Amazin’ Asian
Stephen Lee is out to expand the dining options for UVA’s Asian students in his new restaurant Kuma, located in the former home of Sushi Love, which opened in 2009. Non-students who dig authentic Japanese and Korean flavors are likely to benefit as well.
“We just want to fit into the community, and I think we do,” Lee said. “Just because we are Asian doesn’t mean we want to stand out.”
Lee said he and his mother purchased the restaurant sometime after the former owner “just bailed one night” in February and reopened in August. His focus since the launch has been on cleaning up, an important consideration for a “delicate” sushi restaurant, he said, and likely a welcome change for former Sushi Love patrons. Lee and his mom have also added to the existing pan-Asian menu, particularly on the non-sushi, hibachi side.
“We have two chefs, a Korean food chef and a sushi chef,” Lee said. “The previous owner did everything with one.” According to Lee, the new kitchen samurai each have more than 20 years of experience producing food from their native countries.
Lee has included ramen and udon noodle soups on his menu, as well as some authentic Japanese dishes like okonomiyaki (a fried pancake of sorts with optional mix-ins) and takoyaki (a dense fritter hiding a chewy octopus surprise). Korean favorites include kimchi fried rice, bibimbop, and bulgogi. Thanks to some assistance from the new third party delivery service in town, OrderUp, Kuma will make most of these dishes available in your living room in addition to its dining room.
To entertain as well as engorge guests, Lee’s tried to formalize the karaoke offerings at Kuma, promising that every Wednesday and Friday at 10pm after the restaurant closes, he’ll host an organized sing-along while serving a late night snack menu that will include gyoza dumplings, calamari tempura, and fire grilled chicken wings with Asian sauce.
If everything goes as planned, Lee said his family will be serving Eastern cuisine on the Charlottesville Corner for a long time. “We came down, and I fell in love with the area and the location of the restaurant,” he said.
Hot stuff
A little piece of Naples touched down in Charlottesville last Friday. Just after 5pm, the four co-owners of soon-to-open pizza restaurant Lampo watched anxiously as their 6,000-pound Neapolitan pizza oven was craned through the roof of their small storefront near the corner of Monticello Road and Graves Street.
“This is the biggest progress we’ve made,” said Mitchell Beerens, who’s launching the new pizzeria with partners Ian Redshaw, Andrew Cole, and Loren Mendosa. “The oven making it 5,000 miles and making it to our restaurant, that is our dream come true.”
Beerens and his partners still aren’t comfortable offering a firm open date for their quick-fired Neapolitan pizza joint, sticking with “fall” (while presumably being well aware it is already fall). The guys have only to build their bar, move in some additional equipment, and finish the bathrooms before they’re ready to start serving ’za. Redshaw said the next milestone will be the installation of the oven flue, which will allow them to start cooking pizzas at volume.
Local beer, national awards
Some of the year’s most important beer awards were announced last weekend, and Devils Backbone cleaned up again. While Virginia brewers in general didn’t fare as well in the 2014 Great American Beer Festival Awards as they did in 2013, Jason Oliver and his Nelson County team took home five medals, including one for “Mid-Size Brewing Company and Mid-Size Brewing Company Brewer of the Year,” and gold for its Schwartz Bier in the German-Style Schwarzbier category.
Local upstart Three Notch’d Brewing Company landed a surprise win of its own, taking home bronze for its flagship Hydraulion Red in the Irish-Style Red Ale category.
“It means a lot because we’ve only been open a year,” Three Notch’d brewmaster Dave Warwick said. “There were 60 entries, some of the very best beers from all over the country. I was hopeful but still surprised.”
Brunch time
When someone says “oatmeal,” what comes to mind? Brown sugar, cinnamon, maybe some fruit? What about black beans and avocado?
At Oakhurst Inn Café and Coffee, which recently opened near the corner of JPA and Emmet Street, you’ll find a small but elegant breakfast and lunch menu. Former Hamiltons’ chef Jeanette Peabody whips up stacks of buckwheat pancakes, poached eggs in a wine reduction sauce with mushrooms and applewood smoked bacon, and owner Phillip St.Ours’ (who partnered with C-VILLE Weekly owner Bill Chapman to open Oakhurst Inn) favorite, the steel-cut Irish oatmeal with curried yogurt, avocado salsa, black beans, chili paste, and whatever local greens are available.
“The oatmeal is really just the palette on which to create this bowl full of flavor, and it’s basically everything you need in life,” St.Ours said.
The café also features a bar with homemade carrot-ginger Bloody Mary mix and fresh-squeezed orange juice. Sit-down brunch and lunch run about $15 a person, but if you’re in a hurry, there’s always the $6 breakfast sandwich and a cup of locally-roasted Trager Brothers coffee.
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