The guy’s nothing if not ambitious. As we reported several weeks ago, Alejandro Montiel, already piloting a successful ship in Crozet (La Cocina del Sol, that is), took over the former Rococo’s space on Commonwealth Avenue last year. And is he turning it into a restaurant? No, he’s turning it into two restaurants. Restaurantarama recently dropped by for a tour of the two-level effect.
 Alejandro Montiel, already at the helm of one hot business in Crozet, is getting pretty close to the sun with his imminent two-pronged expansion onto the Charlottesville scene. |
We went bottom up. On the lower level, Montiel will open a second, slightly-tweaked-for-Charlottesville branch of La Cocina. His renovations have been clean and stylish; the space has a nice flow to it, thanks to the curving walls and bar. And we liked the furniture: red- and blue-upholstered chairs, slender teardrop lamps over booths, plus red molded bar seats that look like they’d hold you in even after cinco margaritas. (“Passion fruit margaritas,” recommends Montiel.)
Another feel-good trick: “We’re going to be the first restaurant to have a kids’ bar,” he says. Said kids’ bar caused Restaurantarama to utter an uncharacteristic “Awwww!” when we first spotted it in a corner. Those cute little stools! Instead of shelves of liquor, the bar has cubbies with wooden toy bins, plus a TV for screening Disney movies. Tykes are sequestered; parents still have a clear view. “You don’t have to pay for the babysitter anymore,” explains Montiel.
The menu down here will be just like the Southwestern-flavored one Crozetians know and love, including some recent additions like traditional pozole (a hominy and pork stew) and a veggie version of tacos. Montiel told us he’d open Charlottesville’s La Cocina March 7.
Then it was upstairs, via a generous red wooden staircase. Montiel describes it as a brasseria (and may even call it Brasseria Montiel). What’s that mean to you, hungry reader? Several things: a coffeeshop with pastries and—get this—a chocolate fountain into which you can dip dried fruit, eclairs, fresh strawberries and other goodies. (Between this and the kids’ bar, this whole building hints at some kind of Wonkaesque fantasyland.)
More significantly, it means that, as Montiel puts it, “It’s going to be full service, but if you want to walk in and take a couple roasted legs of lamb you’re welcome to do it.” So there’s a prix-fixe menu and tables to accommodate a sit-down meal, but there’s also a big deli case full of prepared stuff to go. On the menu: roasted duck, rotisserie chicken and pork, and a range of salads from cucumber-and-mango to tomato mozzarella.
The look is equally open and modern upstairs. Montiel says the brasseria will open about two weeks after La Cocina below it.
The interconnectedness of these two distinct restaurants is symbolized by a not-yet-constructed outdoor deck that will have levels both upstairs and downstairs—and by Montiel himself, who buzzes around wearing a toolbelt and says that after a career spent executing the visions of big companies like Ritz-Carlton, “It’s been a good change for me to make all the decisions.”
Correction
Last week, in reporting on the new Royal Indian Restaurant in Forest Lakes, we made two errors. First of all, we misspelled the name of the proprietor, Ravinder Dahiya. More importantly, we were wrong when we said that Dahiya also owned Milan. Milan is in fact owned by partners Jaswinder Singh and Charanjeet Ghotra, who used to employ Dahiya in the kitchen. Dahiya also formerly owned some shares in Milan. Milan and Royal Indian Restaurant are two separate businesses, not connected in any way. We are as red-faced over this as if we’d just eaten some dish labeled “Indian hot” off the menu.
Quick bite
A sign at the former Hong Kong building on Emmet Street promises something called Savour is coming soon.
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