Take a seat
It’s springtime, y’all, and nothing says warm weather quite like sipping a Bloody Mary outside. (Or sipping a margarita outside, or sipping an IPA outside…) For years, Downtown Mall restaurant owners have fought tooth and nail for the limited real estate on the bricks, and this year it seemed like a showdown between two restaurants on the west end was inevitable.
Yearbook Taco owner Hamooda Shami was thrilled that El Puerto, the restaurant he bought last fall, included outdoor seating. Meanwhile, Brookville owner Harrison Keevil was thrilled that El Puerto’s patio space was up for grabs. Unbeknownst to each restaurant owner, they were both vying for the same spot to set up shop for the spring and summer, and the city was cast in the role of King Solomon.
“I was blindsided by a letter saying that that patio belongs to the city, and any time a business changes hands, surrounding businesses could sort of claim a portion of the patio,” Shami said. “By the time we had basically half, we’d be looking at a two- or three-table patio instead of six, which was a bit of a shock.”
Fortunately, zoning inspector Craig Fabio had an easier job than Solomon, and he was able to cut the space in half in such a way that each business gets 200 square feet of outdoor dining space.
“With our Mexican concept, obviously we want margaritas on the patio,” Shami said. “They’re definitely our best seats now that the weather has come around.”
Next door and up the stairs, Harrison has been serving up local, Southern-inspired fare since 2011, but never had patio seating. With a menu that’s shifted from “über-fine dining” to more casual, Keevil’s thrilled to be able to serve it up al fresco.
“We don’t have everything piled high with microgreens anymore and do other things we did in the past,” he said, “and it’ll be easier for servers to get up and down the stairs.”
Yearbook Taco’s patio seating is up and running, and Keevil said as soon as the fencing goes up, Brookville’s will be, too. He’s aiming for mid-April.
“I think on our end it’s pretty fair because we have a good number of little restaurants and cafés, so there’s really not that much space down here,” Keevil said. “They were able to give us all a little piece of the pie, so it’s been pretty nice.”
Charlie’s, we hardly knew ye
The joint best known for allowing smoking and having horseshoe pits on High Street, Charlie’s, has been sold to a new owner and rebranded the Double Horseshoe Saloon.
Shane Ethridge and longtime girlfriend Atoyia Holt bought the place from Charlie Jones earlier this year and started welcoming customers back on February 18. In addition to the rebrand, Ethridge and Holt installed new plumbing and are overseeing an ongoing remodel of the place.
“We’re already getting big crowds, and we’re expecting them to get bigger and better,” Holt said.
Holt said she and Ethridge jumped at the chance to buy Charlie’s when the former owner decided to step away for health reasons. ”It’s been a dream of ours for a while,” she said. The couple plans to maintain the bar’s large smoking section, as it’s a main draw for most of their clientele, while putting their own stamp on the bar grub and parlor games. They’ll be adding cornhole and beer pong come spring or summer and are already hosting near-nightly pool tournaments. Other events to look forward to will be live music and biker nights, Holt said.
Food bank bank
Congratulations, C’ville diners. You did it. You raised more for the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank during the January 2015 installment of Restaurant Week than you have during any other RW event. With 5,000 more diners participating in January than in last July’s Restaurant Week, $23,746 ($1 per person) went to the charity, an emergency food assistance agency that puts millions of meals in front of those who need them every year.
Of the 41 local restaurants participating in the latest RW, the stalwart Old Mill Room at Boar’s Head Inn, a $26 participant, attracted the most diners with 1,290. “It was nice to see someone who has participated since the beginning, someone who has done it that long, do so well,” said C-VILLE marketing director Anna Harrison. Zinburger, a newcomer to the local dining scene, attracted the most hungry philanthropists at the $16 price (1,275), and Downtown Grille was the highest grossing $36 restaurant with 900 diners, Harrison said.
The first 2015 Restaurant Week installment ran from January 24-31; the summer edition will be held July 18-25, and participating restaurants will be announced June 1.