BEYOND THE FLAVOR
A blog and table for two
Food blogs are a dime a dozen, unless it’s the collaborative effort of two sought-after photographers with a shared love for our booming local food scene. In March, career and officemates Andrea Hubbell and Sarah Cramer Shields launched Beyond the Flavor, a blog celebrating the color and talent behind our town’s culinary craftspeople, and every week we’ve been pulling up a chair to virtually devour a new dish and the story behind it.
Told through words (Hubbell’s and Shields’ narrative mingles with the subjects’ own quotations) and photographs (Hubbell focuses on shots of the food and interiors while Shields captures the person), each contributor’s preparation of a favorite recipe offers a unique glimpse into who they are and what inspires him or her to do what they do so well.
From tavola’s Michael Keaveny to Caromont Farm’s Gail Hobbs-Page, Beyond the Flavor shines a downright hunger-inducing spotlight on the farmers, bakers, chefs, retailers, and artisans who work hard every day to bring deliciousness to our table.
With close to 20 contributors and a working list of several dozen more, the pair isn’t short on fodder. They’ve even turned the cameras around on their own creations in the kitchen.
For now, Beyond the Flavor’s simply a passion project for Hubbell and Shields, but given all of the talent behind it, a groundswell is inevitable.
CIDER
C is for cider
From TJ’s time to World War II, the Virginia Piedmont was apple country, ruled by heritage varieties like the Albemarle Pippin and the Virginia Winesap (both still around) and myriad obscure varieties (like the Taliaferro and the Red Limbertwig) that aren’t. Of course people ate apples back then, but they prized them for making hard cider, an effervescent alcoholic tonic that preserved well and took the edge off the long, country work day. Hard cider bears no resemblance to the stuff you pick up in a gallon milk jug at a pick-your-own orchard. Clear and champagne-like in color, the taste should reflect a balance between tannin, sugar, and acid, just like good wine. Hard cider is experiencing a renaissance in our part of the world, where you can find four local cideries making first rate stuff that’s readily available in restaurants and wine shops: Foggy Ridge (Dugspur), Albemarle Ciderworks (North Garden), Potter’s Craft (Charlottesville), and Castle Hill (Keswick). If you’re new to hard cider, try it with cheese or instead of beer during summer lunch.
FARMERS’ MARKETS
Locavore love
Charlottesville and Albemarle residents have long been on the local food bandwagon, and the area shows its dedication to local farmers and artisans through multiple markets for those of us who just can’t get enough fresh fruits and veggies.
Most well known are the markets in Downtown Charlottesville, Meade Park, and Pen Park.
With over 100 vendors including farmers, artists, chefs, and bakers, the Charlottesville City Market, located in the Water Street parking lot, attracts thousands of shoppers every Saturday from 7am to noon.
For those who want fresh, local produce without rolling out of bed early and battling the Saturday crowds, Pen Park is also home to a farmers’ market on Tuesdays during the summer months. From 3-7pm, the Market at Pen Park offers local fruits and veggies, as well as grass-fed meats and handmade crafts.
Farmers in the Park, Charlottesville’s first “growers only market,” sets up at Meade Park on the corner of Chesapeake and Meade avenues May-September. Every Wednesday from 3-7pm, vendors offer fresh fruits, veggies, plants, herbs, meat, poultry, eggs, dairy products, and baked goods.
If those three aren’t enough for Charlottesville/Albemarle residents, check out the Forest Lakes and Scottsville farmers’ markets. Surrounding counties, including Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson, also offer weekly markets for their own locavores.
NEWS IN BREWS
Looking for a new brew to fuel your midsummer
bacchanals? These local breweries can quench your thirst with prize-winning style. Blue Mountain is offering a new cork-and-cage line, including the Dark Hallow and Mandolin Artisanal Ales, soon to be followed by a re-release of the über-popular überPils. On draft, find the Steel Wheels ESB (Extra Strong/Special Bitter) for those who take their beer drinking seriously. Devils Backbone celebrates the opening of a new brewery facility with a widely expanded distribution of its World Beer Cup Gold Award-winning Vienna Lager, backed up with the release of the 8-Point IPA, Congo Belgian Ale and the Gold Leaf Lager. Wild Wolf has released a crowd-pleasing American Pilsner and a limited edition version of the Smoked Scottish Ale designed in honor of Capital Ale House’s tenth anniversary, filling out its impressive roster with the veteran Wild Hunny Blonde Ale. For those intrepid mavericks in search of a tasty beer alternative, Bold Rock is making waves with a pair of ciders, the Virginia Apple and the Virginia Draft, both of which boast 100 percent native Virginia apples in their presses.
NEW NOSH SPOTS
New and notable
If you’d sooner spend your hard-earned good behavior points on something sweeter than a whiskey sour, Paradox Pastry opened up in the Glass Building this summer. Paris-trained pastry chef Jenny Peterson is a competitive runner who’s gone the extra mile to devise new ways to tempt your taste for high-calorie sweets. That’s the paradox, she admits, but the only confusion you’ll feel gazing through the window of her display case is whether to opt for something classic, like an almond torte, or something fabulous, like a slice of Kennedy and Greg’s Wedding Cake, which comes slathered with lavender mousseline and lemon curd.
