Here’s why Riverwalk’s newest restaurant may feel familiar to old school Rock Hill
What do you get when you mix a blast from Rock Hill’s food past with one of its newer, up and coming neighborhoods?
You get Blend.
The Demas family plans to open the new restaurant at 652 Herrons Ferry Road, suite 113, in Riverwalk. New equipment arrived on the truck Tuesday morning. Blend could be open by month’s end.
Pete Demas spent two decades in Rock Hill starting back in 1970, at Pete’s Snack Bar. His son Peter and Peter’s new wife Caitlin also are partners in Blend.
“Using your creative mind to blend the perfect meal,” Caitlin Demas said of the new concept. “It’ll be salads, sandwiches, smoothies, wraps, power bowls.”
The plan is fresh healthy foods, Peter Demas said, where the customer is as big a part of a great meal as the Blend staff.
“We’ll have a few signature dishes, but the rest of it is we want the customer to create their own, blend their own meals,” he said. “Create their own type of foods.”
Peter and Caitlin Demas grew up in Charlotte. He had family in Rock Hill. The pair brought their dog to walk at Riverwalk and eventually moved to the neighborhood, where they will live within walking distance of Blend.
“We like the neighborhood,” Peter Demas said. “It’s hard to find places like this, with the river and everything, anywhere.”
The building where Blend is located fronts the Catawba River. It includes the new Tony’s Cantina Mexican Grill that opened last month, and a variety of retail spots. The site is close to The Pump House and river access points.
“More and more people are learning about this place,” Pete Demas said. “And it’s just good clean family fun. You float all the way to Great Falls or almost to Gastonia the other way. It’s just nice to have that choice that a lot of communities don’t have.”
His experience with Pete’s Snack Bar made the new venture an easy choice.
“They’re good people in this town,” Pete Demas said. “Luckily we came back here, I guess for this reason. And also to meet new friends here, make new friends. New development here is going to help us a lot.”
Some of the lessons learned from Pete’s Snack Bar will influence the new venture.
“I’m not going to serve it if I don’t eat it,” Pete Demas said. “So that’s my motto. And give you enough where you’re satisfied and come back.”
The key for Blend, he said, is freshness.
“The products that we’re going to put in here are going to be as fresh as we can possibly get,” Pete Demas said. “Whether it’s off the farm, we’re trying to connect with some farmers. So we want people to come in here and eat something they can’t find nowhere else.”
Restaurant hours, days open and other details will be set in coming weeks. Caitlin Demas said she’ll provide updates on Instagram and other platforms. The ownership team, part deep Rock Hill roots and part vibrant new Rock Hill community, sees a lot of themselves in Blend.
“I moved down here,” Pete Demas said. “I lived down here. I invested down here, and I know a lot of people down here. It feels good to come back home.”
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 8:34 AM.
