Quick: Hoos or Hokies?
If you’re the type who has a deeply considered and passionate response to this question, Restaurantarama has A) nothing in common with you, and B) just the restaurant for you. Seriously—we are not a sports person. Blame it on one too many withering glances from not-at-all-well-meaning jocks in our high school PE class, as volleyballs hit the floor right next to our feet, or our whiffleball bat, well, whiffed. But that’s our problem, not yours. We can well imagine that for many of our hungry readers, the sight of sweaty uber-people doing strenuous things within given spatiotemporal limits is extremely appetizing. And that alliance to a particular team can lend great drama to a meal.
 Get yer deep fried crab balls and yer favorite team fix at Rivals, the latest occupant of the building that used to house Wolfie’s. |
Which is why Rivals exists. What once was Wolfie’s, the bar and smokehouse on Rio Road, is now a monument to fandom. It’s very simple, really, as co-owner Gregg Powell explains: “I’m a Virginia fan, and my partner is a Tech fan.” Hence the restaurant’s divided decor: half orange’n’blue, half orange’n’maroon. Sit on whichever side makes you feel more powerful.
Powell and his partner Randy Snead took the place over from Powell’s brother Allen last October. (Allen Powell had run the place as Wolfie’s since late 2002; before that, it was a Cajun joint called Boudreau’s). They’ve gutted the space, rebuilt the bar, and added a slew of screens: 16 plasmas TVs with totally muscular 42" and 50" measurements. While you gaze at giants of sport on these giants of electronica, you can dine on a new menu that offers stuff from the smoker (smoked ribs, BBQ platter, “smoked bird”) and a bunch of sandwiches and burgers. And, of course, you can drink.
“Tech fans didn’t really have a place,” allows Powell, generously (remember, he’s our Hoo in this story). Rivals had its grand opening on January 19. In reference to the dance club attached to the restaurant, which used to be Club Rio and is now Club Rivals, Powell says he and Snead have “cleaned it up tremendously” and plan to offer live music on Saturday nights in the space.
Sports phobias aside, we commend for Rivals for having its finger on the national pulse, what with bipartisanship the ostensible watchword in D.C. at the moment. As for which display of cooperation will last longer, well, that’s an easy call.
New room in the inn
Speaking of sports bars on Route 29N: Damon’s (“The Place for Ribs”) Grill, which has for nine years been the resident eatery in the Emmet Street Holiday Inn, is now called First Place Grille. A plastic sign announced the change a couple of weeks ago, and we called up hotel manager Charles Friend to get the lowdown.
It seems the owners of the Inn, who have managed Damon’s as a franchise for five years, decided to de-franchise and renovate at the end of 2006. “Of course we still like the same format of the sports grill,” said Friend. “It’ll be a more upscale sports grill when we’re finished.”
Somewhat confusingly, the restaurant, menu and all, is already open in the old Damon’s space, but will shut down for renovations April 1 and re-open in a different part of the hotel about five months later. That should go a long way toward making it “upscale,” as the Damon’s spot has, frankly, seen better days.
Winds of change
Looks like the hip little Asian joint Monsoon, located in a so-close-yet-so-far spot just off the Downtown Mall, may have floated away on the breeze: A sign on the door and its outgoing phone message both say, “Closed for the holidays,” but, um, the holidays are over. We’ll keep checking on it.
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