanoke first opened in 2001. Years of planning went into the process before the store first opened its doors. "We took the fruit because it's homegrown, unique and rare, Diane Elder said. We used our last name, Elder, and that's how we did the twist on the name."

Keeping it in the family was also important. "We used to call our kids Elderberry's," Elder said. "When we opened the first shop my youngest was in a backpack on my back at the store, my 10-year-old worked at the register and made smoothies, and my son also worked the register."

They wanted to beat the odds. More restaurants fail than make it in the first seven years of business. The Elders wanted to involve their family and have a successful profit with good service. They also wanted to make sure to involve the communities and schools.

The Elders' plan is to grow slow. When they started looking to expand they included Diane Elder's sister and brother-in-law, Kathy and Larry Sultze. The four now co-own the Blacksburg store. The original store is based in Roanoke; they knew they wanted to keep it close. Although they had numerous offers Blacksburg made sense for them as Virginia Tech graduates. They said they figured it would be the perfect market. They cater and are eager to serve for tailgates and pack meals for events and teams. 

Fairmont properties solicited for Elderberry's to come to Blacksburg for 18 months. The Elders have seen many smoothie shops come and go. As for backgrounds in the industry, Alan Elder is a food and beverage operations type, while Diane Elder has a background in marketing and sales.

Elder and Sultze explained that each smoothie has a story. They started with 15 in the Roanoke store and have expanded to many more. Both Elder and Sultze say children inspirited many of the smoothies, with names like Mad's Mango Berry and Nic's Nana Split. They explained that Rachel's Dream came from a little girl who sat at the bar and would say if she liked a smoothie or not. She finally liked this one with milk, orange sherbert, banana, and vanilla yogurt, so they named it after her.

Hopefully this is a place where children will ask their parents to go to for a reward. The Elder's want to have people continue to come back. Elder and Sultze told the story of a little boy whose parents gave him a reward chart. If he behaved, he was allowed to go anywhere he wanted and get anything he would like. He chose Elderberry's and ordered the largest smoothie they sell, the 32 oz.

Kathy Sultze said of the Blacksburg store, "We've already have five people come back multiple times and we only just opened." She and her sister both want to know their customers, the regulars who continue to come back time and time again.

Michele Lewis, M.S., R.D., has heard of Elderberry's and plans to check out the menu to see how the smoothies are made. "If smoothies are not sweetened with sugar, use fresh and frozen fruit, as well as low fat dairy products she would probably have a favorable opinion," Lewis said. 

"Elderberry's promises to provide the freshest products available with the greatest taste," Elder said.