Month: August 2014

It’s been eight months since Arch’s Frozen Yogurt on Emmet Street closed up shop. Now, the owner of another yogurt company is gearing up to reopen the space, but the cups of ice cream, cookie dough bites, and whipped cream will be replaced with noodle bowls, Chinese broccoli, and kimchi. Owner Derek Cha, founder of SweetFrog frozen yogurt, said Zzaam!, the area’s first authentic Korean restaurant “with a Mexican twist,” will open its doors in early September.

Zzaam! will serve up freshly grilled meats and tofu cooked in traditional Korean marinades, and guests will build their own meals, Chipotle-style. Cha and his team have completely revamped the shop’s interior, replacing the brightly-colored walls and chalkboard menus with softer, more neutral tones and stonework. Leaning against one of the 10 downstairs tables last week was a stack of glass panels still packaged in plastic wrap, which will soon be installed around the serving line and inevitably covered in smudges from customers peering and pointing at the dozens of options.

“I’ve always been fascinated by Chipotle’s business model. It’s been working great, and Korean food lends itself really well to that model,” Cha said. “Charlottesville is into new, fresh concepts, and quick-serve healthy food with a lot of taste. It’s the perfect market to start this.” 

The menu and the concept are pretty simple. Choose either a rice bowl, a noodle bowl, a platter, a lettuce wrap, three tacos, or the “zzaamburger.” Pick either local chicken, local pork, pork belly, beef, or tofu, then move on down the line to start piling on the toppings. For the $7.95 cost of a meal you get up to seven toppings ($0.50 each for any extras), which include sauteed mushrooms, green peppers, bell peppers, carrots, strips of cooked egg, zucchini, peanuts, crispy onions, kale, potatoes, bean sprouts, and fermented daikon, a southeast Asian root vegetable. Once your bowl or tortillas are loaded up with all the vegetables you can handle, top it all off with one of eight sauces, including classic ginger dressing, spicy teriyaki, sriracha mayo, and a tangy Korean taco sauce.

“People want to make their own creation,” Cha said. “They don’t want just the same hamburger anymore. They want to customize it, and be able to pick and choose.”

For little appetites, a kids’ menu will feature the same bowls in smaller portions for $5, which includes a drink. If the build-your-own Korean creation concept doesn’t strike your fancy, head on upstairs for a plate of Korean wings, edamame, or grilled chicken skewers, with a tall local brew. The second floor room, with two accessible patios and plenty of wall space for giant TVs, is the perfect spot for a bar, Cha said.

The bar will feature 20 beers on tap, bottled imports, and local wines. You won’t find any whiskey or vodka on the menu, but if you have a hankering for a mixed drink with your Korean grub, the barkeeps will have sake on hand to serve hot, cold, and in specialty cocktails. When the weather allows, chefs will also set up shop on the upstairs patios, grilling marinated meats and veggies on skewers in traditional Korean barbecue fashion. For those of you staying inside, expect local sports and “K-pop” (Korean pop music) as the entertainment of choice.

Cha spent the first 12 years of his life in Korea, and moved to the U.S. with his family in 1977. After moving around for several years, he ended up in Virginia in 2008. When the economy took a dive, he said he took note of the growing popularity of serve-yourself frozen yogurt shops, and in 2009 he launched SweetFrog. The Richmond-based froyo empire with the name that stands for “Fully Rely On God” has grown to more than 300 locations, and according to a report by Inc. 500, is the 22nd fastest-growing private company in the country this year. Cha and his business partner Sam Gang—who’s also a chef at Zzaam! and a Korea native—opened Sushi Box, a small Japanese restaurant in Richmond, in 2012, and sold it a few weeks ago. 

Cha didn’t mention franchising Zzaam! any time soon, but he’s already brainstorming other ways to expose Charlottesville to authentic Korean food, like a street food festival. Noodle bowls and skewers don’t even scratch the surface when it comes to his native cuisine, Cha said, and street fare like japchae, a traditional stir-fried dish with sweet potato noodles and vegetables, is a quintessential piece of Korean culture that you can’t find anywhere around here.

