"Initially we were thinking of opening a nice little restaurant for the tourists. And then once we started doing renovations, four or five months ago, a lot of locals started showing up and telling us about the history of the White Oak Country Club, saying they used to come here many years ago."
That is Alan Greenstein, owner of New River Tavern & Bistro, speaking to WOAY in July about the building at 1206 Summerlee Road. Four months later, his restaurant has a take-home Thanksgiving dinner sized for a family table, a Sunday brunch, and a downstairs private room that holds 30. All three fit a town gathering place better than a stop for visitors passing through. The clubhouse's first holiday season shows which way the business turned.
A Social Center Since 1922
The White Oak course opened in 1922. West Virginia Tourism lists it as a nine-hole, par-35 layout covering 3,143 yards from the longest tees.
In 1951 the club hosted the West Virginia Open. According to the West Virginia Golf Association's tournament history, Ed Tutwiler, an amateur from Mount Hope, started the last day two strokes behind and shot 66 and 68 "on his home course" to win by six. He accepted his trophy from Gov. Okey Patteson. He was only the second amateur to win that championship.
Golf was only part of the story. In a July 3, 1973 Beckley Post-Herald column, reproduced online, Shirley Donnelly wrote about three trips to White Oak during a single week "on the banquet circuit." He called the club the "popular Fayette County social center." Banquets, dinners and a room people kept coming back to are the history the locals carried with them when they stopped by during the renovation.
The Menu Came From the People Who Remembered the Room
Greenstein spent eight months on the building, WOAY reported. He added two commercial kitchens and turned the upstairs into an event space. The station reported that the people who shared memories of the club also told him what they wanted to eat. The list he gave WOAY included big hanging pretzels, fried pickles, wings, a Philly steak, six kinds of burgers, crab cakes and mac and cheese.
He described the same process to The Register-Herald. "What are you missing? What do you like? What do West Virginians like?" he said, describing months of testing and feedback. The paper also reported that the restaurant buys its meat from a local butcher and its produce from an area supplier. He told the paper how he sees the place: "We're a restaurant first, family-friendly, with a bar if you want a cocktail."
The early crowds matched that plan. WVNS reported on June 25 that the restaurant sold more than 100 steaks in its first four days. A week later, Greenstein told WOAY the soft opening had been "doing 200 heads a night for dinner." Tim Naylor of the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce told The Register-Herald that seeing the former club brought back to life was welcome news for the surrounding community.
Thanksgiving, Packed for Pickup
The clearest sign of who the clubhouse now cooks for is its Thanksgiving Meals To Go order form. The meal is built around an 8-to-10-pound turkey breast, a size meant for a household feeding a full table at home.
Each meal includes:
- Herb-roasted turkey breast, 8 to 10 pounds, sliced
- Garlic-butter mashed potatoes, green beans almondine, and sage and herb stuffing, one deep half pan each
- Traditional turkey gravy and assorted rolls with butter
- One pound of homestyle cranberry-orange sauce
- A pumpkin or pecan pie
The form offers two sizes. The bigger one costs less per person:
| Option | Price on the form | Cost per person |
|---|---|---|
| Meal for 8 to 12 people | $200 | About $16.67 to $25 |
| Meal for 18 to 20 people | $300 | $15 to about $16.67 |
| Sweet potato casserole, half pan | $50 | Add-on |
| Baked mac and cheese, deep half pan | $65 | Add-on |
| House salad, half pan or deep half pan | $30 or $55 | Add-on |
The per-person figures are simple division of the listed prices. Even so, they show that a family feeding the full 20 pays within a few dollars per plate of the starting price for the restaurant's own catering, which The Loft at White Oak lists from $12 per person. According to the form, orders and payment are due by Friday, November 20, and unpaid orders will be canceled. Pickup is Wednesday, November 25, the day before Thanksgiving.
Oak Hill's Thanksgiving Week, Date by Date
A Wednesday pickup leaves Thanksgiving morning free. That matters because Thursday morning already has a long-running Oak Hill tradition. The city lists the 24th Annual Community Thanksgiving Meal for Thursday, November 26, 2026. Here is how the dates line up from this week forward:
- Saturday, October 31. Pre-orders for the community meal are due for groups of 12 or more meals. Call (681) 688-4128 with your name, phone number, meal count and pickup location. Groups of 11 or fewer don't need to pre-order and are served first come, first served while supplies last.
- Friday, November 20. Last day to order and pay for a New River Tavern & Bistro Thanksgiving meal.
- Wednesday, November 25. Pickup day for the tavern's take-home meals.
- Thursday, November 26. Community meal pickup runs 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Lewis Christian Community Center, 469 Central Ave. in Oak Hill. Pickup is also offered at Smithers Gateway Center, 2 Greyhound Lane in Smithers, and at the SALS Raines Building, one mile south of the Kincaid post office on Route 61.
The October 31 deadline is this Saturday. Anyone pulling together a church group, a workplace or an extended family of a dozen or more has the shortest window of anything on this list.
Sundays and the Rooms Upstairs
When WVNS covered the opening in June, the restaurant was open Tuesday through Saturday, and Greenstein said he hoped to add Sunday brunch. Brunch has since started. The restaurant's posted hours are:
- Monday: closed
- Tuesday through Thursday: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- Friday and Saturday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Sunday: 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Takeout is available through the online ordering tab, through the restaurant's Google page, or by phone at 681-823-2099.
Upstairs, the building's banquet history picks up again. The Loft at White Oak can seat 146 guests or hold 400 standing, Greenstein told The Register-Herald. The downstairs dining room seats 102. He described the Loft as a space for weddings, corporate gatherings and birthday parties. For smaller groups, the event inquiry form also lists a downstairs private dining room for parties of up to 30. That's the right size for an office holiday lunch or a family dinner that would crowd a home table. The Loft's catering page describes options from brunch to plated dinners, all prepared on site by the executive chef, plus on-site bar service.
Greenstein told The Register-Herald that private events, catering and bar sales are part of how he plans to keep the business going, so it doesn't depend on dining room traffic alone. "If you can balance everything and try to get your profit from multiple sources, not just relying on one thing, that is probably going to last you," he said. For a building that Donnelly found on Oak Hill's banquet circuit in 1973, that plan means holiday parties, weddings and Sunday tables are once again the clubhouse's everyday business.
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