For all you Downtown types (philosophically, we mean) the Black Market Moto Saloon materialized at Market and Meade with no born-on date. In this era of convergence, the lines between Belmont and Woolen Mills, between rockabilly and art house, between vegan and biker are blending.
Happily, former Tea Bazaar front man Matteus Frankovich has no trouble stirring up the scene and shaking it into a tall glass. You can get a stiff drink, hot tunes, and jerk chicken in an industrial bar space that feels exactly like a bar in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village.
SPICE DIVA
Spice of life
The great thing about living in a true foodie town is that the devotion to dining well goes beyond the grocery stores and gourmet restaurants.
Tucked away in the temple to good eats that is the Main Street Market is the Spice Diva, a snug little shop with walls lined with hundreds of jars of herbs and spices from all corners of the world. At the helm is Phyllis Hunter (an actual diva—she was an opera singer for years), who had dreamed of opening her own store after falling in love with the flavors and aromas of freshly ground spices she found out West.
The dream came true last year. Step inside Hunter’s little haven and you’ll not only get an olfactory treat, you’ll come away with just what you need to elevate your own dishes to a whole new level.
THE TAVERN
Takes the ’cakes
’Twas the night before Christmas 2011 when beloved local breakfast joint The Tavern closed its doors for good after 30 years in business. The lodge-style spot across from Barracks Road Shopping Center was famous for its decadent pancakes, UVA-themed decor, and rooftop sign denoting where “students, tourists and townpeople meet.” We’re still mourning the loss (and those addictive bacon ’cakes), but as Alfred Lord Tennyson once said (sort of), “Better to have pancaked and lost, than never to have pancaked at all.”
TINY DESSERTS
Teensy treats
If a moment on the lips means forever on the hips, then it stands to reason that by cutting that moment in half, you also skimp on the calories. Take a quick bite (literally, one bite!) out of one of these local delicacies to curb your craving: Bambino cones at Splendora’s (recommended: salted caramel), honey bunches at Java Java and C’ville Coffee (sweet and healthy—especially for kiddos!), and mini cupcakes at Sweethaus ($1 of pure deliciousness).
FOOD TRENDS
Trendy yet tasty
Who cares about the new black? Our favorite trends are the edible, drinkable ones. Here’s a trio that will fill your bellies and wet your whistles.
Pho (“fuh”) is a Vietnamese noodle soup with a huge following. At the Paramount in October, Anthony Bourdain said it’s his ultimate comfort food and from all the hoots and hollers in the crowd, we dig it too. Ten’s Pei Chang served up a version at his December Handsome Boy Noodles pop-up (if you could get a seat), and now puts it on the menu at The Box, where his pop-up creations have gone permanent. Noodle slurpers waited with bated breath for Zinc owner Vu Nguyen’s Moto Pho Co., which opened in early August in the Main Street Market Annex.
About those pop-ups. Chang’s noodle shop at Ten was the first, but these temporary eateries have taken shape in our town as one-night-only chances to dine on food from another cuisine or another chef at a favorite restaurant. Bread baker Rick Easton did brunch at The Box in January, and in March, a group of chef friends brought Grass & Grub to 200 guests seated on the Jefferson Theater’s stage. Michael Keaveny’s trattoria, tavola, went pan-Asian with the Marco Polo pop-up in April, and every month or so, roving farm dinner company Hill & Holler sets a table in a farm field, where you feast on local food and wine with grass tickling your feet.
For those in search of a stiff drink, few make a cocktail better than Nick Crutchfield at the Skybar, where he runs seasonal specials like blueberry vodka topped with ginger beer and an orange slice. But it’s the return of old-school cocktails—like the drinks of New Orleans circa 1880-1910—that Crutchfield’s the most jazzed about. He’s staunch about following classic recipes to a T (he claims that no two bars on the Mall make a Sazerac the same) and uses one large ice cube in certain drinks because the single cube melts slowly without diluting the booze. Cheers to that.
VINEYARDS
Vineyards with views
It’s a fact: Jefferson’s Virginia has great wine. But the vineyards that lie just outside of Charlottesville also have unparalleled views—and a few rise above the rest when it comes to giving you something to see as well as to sip.
Crozet’s King Family Vineyards, home to posh polo matches and some great varietals, is situated almost exactly a mile from the easternmost slopes of the Blue Ridge—the perfect distance to take in the forested peaks from a comfortable seat on the patio or under the shade of the pergola.
To get up close and personal with the hills, drive 18 miles south on 29 to DelFosse Vineyards, nestled in a narrow Nelson County hollow, where the grape vines grow on terraced slopes reminiscent of old-world estates.
Should you grow tired of mountain views (for shame!), head north up Route 20 to Barboursville Vineyards, where you can take in the sight of the brooding ruins of an 1814 mansion designed by Thomas Jefferson while you sample some of the winery’s well-loved reds.
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