If you don’t want to brave the mobs of UVA students on Emmet Street, keep an eye out for the Zzaam! food truck. It serves up a pared-down version of the restaurant’s menu (bowls, tacos, and sliders), and has been making its way back and forth between Charlottes-ville and Richmond since April. 

Farm fun

Charlottesville City Market is a Saturday morning tradition as throngs of locals flood the Water Street parking lot downtown to peruse meats, fruits, veggies and more. On Labor Day, Monday, September 1, those crowds have the chance to see where those yummy local treats come from and meet the folks who grow them. The annual Meet Yer Eats Farm Tour opens 12 local farms to visitors for a $15 day pass. The variety of participating farms means a wide range of products, according to event organizer Nan Janney, program director of Market Central, the organization that supports City Market. In addition to more traditional meat and veggie fare, there will be mushrooms and medicinal herbs, beekeeping, weaving and spinning demos and several workshops. For tickets and a map of participating farms, visit meetyereats.wordpress.com or pick up info and tickets at City Market before the event.

Lettuce celebrate 

Festivals and public events can be tough for a vegetarian, what with the plethora of sliders, corn dogs, and chicken tenders, without a fresh vegetable or hunk of tofu anywhere in the vicinity. But on Saturday, September 27, veggie lovers will unite for the annual Charlottesville Vegetarian Festival. Located in Lee Park, the event will be supported by the Tofurky company and will include tons of food, live music, and cooking demos from local food enthusiasts. As of last week, organizers were still searching for volunteers to lead 45-minute demos, so if you’re interested in sharing your favorite meat-free dish with your fellow vegetarians, mark your calendar and visit the Charlottesville Vegetarian Festival’s Facebook page for more information. 

Food for thought 

Has everything we’ve ever learned about food and exercise been completely wrong? The makers of Fed Up, the “film the food industry doesn’t want you to see,” think so. UVA alum Katie Couric executive produced the documentary along with Laurie David, the producer of An Inconvenient Truth, and she’ll return to Charlottesville this fall to present a special screening of the film at the annual Virginia Film Festival. 

Fed Up, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January of this year, addresses the epidemic of obesity in the U.S. through a combination of interviews with food and nutrition experts and firsthand accounts from overweight young people. The film focuses on sugar, calling it an addictive substance that’s present in more than 80 percent of American food products. It claims that “the government is subsidizing the obesity epidemic” by putting private profit over public health, which is at the root of “one of the great public health epidemics of our time.” It predicts that 95 percent of all Americans will be overweight or obese in two decades, and that one in three people will have diabetes by the year 2050.

The film festival will take place November 6-9, and a schedule will be announced on Tuesday, October 7. For more information about Fed Up visit www.fedupmovie.com.

We’re always keeping an eye out for the latest news on Charlottesville’s food and drink scene, so pick up a paper and check c-ville.com/living each week for the latest Small Bites. Have a scoop for Small Bites? E-mail us at bites@c-ville.com.

The clock is ticking for C’Ville-ian Brewing Company. Business has been slower than expected during the summer months, and if things don’t turn around by the end of the year, owner Steve Gibbs said he’ll have to think hard about changing his model, looking for a buyer, or shutting down altogether.

According to Gibbs (no relation to this writer), Charlottesville’s newest brewery, located on the hottest part of West Main Street, has served about 4,500 customers in its first three months. Gibbs would like to do nearly that much business in a month. At the rate he’s going, he’s breaking even. He’s got big plans for when—or if—C’Ville-ian (pronounced like “civilian”) starts turning a profit.

“I wanted to build the beers, listen to feedback, fine-tune everything, and then go from there to distribution,” Gibbs said. “I didn’t want to distribute 500 gallons of mediocre beer. I want to distribute a fantastic 500 gallons of beer.”

Distribution seems a long way off at this point. Gibbs, who’s moved into beer making after 10-plus years in the U.S. Army, is mainly striving for drinkability. He launched his 42-gallon microbrewhouse in late April with a co-owner who he’s now in the process of buying out. According to Gibbs, the partners didn’t “see eye-to-eye,” and he’s been left financing the place with cash on hand from his deployments to Iraq.

Gibbs hopes his own passion for beer and dream of giving Charlottesville’s craft enthusiasts another great place to hang out will eventually win the war for profitability. C’Ville-ian’s atmosphere and space, with exposed bulb lighting hanging over a sleek bar and cozy couch, is likely its greatest asset, but the current battle against pricey real estate in the middle of town, the learning curve for a short-time homebrewer turning pro, and a handful of negative online reviews have begun to claim casualties.

The most embattled of C’Ville-ian’s brews has been its India pale ale (IPA). The first iteration of the ale, craft beer’s fastest growing style but one of Gibbs’ least favorite, took a lot of heat on Yelp and beer forums like Untappd. Some called it undrinkable. Others suggested there might be a contamination problem. Gibbs blames the beer’s failure on an error in scope.

“I was trying to meet other people’s expectations instead of my own,” he said. “The new IPA is malty and incredibly well balanced. It is not over-the-top hoppy. I’m not a hoppy type of guy.”

The new version of the JPA IPA, a big, 10.2% ABV double IPA, shows Gibbs is more or less on the right track. While it too has an off flavor that might be described as soapy, it’s indeed better than the first attempt. The brewery’s flagship beer, the Rugby Red, highlights another challenge Gibbs is working hard to overcome: carbonation.

“This is a nanobrewery, essentially a home brewery on steroids, and I’m still fooling around with different methods of carbonation,” Gibbs said. “Honestly, that has been one of the most difficult parts of it.”

The challenge, an “enormous” one that Gibbs said is far more important than he figured going in, is in part due to the temperature in C’Ville-ian’s fermentation tanks. Gibbs said he’s had trouble dialing it in, specifically keeping the temp at the outside of his tanks consistent with the inside, but he’s close to leaving the concern behind him.

The bright spot on the C’Ville-ian docket at the moment is the Cavalier Chocolate Stout. The carbonation level is more on par with what you’d expect from the style, and any off flavors are replaced by a subtle mix of chocolate and coffee notes. Brewed with oatmeal added to the malt bill, the beer is bigger than traditional dry stouts but lighter in weight than most American and imperial stouts.

The true test of Gibbs’ brewhouse will come this fall, when activity on West Main ticks up. And while Gibbs expects his location, C’Ville-ian’s laid back game-room feel, and Charlottesville’s taste for artisanal food and drink to drive sales, true growth will no doubt start with continued improvement of the booze. Those bad online reviews and negative buzz among the beer geek community have become landmines. Gibbs will have to sidestep them if he intends to make it through to 2015.

“I really listen to customer feedback,” he said. “If people don’t appreciate the particulars of a beer, why am I making it? If I like it and no one else does, it means it’s no good.”

Gibbs said he’s willing to look for help with his beer. If the financials would allow it, he’d hire a schooled brewmaster to take over the helm. He’s already enlisted assistance from fellow homebrewer John Jones, whose primary gig is at Fifth Season Gardening, Charlottesville’s leading homebrew supply store.

Whatever the changes to the existing or future beer list (expect a pumpkin porter and Belgian tripel to roll out soon), Gibbs thinks word of mouth will be his best defense against negative reviews. Facebook fans have been far more supportive than Yelpers, he said, and the “17-foot giants when they go home to their computers” aren’t representative of the crowds he talks to in his taproom.

“Ninety-eight percent of my customers come in and leave happy,” Gibbs said. “I’m not sure what’s going on with the Yelp thing, but I’m standing here day after day and people are having a good time.”